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Your data is not safe. Here's how to lock it down
Your data is not safe. Here's how to lock it down
At least, that's experts' advice for people after the U.S. election. Between high-profile security failures and the Russian hacks before the election, we should know by now to secure our personal data. But some people worry thatgovernment surveillance will expandunder a Donald Trump presidency, especially because he tapped Mike Pompeo, who supports mass surveillance, for CIA chief.
cnn.com





None of this information advice is bad, but it's incomplete. "some of the very basics" isn't all of the very basics. And "more secure" is a staggeringly weak goal compared to competent security, keeping good habits and avoiding bad habits.
Strong and unique passwords are useful, but only if a user knows what makes a password weak.
Using a password manager isn't bad advice, but relying on it solely can be counter productive; if you can't remember your own passwords you're relying on the smooth and predictable operation of the password manager to sign-in, and that can be changed with anything from a new feature (like newly implement IP location or device whitelisting) that requires you to sign in to an email address... that you can't when you entrusted a 30 character long alphanumeric random string to the password manager.
2FA isn't a bad idea where it's available. Again however this can rely on other people running their systems smoothly and predictably which you've no control over.
Updating software is mixed advice. I've used computers long enough to learn that updates can break compatibility with old stuff I need to work.
Only download apps from trusted sources is bordering on useless advice, as the people who need to take it most are those least likely to do so. Plus frankly it should say: "Just pay for your blooming porn and guilty pleases so you're not a giant attack vector. Seriously."
Check your social media privacy settings - poor advice. This amounts to inserting pins into a sieve in the pursuit of making it a bucket. Again those who need to take it are least likely to. And what data social media services can share with third parties is buried in a user agreement document you almost certainly have read, and certainly don't keep up to date on, which is in turn specific to the region you live in, and the loopholes the service can use. Meaning your data is as safe as you'd expect it to be when its in the hands of people you never intended to give it to. Better advice: reign in your social media habit before you invite a company to dox yourself through ordinary human error.
I agree whole-heartedly, I'm thinking of making a video on this to provide a better look at the situation as a whole but I'm also not a security expert so I have been holding off simply due to not wanting to provide an incomplete picture. I thought this article at least covered some of the basics to get people moving in the right direction.