A Guide to Not Getting Hacked
motherboard.vice.com
A Guide to Not Getting Hacked
1–10 of 84 posts
Re: A Guide to Not Getting Hacked
#2This is a pretty thorough introduction to personal digital security. It starts by emphasizing Threat Modeling, which lay users often forget.
Most of the recommendations are standard (password manager, two factor authentication, basic OPSEC, ad blocking plugins) but it also has a fairly detailed discussion about the TOR browser. The recommendation to use a VPN may be controversial, but it includes a discussion of the relevant threat model, which helps.
Re: A Guide to Not Getting Hacked
#3This is overwhelmingly terrible advice.
It even tells you to install a mobile antivirus!
Re: A Guide to Not Getting Hacked
#4But nobody really wants to understand anything. They want a turn key solution. An intro to threat modeling is good. But it’s lost on deaf ears. The weakest link in compsec will always be the person using the device.
Re: A Guide to Not Getting Hacked
#5> Do use antivirus
I think the standard advice from the security community is to not use any antivirus at all and maybe only Windows Defender if you're on windows.
The advice to use Tor browser is also terrible. The Tor browser is based on an older version of Firefox ( currently version 52 vs 57 for upstream Firefox ) and so might contain known bugs.
On a side note what does the security community think about Qubes OS [0]? The approach of security by isolation is interesting.
Re: A Guide to Not Getting Hacked
#6I don't understand why their first point for mobile was "Get an iPhone" but they didn't do something similar for desktop. Why didn't they say "Run OpenBSD"?
Re: A Guide to Not Getting Hacked
#7I don't understand why their first point for mobile was "Get an iPhone" but they didn't do something similar for desktop. Why didn't they say "Run OpenBSD"?
One is good advice, the other is not.
HN: The only place where you need to explain the difference between iOS and OpenBSD.
Re: A Guide to Not Getting Hacked
#8> Do use antivirus I think the standard advice from the security community is to not use any antivirus at all and maybe only Windows Defender if you're on windows. The advice to use Tor browser is also terrible. The Tor browser is based on an older version of Firefox ( currently version 52 vs 57 for upstream Firefox ) and so might contain known bugs. On a side note what does the security community think about Qubes O…
Tor Browser is based on ESR releases of Firefox which have security fixes backported.
Re: A Guide to Not Getting Hacked
#9Everyone should appropriately consider the source (and their security concerns), but this also exists:
It provides some advice and references a number of other government sources once you dig into it.
Re: A Guide to Not Getting Hacked
#10> Do use antivirus I think the standard advice from the security community is to not use any antivirus at all and maybe only Windows Defender if you're on windows. The advice to use Tor browser is also terrible. The Tor browser is based on an older version of Firefox ( currently version 52 vs 57 for upstream Firefox ) and so might contain known bugs. On a side note what does the security community think about Qubes O…
Firefox 52 is a special Extended Support Release version and will continue to get security patches.