{"id":14657,"date":"2019-02-21T10:10:03","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T18:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2019\/02\/21\/news-8406\/"},"modified":"2019-02-21T10:10:03","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T18:10:03","slug":"news-8406","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2019\/02\/21\/news-8406\/","title":{"rendered":"The lazy person’s guide to cybersecurity: minimum effort for maximum protection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: Pieter Arntz| Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2019 17:00:00 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

Are you tired of that acquaintance who keeps bugging you with computer questions? Do you avoid visiting certain people because you know you will spend most of the evening cleaning up their machine?<\/p>\n

My uncle Bob is one of those people. He\u2019s a nice guy, but with computers, he\u2019s not just an accident waiting to happen\u2014he’s an accident waiting to become a catastrophe. To keep Uncle Bob’s computer safe without blowing up the Internet, we need to give him the simplest of instructions that result in protecting him against as much as possible. Uncle Bob needs a lazy person’s guide to cybersecurity.<\/p>\n

It’s not that Uncle Bob is lazy. It’s that he’s overwhelmed by the amount of stuff he has to do to keep his data and devices secure. Multiple passwords, reading through EULAs, website cookies that he clicks “agree” to without really paying attention\u2014they’re giving him a serious case of security fatigue<\/a>. And as his helper, you’re probably pretty over it, too.<\/p>\n

The funny thing is, with adequate cybersecurity, Uncle Bob’s\u2014and by extension all of our\u2014problems would be much less frequent and less severe. So, let\u2019s see if we can work out a system of minimum effort that renders reasonable results.<\/p>\n

Before we begin, we will should note that lazy cybersecurity should not apply to devices used to store sensitive data, conduct financial transactions, or communicate confidential or proprietary information. Lazy security is a good way to protect those who prefer to do nothing rather than be overwhelmed by 50 somethings, but it shouldn\u2019t have severe consequences if it goes wrong.<\/p>\n

User education<\/h3>\n

Your first step should always be user education. So many of today’s most dangerous threats are delivered through social engineering, i.e., by tricking users into giving up their data or downloading the malware themselves from an infected email attachment. Therefore, knowing what not to click on and download can keep a good portion of threats off a lazy person’s device.<\/p>\n

With most people, it helps to know why<\/em> they shouldn\u2019t download or click on links in emails that look like they came from a legitimate institution. Just telling them “don\u2019t do that” may help for a bit, but advise is better retained if it’s grounded in practical reasoning. Therefore, each item in this list is accompanied by a brief explanation.<\/p>\n