How would you know if one of your accounts was hacked? It’s not always obvious. But I’ll tell you where to look. Sometimes it’s obvious when your accounts are hacked. Maybe your money is gone. Maybe you can no longer log in using the password you know is correct. Maybe everyone you know has gotten […] The post Indicators of Account Compromise appeared first on Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons ..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? […] The post Reboot Remedy for Better Security appeared first on Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons ..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 post The Truth is Out There appeared first on Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons ..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 […] The post OSINT: Final Steps appeared first on Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons ..read more

[This is Part 2 in a series – be sure to read Part 1 first] 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 into this, I’m […] The post OSINT: Remediation appeared first on Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons ..read more

[This is Part 1 in a series – check back in two weeks for part 2] 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 […] The post OSINT: Reconnaissance appeared first on Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons ..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 to ‘free’ online content, we’ve pretty much solidified the ad-supported web financial model. Unfortunately, the ad networks have resorted to horrendous amounts of tracking and profiling to maximize their profits at the expense of our privacy. It’s one thing to watch ads – it’s an e ..read more

I don’t like asking people to do things for me. And even after doing this for 10 years, I still feel awkward touting my book and podcast. It’s no wonder that I suck at marketing. But I often have this nagging feeling that I’m very close to breaking out, that I’m near a tipping point. I don’t want to be rich or famous – but I do want to help as many people as I can to protect their data and devices. Privacy and security are important for everyone and we’re all in this together. As I like to say, it’s not just a “me” thing, it’s a “we” thing. So while this particular moment of inspiration is upo ..read more

[This Part 3 – 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 you don’t own. Shared Data Having data in the cloud makes it much easier to share with others. We do this with social media, shared photo albums and documents that we collaborate on. But just because someone shares a file with us doesn’t mean that that’s a permanent arrangement. If they close or lose access to their account, or just decide ..read more

[NOTE: This is the second article in a series. See Part 1 here, which I will be updating soon. Stay tuned for Part 3.] 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 make a backup. The Cloud: Someone Else’s Computer Remember that the “cloud” is just another word for “someone else’s computer”. We access many useful applications via the web today. The fancy marketing term for this is “Software as a Service” or SaaS. Think of Google Docs, Adobe C ..read more