This post is going to warn you about a very aggressive email scam. I thought I’d seen it all, but I have recently gotten some pretty aggressive phishing emails that caught my attention. I want to make you aware of this scam so you don’t get taken by it. This aggressive email scam can give you a big jolt of fear, but hopefully I can prepare you for the day you get one of these.
Eliminate Online Credit Card Theft with Privacy.com
My credit card was recently stolen. I used it at a very friendly but technically non-savvy local business. Within a few days fraudulent charges came pouring in, ranging from $1.00 to $401.67. The merchants were Paypal and Amazon. I know I didn’t make these charges but honestly, I don’t care. None of these fake charges was able to touch my money. I have the ultimate credit card security: Privacy.com.
Recommended Digital Tools and Services
I have written about a lot of security tools over the years. I generally prefer to focus on techniques and behaviors rather than tools. Security-minded behavior is generally more effective than security tools. It is easier and vastly more certain, for instance, to conceal a thought that was never committed to text than it is to erase it afterward. Tools can also create a false sense of security and cause a disregard for the importance of security behaviors.
In some instances tools are indispensable, however. Tools can provide capabilities that behavior alone cannot. This post will serve as a repository of my current recommended tools and services. It will host links to my articles/reviews about these products, as well as links to their host sites, and I will update it frequently.
Digital Security Primer Part IV.I: Data In Motion
In the last three parts of my Digital Security Primer I discussed the importance of digital security, making your device a hard target for malware, and protecting your cloud-stored data. This time I am going to get into the cool, sexy stuff: encryption for your data-in-motion. But first, I’m going to make some of you angry.
Digital Security Primer Part III: Cloud Stored Data
In my last post in this mini-series, I talked about Step 1 in my Security Framework: Malware Resilience. The steps there are all designed to minimize the chances of contracting malware. There are other steps, more advanced that can be taken, and maybe I’ll cover those in the future. They get much more technically demanding and time-consuming to implement.
Digital Security Primer Part II: Resist Malware
Malware is THE single biggest digital threat we face today.
Digital Security Primer, Part I: Why Bother?
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I have recently written a book on digital security. This post is going to kick off a series on digital security (and secure communications – a skill that might become very important for freedom lovers in the near future) that roughly follows the outline of the book. This is completely free information that I make a very good living teaching. I’ve worked hard to put this into plain language (and perhaps even made it enjoyable to read, as well). If you enjoy this content, please consider picking up a copy of Digital Self Defense: The Layman’s Guide to Digital Security when it comes out this spring. Thanks!
ProtonMail Five Years Later, Part III: Security Features
I have been using ProtonMail full-time for over five years, and recommending it for almost six. My contact form forward emails to a ProtonMail account, and any of you that have interacted with me have done so through ProtonMail on my end. A lot has changed since ProtonMail’s beginnings. This post will cover the basics of ProtonMail: how it encrypts your data-in-motion, data-at-rest, and some other features.