Online Security Basics

Chuck McAndrew

chuck@chuckmcandrew.com

"By the end of this class, you will feel less secure and be more secure"
- Blake Carver

Security is not binary. Something is more secure or less secure. It is wrong to say something is or is not secure.

1. Do Your Updates

2. If you can remember all of your passwords, you are doing it wrong

3. A Long Password is a Strong Password

kdiosn

has 26⁶ or 308,915,776 possibilities

KdIOsn

has 52⁶ or 18,770,609,664 possibilities

this is 60 times stronger than kdiosn

kdiosnplannew

has 26¹² or 94,289,566,600,000,000 possibilities

this is 3,089,155,776 times stronger than kdiosn

and is 4,826,809 times stronger than KdIOsn

4. Don't rely on passwords

5. If you don't back it up, you don't care about it

3,2,1 Rule

3 Copies of data

2 different media types

1 copy off site

6. Backups are worthless, restores are priceless

7. Send letters, not postcards

Web browsing

HTTPS

Messenging

iMessage

Signal

Stronger Protections

VPN

Tor

8. Practice defensive browsing

9. Don't trust public wifi

10. Don't trust email

Chuck McAndrew

chuck@chuckmcandrew.com