Wired’s new Guide to Digital Security is an excellent addition to the genre of simple-to-follow how-tos for reducing the likelihood that you’ll be victimized by computer-assisted crime and harassment, and that if you are, the harms will be mitigated.
Like Motherboard’s guide, it is formatted as a series of short articles; like EFF’s Surveillance Self Defense kit, it is structured around different kinds of threats, with separate paths for “civilians,” “public figures” and “spies.”
Some of the standout articles:
* Smartphone Security 101: The Steps That Matter Most in which Lily Hay Newman offers “quick and easy steps to make big improvements to your mobile security”;
* How to Encrypt All of the Things, where Andy Greenberg shows you “how to keep snoopers out of every facet of your digital life, whether it’s video chat or your PC’s hard drive”;
* How to Sweep For Bugs and Hidden Cameras, where Lily Hay Newman basically shows that unless you’re really technologically sophisticated, this is very, very hard;
* and What to Do if You’re Being Doxed, where Newman interviews the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Eva Galperin for really practical advice on what could easily be a nightmare scenario.
Electronic security is a team sport: that’s why the Cybersecurity Campaign Playbook has a chapter for how family members of political campaigners should armor themselves against being used as a means to get at their relatives.
This is the ideal season for you to help you up your family’s security game. When you go home for the holidays, think about how you can install software, change defaults, and teach your family good practices to help you — and them — stay safe.
If this interests you, read EFF’s Security Education Companion, which teaches you how to be an effective communicator of security precepts.