Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#1

Post by nellypat » Sun, May 26, 2019, 4:36 PM UTC

I don't want them to become victims of phishing, hacking, ... any ideas? Any ideas how I could prevent these?

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#2

Post by sent00001 » Sun, May 26, 2019, 4:41 PM UTC

Phishing is a big problem for non-technical users. Google's Phishing Quiz (https://phishingquiz.withgoogle.com) is a surprisingly good resource.

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#3

Post by x38iq84n » Sun, May 26, 2019, 4:46 PM UTC

Manage their PC, apply good security measures to it (use pihole, browser selection, disabling extensions, use extensions that prevent phishing). Teach them elementary online security and how to use a password manager.

On a more OOtB note, have all their web traffic route via a web proxy that will prevent phishing, MITMs, scan against viruses etc.

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#4

Post by fghtr » Sun, May 26, 2019, 4:47 PM UTC

Install Privacy Badger and HTTPS Everywhere in their browser.

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#5

Post by zuckburger » Sun, May 26, 2019, 4:47 PM UTC

My parents are pretty old and technically illiterate. My absolute nightmare is for them to wake up one day to an empty bank account. Right now, they double check every financial email with me. We actually managed to thwart 3 phishing emails this way!!! They are preying on seniors pretty hard. They usually get the email addresses from online quizzes and other thin apps.

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#6

Post by w8rbt » Sun, May 26, 2019, 4:49 PM UTC

Get them a linux laptop, or a ChromeBook and enable 2FA on their Google accounts.

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#7

Post by cornstalks » Sun, May 26, 2019, 4:54 PM UTC

uBlock Origin has been useful when it comes to protecting my family computer. There are so many hostile ads and websites out there. I highly recommend it (or Pi-hole or some other good filtering tool).

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#8

Post by jasoneckert » Sun, May 26, 2019, 4:55 PM UTC

Three Dead Trolls and a Baggie did a video on this topic a while back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9R-2X9Bl5w

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#9

Post by Cannibusted » Sun, May 26, 2019, 4:56 PM UTC

Avoid Linux, Windows, etc.

For non tech users, iOS is pretty safe.

Ipad + iPhone and you're good to go. Leave the notebooks and PCs in the 80s where they belong.

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#10

Post by itake » Sun, May 26, 2019, 4:57 PM UTC

cornstalks wrote: post #7

uBlock Origin has been useful when it comes to protecting my family computer. There are so many hostile ads and websites out there. I highly recommend it (or Pi-hole or some other good filtering tool).

Personally, I have a lot of trouble with websites breaking because some script was rejected. I think its a big ask to say "if you think this website isn't working correctly, make sure the "*.cloudfront.com" is allowed to load JS resources.