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

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

#171

Post by martinp »

General:

* Teach them basic principles about scams and malware. Never let them install software by themselves.

* Explain what spam is and to not open emails they don't recognise.

Get them an iPad if they don't need a complete PC. This is absolutely the best option in my experience:

* Almost no maintenance required. Apps/OS upgrade automatically.

* Installing software is safe.

* Malware is basically non-existent.

* iOS UX is perfect for basic users and interface is usually self-explanatory.

If they absolutely need a PC:

* Teach them the basic tasks they want to perform. Searching the internet, online banking, photo management etc.

* Install a modern auto-updating browser, e.g. Firefox.

* Install an ad-blocker, e.g. Ublock Origin. This gets rid of scammy and confusing ads which may install malware.

* Install a remote assistance tool, e.g. TeamViewer.

* Enable automatic OS updates.

* Enable firewall.

* Depending on the OS, install some sort of basic anti-malware software.

* Uninstall or remove/hide shortcuts to applications they won't need.

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

#172

Post by comprev »

There's probably a large amount of seniors who "think" they know better - they once understood computers (perhaps worked in technology) but no longer. My father (75) falls into this demographic. He got conned TWICE (luckily the bank stepped in and refunded - not huge amounts thankfully), although the second time was malware (fake AV).

Perhaps it's a pride thing, but despite my warnings/offers to help avoid such situations, he didn't pick up the phone and double-check with me.

Needless to say he's under strict instructions from my mother to run things by me first now ha ha

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

#173

Post by lucb1e »

djhworld wrote: post #47

I'm really surprised at the replies in this thread, some are almost patronising. Parents might be old, but they're not dumb. People underestimate older people. Obviously there are some vulnerable adults that need a helping hand, I get that, but try just talking and teaching, it works wonders. The key is patience really.

Not dumb? I couldn't explain simple games like flood and untangle[0] to my grandma. She can drive a car, do online banking (learned 10 years ago), memorize facts, but any new logic seems to be beyond her or at least extremely slow. I don't know how I'll ever explain the concept of fake download links which are not memorization but I guess something like pattern recognition.

[0] https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/

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

#174

Post by rmtech »

defen wrote: post #78
maxxxxx wrote: post #33

Also tell them about phone scams. Over the last year I have received several very convincing phone calls and voice messages from people pretending to be the IRS or cops. It takes a lot of willpower to convince yourself that they are scams. A lot of scams can be stopped if you consult with someone before sending actual money. I think it's important to tell your parents that before they give anybody any money or accoun…

My in-laws got hit by an absolutely ridiculous phone scam. Basically some guy called and said "Hey this is Apple, this is an emergency, your iCloud got hacked, you need to install this remote desktop software and give me your credit card info so I can fix it for you". They are smart people but they still fell for it. So, the advice we gave them was that no organization is going to use a phone call to deliver importan…

> They are smart people but they still fell for it.

If they fell for that then they're not very smart.

Would a smart person fall for it if a random hobo turned up at their door and claimed to be Jesus, but BTW he really needs you card and pin for 20 minutes, oh and $500 in cash as well!

.....

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

#175

Post by mapcars »

bradleyankrom wrote: post #22
PakG1 wrote: post #14

Honestly, while getting phished and hacked are big issues, I would also worry about them being sucked into social media bubbles where they could start latching onto conspiracy theories, fake news, and the like. It was not too long ago where their generation believed it was a bad idea to believe anything on the Internet. I'm not sure what changed. I have seen my own parents fall suspect to that stuff now and then, so…

Advice I could have used five years ago. I don’t even know how to talk to my parents about current events/politics now because we don’t share a common base of facts.

Why not sit and carefully investigate the differences together? You are a family after all.

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

#176

Post by LeonM »

barbecue_sauce wrote: post #39

Keep them offline. Get them smartphones, preferably iOS. Educate them about scams. My parents still conduct the majority of their personal business offline, and though I have scoffed at this in the past, it makes more sense for them and also keeps them safe. Their bills come in the mail, and its not uncommon for them to go to a department store and pay the bill for that chain's credit card in person. They meet with t…

> Get them smartphones, preferably iOS

As much as I dislike Apple and their ecosystem, iOS is the way to go. But I went with tablets over phones, just for practicality with browsing and such.

With an iPad (as opposed to an Android tablet) I don't have to worry about them installing some fake app. It also helps a that anyone can figure out iOS (although it has gotten more complex over the years).

I've also installed Pi-hole at my parent's house. Not just to protect them from misleading stuff, but also because overly aggressive ads can be very confusing. I've once had my mom tell me her tablet was broken, because she couldn't visit the news, it turned out to be a giant overlay ad that she couldn't figure out how to close.

Lastly, I have migrated their ISP based email account (dating back to the early 90's) to a gmail inbox so they can benefit from the (mostly excellent) spam and fraud detection features of gmail. Their ISP offered no spam detection at all. It still uses the same email address though, I just routed it through gmail.

The government here in the Netherlands ran some great TV commercials instructing you to hang up the phone and call back if you got a call that you didn't trust. And another TV commercial on how to check the URL and certificate if you are on your banking website. I'm very grateful for that, it already saved my dad once from a phishing attack.

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

#178

Post by LeonM »

franga2000 wrote: post #84

My no. 1 thing is to always install and ad blocker in their browser. uBlock does a pretty good job of getting rid of all the fake download buttons and pop-ups. And tell them explicitly that if their computer tells them they have a virus, they must not try to do anything about it and call you immediately. 99% of the time it's a fake pop-up and they don't want to look stupid so they follow its "friendly instructions" t…

That is until websites started detecting adblockers and refusing access to their site.

My mom called me because her tablet was broken, it turned out the news website had a giant overlay with some heartbreaking story that they relied on ad sales and due to her evil actions, they now had to lay of people. I whitelisted the site and it worked for a day or two, then my mom called me again that her tablet was still broken. This time that same news website had an overly aggressive full-page overlay ad that she couldn't figure out how to close. A third time she called me her browser kept crashing because the news site was attempting to load multiple MB of JS and video ads.

For my parents it's ads, not scams that cause the most problems.

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

#179

Post by ahje »

djhworld wrote: post #47

I'm really surprised at the replies in this thread, some are almost patronising. Parents might be old, but they're not dumb. People underestimate older people. Obviously there are some vulnerable adults that need a helping hand, I get that, but try just talking and teaching, it works wonders. The key is patience really.

It's not about age, it's about experience and trust.

My grandfather had an interest in technology, experience in how to use UI's, and used a computer on a almost-daily basis since the late 70's up until his death a few years ago. He never had any issues telling ads/fake popups from actual system messages and so forth, and he was quite comfortable using a computer on a rather advanced level.

Some younger relatives, on the other hand, have barely touched anything without a touch interface, can't really use a web browser properly, and is pretty much limited to whatever apps they can install. They solely rely on iTunes Store/Google Play to screen stuff for them and blindly trusts anything they install from a trusted source.

If I had to choose a scamming victim from those two categories I'd go with the younger, less experienced ones.

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

#180

Post by franga2000 »

baroffoos wrote: post #116
mceachen wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Copy on Write, presumably to save them from crypto-locking ransomware. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryptoLocker

Its the backups that save you from crypto malware.

True, but I have yet to find a reason to prefer full (or even incremental) backups over CoW. Full backups are just too big and slow, and good reliable open-source and cross-platform incremental backup software is hard to find.

I've found using Syncthing for Client-->NAS-->Off-site with BtrFS snapshots on both servers to be just perfect (of course, YMMV).

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