[This is Part 2 of a multi-part series. Start here.] As we discussed in the introductory post, you likely have dozens if not hundreds of online accounts – many of which you may have forgotten about. We want to make a definitive list of all your online accounts so we can make sure they’re secure. […]
Find Old Accounts (Part 1) Read More »
A common tech support trope is asking the customer “did you trying turning it off and back on again?” Quite often that will reset an misbehaving system. But it can also completely purge malware. Let me explain. The Power of Rebooting Electronic devices often have some sort of state information. What mode am I in?
Reboot Remedy for Better Security Read More »
With the big US election coming up, I thought this would be a good time to remind everyone about how to gird yourself against mis- and disinformation. (FYI, the title and image are references to the old TV show X-Files, which is meant to be tongue in cheek.) Defining Terms Misinformation is just false or
The Truth is Out There Read More »
[This is Part 3 in a series – see also Part 1 and Part 2] In the first article in this series, we discussed how to search for your personal information held by data brokers and offered up by people search sites. In the follow-up article, I gave you instructions on how you can request
OSINT: Final Steps Read More »
[This is Part 2 in a series – be sure to read Part 1 first, then Part 3] Now that we’ve done our initial research to see who has our data and what juicy data they have, it’s time to try to delete what we can. Why You Should Do This Yourself Before we get
OSINT: Remediation Read More »
[This is Part 1 in a series – see also Part 2 and Part 3] There are thousands of data brokers who are collecting, collating, correlating and packaging up your personal information, and selling it to pretty much anyone who will pay. Much of this information is available to anyone, if you know where to
OSINT: Reconnaissance Read More »
Ads today are as annoying as they are ubiquitous. They slow down load times and make some websites almost unusable. However, ads can also track what you do and even serve you malware or phishing websites. Today I’ll explain why and how to block them. Security & Privacy Risks of Ads Because we’ve grown accustomed
How and Why to Block Ads Read More »
[This Part 3 of a series – be sure to read Part 1 and Part 2, too.] While we’ve discussed how to backup your local data and data that’s primarily stored in the cloud, there are some other types of data that you may also want to make a personal, local copy of: data that
How to Backup Other Data Read More »
[This Part 2 of a series – be sure to read Part 1 and Part 3, too.] Many of the services and apps we use today are based in the cloud. But what happens if that service goes down or even out of business? You could lose all that data forever. Where possible, you should
How to Backup Cloud Data Read More »
[This is the 4th and final part of a series – part 1, part 2, part 3] You’ve made it to the fourth and final step in our quest to secure your home network! So far, we’ve done the following: The final step is to actually Remediate any issues we found. That’s the subject of
Secure Your Network 4: Remediate Read More »
