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Improving Personal Security

By Zachary Carlin at

Improving Personal Security

Story Time

So I was lying in bed browsing Instagram when my girlfriend snapchats me.

"Funny" I thought, since she was passed out next to me we had put a movie on earlier that night. I opened it up to see that some a** had somehow gotten into her snap and now was messaging me for nudes...

After waking her up and contacting snapchats customer support I was left with a slew of emotions. Mostly disgust and a sense of never wanting anything like that to happen to me or anyone I could help.

Security

Here are some of the things I am doing to not only prevent future hacks but also to reclaim privacy.

  • Password Manager
  • VPN
  • 2FA
  • Encryption

Password Manager

A Password manager's main focus is to store your passwords for you. Most password managers can also automatically fill forms, generate new secure passwords, test to see if your passwords have been leaked. Popular options include 1Password, lastPass, KeePass, and the one I decided to go with Bitwarden.

My Choice: Bitwarden

The main reasons why I choose Bitwarden over the other options above is the fact that Bitwarden is OpenSource, on IOS, Linux, Windows, and Android. It also has the advantage that all of your data is fully encrypted before it ever leaves your device, only you have access to it. Not even the team at Bitwarden can read your data, even if they wanted to. Your data is safe.

VPN

VPN means Virtual Private Network. This network provides an encrypted tunnel between the remote server and your network. So, when you access the Internet, all the traffic will be routed into a tunnel. That way, your data will be kept secure. Since the traffic will be exiting from the VPN, your device will show the IP address of the VPN server. Therefore, your location, as well as your identity, will be masked. If you've ever been denied access to somthing on the web because it's not avaliable in your country well simply route your connection through one of the servers outside of your country. Even if your goverment isn't big brother yet it is still usefull for silly things like finding new Netflix shows.

My Choice: PIA

PIA has tons of servers to choose from, which are located all around the world. PIA is also availble on every platfrom, I even use it on my Iphone while connected to cellular.

Privacy

Choose companies that value your privacy and take measures to protect your personal information. Don't allow a random company employee to look at your vacation photos or your private messages.

Ultimately, saying that you don't care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different from saying you don't care about freedom of speech because you have nothing to say. Or that you don't care about freedom of the press because you don't like to read. Or that you don't care about freedom of religion because you don't believe in God. Or that you don't care about the freedom to peacably assemble because you're a lazy, antisocial agoraphobe.

-Edward Snowden in [Permanent Record](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_Record_(autobiography))

Objective-see Malware tools

Suite of tools for protecting you Mac against malware.

  • I personally like oversite, an application for detecting when your camera and mic are being accessed.

Finding Info Companys have on you

Big data is no secret. Companys use the information they collect when you use their services to sell to advertisers and to give you a more "personalized experience" the problem is that these personal experiences end up become way too addicting and dilute the true benefits of technology being a tool and starts to make you the tool.

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