Securing your digital life, part one: The basics

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Securing your digital life

• Securing your digital life, the finale: Debunking worthless “security” practices
• Securing your digital life, part three: How smartphones make us vulnerable
• Securing your digital life, part two: The bigger picture—and special circumstances
• Securing your digital life, part one: The basics

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I spend most of my time these days investigating the uglier side of digital life—examining the techniques, tools, and practices of cyber criminals to help people better defend against them. It’s not entirely different from my days at Ars Technica, but it has given me a greater appreciation for just how hard it is for normal folks to stay “safe” digitally.

Even those who consider themselves well educated about cyber crime and security threats—and who do everything they’ve been taught to do—can (and do!) still end up as victims. The truth is that, with enough time, resources, and skill, everything can be hacked.

The key to protecting your digital life is to make it as expensive and impractical as possible for someone bent on mischief to steal the things most important to your safety, financial security, and privacy. If attackers find it too difficult or expensive to get your stuff, there’s a good chance they’ll simply move on to an easier target. For that reason, it’s important to assess the ways that vital information can be stolen or leaked—and understand the limits to protecting that information.

In part one of our guide to securing your digital life, we’ll talk briefly about that process and about basic measures anyone can take to reduce risks to their devices. In part two, available here, we’ll address wider digital identity protection measures, along with some special measures for people who may face elevated risks. But if you’re looking for tips about peanut butter sandwich dead drops to anonymously transfer data cards in exchange for cryptocurrency payments… we can’t help you, sorry.

You are not Batman

A while back, we covered threat modeling—a practice that encompasses some of what is described above. One of the most important aspects of threat modeling is defining your acceptable level of risk.

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We make risk-level assessments all the time, perhaps