Phishing, Vishing, and Spam
Urgency is the tell. Your bank will happily let you hang up and call the number on the back of the card. A vishing caller cannot afford to let you do that, so they will not.
Topic
Security
A collection of 35 issues
Virtual Private Network (VPN)
A VPN does not make you anonymous. It moves the question of who gets to watch your traffic away from the coffee shop and your carrier, and onto one company you have decided to trust. Choose that company carefully.
Apple’s Advanced Data Protection (Encrypted Cloud Storage)
Switching it on takes a couple of minutes. The part that matters is the 28 characters Apple shows you once: lose them and nobody, Apple included, can open your iCloud data again.
Domain Naming Service (DNS)
A VPN protects what you send. It does not always cover the question you asked first — which site, and where does it live. Whoever answers that lookup decides where your browser actually lands.
WebRTC - Embedded Content Tracking
You can be paying for a VPN and still hand a website your real IP address, because the browser feature that powers video calls asks for it directly. Test yourself first, then decide what runs in which browser.
Computer "10" List
Ten things any computer user should be able to do without looking them up. Nothing exotic on the list — which is the point, because the gaps in it are where most compromises start.
6 Easy Cyber Security Steps
The attacks that actually reach ordinary people are not clever. They are a password reused on a site that got breached, and a text message someone else received. Six habits that close the common paths.
Password Managers
Recycling one password across accounts means a single breach opens all of them. A manager trades that problem for one very good master key — a real trade, and worth understanding before you make it.
Password Cards
A password you carry in your wallet, written down in plain sight, and still useless to whoever picks it up. The card is random; the route you take through it is the part you memorize.
Signal Chat Security
Encryption protects the channel, not the membership. In a shared Signal room the real risk is who got in and how long their words stick around — and both of those are choices someone has to make on purpose.