Recently, Motheboard published a week-long series of articles to help people ramp up security and privacy in their personal lives. Drawing inspiration from it, I felt like I should write my own take on the topic that does have a lot in common with the MotherBoard list.

Keep your Apps and OS up to date

Starting off, this is straight from the MotherBoard booklet. As an application and enterprise software developer myself, I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping software up to date. Vulnerabilities are revealed on sometimes weekly basis and teams work overtime to fix them and release the patch in a product updated. But these efforts are futile if the end-user fails to install the update.

Install a password manager

Another one off the MB list, but a password manager is such an often overlooked component of personal use software, it blows my mind. People instead opt to reuse passwords on their sometimes hundreds of online accounts. Remember, this is the single biggest source of account compromise. If you reuse the same password for your bank account and for your gardening forum, it is a terrible idea. I recommend 1password or LastPass to organize your passwords.

Stay aware

Have I been Pwned(https://haveibeenpwned.com/) is a great place to start looking for breaches that were not reported in the news or slipped under your radar. Krebs on Security https://krebsonsecurity.com/) is another of the pages one should read regularly to stay abreast of the happenings in the cybersecurity world.

Check your router settings

Whether you are using your personal router and modem or your ISP’s you should take the time to sift through the (mostly terrible) admin interface to verify and update all security and privacy settings. Importantly, update the admin and wireless passwords to non-default values. If you having been using an ISP supplied modem for over 2 years, actively ask them to replace them with a newer one or buy one yourself. Some of the older routers have security bugs that are no longer patched.

Avoid public Wifi like the plague

Needless to say, public Wifi spots are a honeypot for individuals looking to steal personal data. By public, I not only mean insecure Wifi (that is the worst), but also Wifi access points with public passwords, like your local Starbucks or a hotel Wifi. Using the Wifi routers at your AirBnb rental is also not a great idea. If you absolutely need to, then ensure that you are also connected to a secure VPN. A VPN that your company provides is your best bet.

HTTPS is non-optional when browsing

Chrome does a great job of displaying messages when the website you visit is serving non-secure content by not all websites have stepped on to the ship yet. To learn about the efforts and the risks, see (https://www.eff.org/encrypt-the-web). But on a personal level, if you notice a website serving HTTP pages or a self-signed certificate, you might want to keep away from it.

2FA FTW

2 Factor Authentication is a step in the right direction when it comes to securing your most sensitive accounts. Enable this on your bank accounts and any other sensitive websites if possible.

Regularly remove applications and deactivate accounts you don’t need

Remove apps from your phones and computers that you no longer need or use. If the app had a vulnerability, it can no longer be exploited if its no longer on your system. Similarly, de-activate accounts you don’t need. Take a moment to turn valid data and saved passwords into gibberish.