Computers are like cars, if you don't know how to use them safely, you shouldn't be using them unsupervised.
Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?
141–150 of 215 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?
#142uBlock 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).
Enable all filter lists under "Malware Domains" to protect them from Malware/Scam sites.
uBlock Origin Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-origin/cjpa... Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin...
Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?
#143Shameless plug: I cohost a podcast about personal digital security, with a target audience of people who aren't (necessarily) in tech but are interested in understanding things and not just getting a pre-canned set of recommendations like "Use a Chromebook" (or "Use Signal use Tor"). https://looseleafsecurity.com Some specific advice I'd give with relevant episodes: - Use a password manager https://looseleafsecurity.…
Every computer should have uBlock Origin IMO.
Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-origin/cjpa... Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin...
Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some of the scams have the caller actually pretending to be YOU. So if they have the agreement to consult with you before sending any money, what are they going to do?
I would hope that my parents could tell me from another caller :-)
I believe the standard strategy here is to say you've been in an accident, you're in the hospital while traveling, your jaw was broken, and that's why you sound different. Or you're having the nurse call them. Something to explain why your voice isn't what they expect.
Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?
#145OpenDNS. My parents machines, even the ones they buy without telling me, still connect to the internet through their router. OpenDNS blocks requests for blacklisted sites. It doesn't help their cellphones, but they are also under instructions not to do any banking on their phones. Adblock+Noscript It helps. They sometimes have to call me when websites don't work but it blocks the annoying popups that can sometimes co…
Noscript is an interesting choice for "non-technical" parents, my understanding was that Noscript was for -advanced- users.
Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
ChromeOS is more secure and far less expensive than MacOS, although as long as you keep your parents off of Windows you won't have to worry about ransomware.
OP is discussing iOS. MacOS is free. Google hardware is definitely less expensive than Apple’s though.
macOS is free? Link? Are you a troll or an idiot?
Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?
#147I work for a phone company, Community Phone, whose majority customers are seniors. We periodically check in with our customers over text message (helping make sure they achieve their goals, like using Uber, or whatever... which is our business: to enable an improvement in overall quality of life via phones, rather than phones in themselves). As a result, many of our customers FB message/call/email/text us as a sanity…
I've never imagined a phone company that aims to improve overall quality of life using phones, rather than just providing mobile service, fascinating to think about.
Are customers able to opt out of additional support and if so do any choose to?
Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?
#148In the world of tech consulting, consultants follow a model called PPT: People , process , technology.
Recognise that people are the weakest link. Like many commenters mentioned, please educate your parents not to fall for common scams. Ask them to call you in case they receive a call/e-mail from IRS!
Process : Is there a low-fee/no-fee debit card you can setup for them with probably a 100$ or so for their casual shopping? Worst case they only lose that much.
Technology: What is their use-case? If it is casual surfing/FaceTime/Skype, can you set them up with an iPad Pro/iPad with ad-blockers of course. if iPad is out of question, how about an Ubuntu Laptop with Firefox and Ad-blockers? The way I look at it, Ubuntu keeps a lot of virii at bay and certainly any "Microsoft" call-center scams! You need to only watch out for phishing scams.
Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
One thing I would like to add: let them set long passwords [0], different ones for each service and write them down in a dedicated notebook. [0]: https://xkcd.com/936/
wouldn't a password manager be better then having them write down/re enter long/complicated passwords?
depends on the password style I guess.
Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
One thing I would like to add: let them set long passwords [0], different ones for each service and write them down in a dedicated notebook. [0]: https://xkcd.com/936/
wouldn't a password manager be better then having them write down/re enter long/complicated passwords?
From my experience, the password manager is just another issue to solve for this kind of people: it’s another software to use and these users do not like to use software.
As a result, paper is sort of natural for them, and the only way I found to impeach them from writing down their passwords is to make them use passphrases instead of passwords.
They do remember the passphrases they typed in, however the issue is that some websites still refuse passphrases because they are too long :(.