Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#1

Post by arzmir » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 2:51 PM UTC

Most of my family members (nuclear and extended) have little interest in spending time to manage their digital selves. Amongst other things making sure they have control of their passwords and accounts in a safe matter.

I've lately decided to set up a 1Password Family Account to help at least my nuclear family into taking net security more serious.

- What steps did you take to make it simple enough for your family to care?

- Did you retain any restorative powers? As in keeping master passwords to certain things and/or emergency accesses like in LastPass?

- Which subjects spurred the most discussions and how did you solve it?

- Which items do you share amongst all family members?

Edit: Formatting

Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#2

Post by blowski » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:01 PM UTC

> What steps did you take to make it simple enough for your family to care?

I did the same thing as in the office - embarrassed or annoyed them (in a small way) by using their lack of security. I changed desktop backgrounds, "stole" £20, sent emails with promises like "I'll wash your car" to people. I'd follow this up with a lecture on "if I can do this, imagine what some dodgy foreign hacker could do".

Constructively, I pay for the whole family's 1Password and Fastmail accounts. I am the admin. I'm patient and understanding when they do something wrong. And I limit the number of people I help to those I can really help.

We have a WhatsApp group where they can ask whether something is dodgy. They don't use it for chitchat, so anything that comes through, I treat urgently.

Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#3

Post by arzmir » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:20 PM UTC

blowski wrote: post #2

> What steps did you take to make it simple enough for your family to care? I did the same thing as in the office - embarrassed or annoyed them (in a small way) by using their lack of security. I changed desktop backgrounds, "stole" £20, sent emails with promises like "I'll wash your car" to people. I'd follow this up with a lecture on "if I can do this, imagine what some dodgy foreign hacker could do". Constructivel…

> We have a WhatsApp group where they can ask whether something is dodgy. They don't use it for chitchat, so anything that comes through, I treat urgently.

I really like that idea.

Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#4

Post by egberts1 » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:27 PM UTC

I was just looking at Adam:One (DNSthingy), a comprehensive gateway with focus on filtering “bad things” add-on for Pfsense/BSD when I saw this post.

You got bigger problems after Password Managers.

Just polished up the transparent Squid/SquidProxy/custom-ICAP-servers-to-block-DNS-over-HTTPS/Default-Deny-firewall for my home.

It seems to me that we are losing the war on Zero-Trust home-based content filtering (with the onslaught of Webroot port 7777, and DNS-over-HTTPS, and even AVG 443 for DNS.

You all hear me? I am (and probably we are) losing control of the HomeLAN/home-net via the onslaughts via circumventions of Zero Trust Model.

And this new DNS RTYPE SVCB and HTTPS by Akamai CDN, Apple iPhone/iPad, Cloudflare, and BigIP/F5 is making this gateway (and me) losing it all.

https://filters.pluckeye.net

https://adamnet.works

https://docs.diladele.com/tutorials/transparently_filtering_...

https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-dnsop-svcb-https...

Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#5

Post by ale42 » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:37 PM UTC

blowski wrote: post #2

> What steps did you take to make it simple enough for your family to care? I did the same thing as in the office - embarrassed or annoyed them (in a small way) by using their lack of security. I changed desktop backgrounds, "stole" £20, sent emails with promises like "I'll wash your car" to people. I'd follow this up with a lecture on "if I can do this, imagine what some dodgy foreign hacker could do". Constructivel…

Considering the privacy issues related to Whatsapp handling of personal data (e.g. contact info sent to Meta servers, message metadata collection, etc.), why not using Signal, Matrix, or something alike? Or is it too difficult for them to use something else than Whatsapp?

Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#6

Post by nopcode » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:38 PM UTC

I preconfigure all windows machines in my family, and take away their local admin rights. No crapware installs, no disabling of updates or defender. No microsoft accounts.

They get firefox browser with adblocker preinstalled. I manage their important passwords (eg fastmail) and trained them to rely on firefox sync for the recoverable accounts.

I use MeshCentral for remote administration (amt)… its amazing for the price (free).

OPNsense firewall in all the homes. Unknown devices are isolated and egress over wireguard VPN.

Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#7

Post by muh_gradle » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:38 PM UTC

I use Lastpass with my family. The Lastpass plugin for Chrome has been reliable and convenient for everyone. It took a lot of badgering on my part initially, but now everyone is used to the process. For emergency access, I have that stored safely and can access if necessary.

Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#8

Post by cglan » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:40 PM UTC

1Password family and encouraging rental insurance that includes some form of identity theft help is literally like the cheapest way you help people. Anything past that and I simply don't want to be responsible for things

Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#9

Post by crowbahr » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:40 PM UTC

ale42 wrote: post #5

blowski wrote: post #2

> What steps did you take to make it simple enough for your family to care? I did the same thing as in the office - embarrassed or annoyed them (in a small way) by using their lack of security. I changed desktop backgrounds, "stole" £20, sent emails with promises like "I'll wash your car" to people. I'd follow this up with a lecture on "if I can do this, imagine what some dodgy foreign hacker could do". Constructivel…

Considering the privacy issues related to Whatsapp handling of personal data (e.g. contact info sent to Meta servers, message metadata collection, etc.), why not using Signal, Matrix, or something alike? Or is it too difficult for them to use something else than Whatsapp?

Not OP but they're likely using Whatsapp already.

I'm a big believer in Signal (I have a monthly contribution set up) but Whatsapp is far more common for most people to use.

I have convinced my older parents and siblings to all use Signal though, so I consider that a win.

Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#10

Post by throw1234651234 » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:44 PM UTC

In the same vein, what is the biggest risk vector? My general impression is that AV will NOT catch new malware 99% of the time. I am to the point where I don't keep ANY/identity personal info on my computer.