6TH EDITION COMING!! I am now planning for the next edition of the book, which I hope to have out by the end of 2026. Your feedback is highly valuable to me. Look through the updates below first, but if you find something else that you think I should change, please let me know.
A Note About Android Phones
Because I focus on regular, everyday folks, I steer clear of more elaborate solutions. There are a ton of more secure and private hardware and software solutions, if you’re technically savvy and plenty of time and patience. One such solution is using a custom, non-Google version of Android OS. There are actually several to choose from, including GrapheneOS and CalyxOS. However, this is not for the faint of heart. To get an idea of what’s involved, look at this article and I think you’ll understand why I didn’t include this topic. However, it’s an entirely valid option and it can be very secure and private.
Tip 2-4. Investigate Your Own Public Information
I interviewed Jason Edison from Intel Techniques as well as the owners of Easy Opt Outs, a data removal service, about finding and deleting your public data. This led me to create a series of articles on Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) with tons of helpful information that I will try to include in the next edition of the book.
Chapter 4: Get Your Castle in Order
In this chapter, I talk a lot about backing up your data. I recently wrote a series of articles expanding on this topic that you might way to check out.
Chapter 5: Who Goes There?
You might check out this article I wrote about the pros and cons of passkeys. I also wrote an article about why account security is basically broken, despite superior technologies that should keep us safe.
Tip 5-1. Choose a Strong Master Password
I wrote an article called How to Choose a PIN code that you might find interesting, which also has some bearing on how to choose a password.
Tip 5-5. Enable Two-Factor Authentication
Installing the Authy app is as easy as installing any smartphone app. However, there are some account setup steps that I glossed over. You should create an account with Authy (owned by Twilio) so that you can have secure, cloud backups of your various account seed codes (the QR codes you scan). You can find instructions here.
But you should check out a newer app called Ente Auth, which is arguably better than Authy. I like that it’s open source and more open in general. I will probably make this my recommended app in the next edition of the book.
Note also that Google Authenticator finally supports backing up your 2FA accounts between devices, synchronizing your codes so that you can easily access them from multiple devices. However, as of this writing, the syncing appears to be unencrypted – which is bad. I still recommend you use something else, like Ente or Authy.
Chapter 7: Guard the Castle Gate
I’ve written an extensive set of articles on how to secure your home network. Start here.
Tip 7-7. Create a QR Code for Easy Guest Network Access
Note that some “free” QR code generators online can end up charging you money. See this blog article for details.
Tip 7-16. Periodically Reboot Modem, Router
See this article I wrote about this subject, including other devices you might want to periodically reboot.
Chapter 8: Spies in Your Midst
I speak a lot in this chapter about how we’re tracked and why it’s ethical to block ads and safer to prevent tracking. I wrote an article that extends my comments and tips on this subject called How and Why to Block Ads.
Tip 8-1. Use a Privacy-Protecting Browser
There have been some interesting new browser options since I published the book. Check out this article for updated information.
Tip 9-8. Use Email Aliases
I’ve written a series of articles on this topic: part 1 and part 2.
Chapter 13 When Bad Things Happen
I wrote an article that generally goes well with this chapter entitled Indicators of Compromise that you might want to check out.
Tip 13-7. Nuke Your Hard Drive Data
Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) apparently hasn’t been updated since 2015. You might look at ShredOS instead.