Why you can not truly be safe while online

3 things to be aware of, that will improve your online security

Intro

Surprisingly enough, there are a lot of people that do not have a clue about how the internet and “online” function. This lack of basic knowledge permits attackers and scammers to do their thing. In this short writing, I will try to explain some basic security concerns that you should take into account, when online.

If you are an expert and do not need this, you can still read it and maybe comment with your tips and tricks, in the end, and maybe share this with your mom (assuming she is not an expert also 🙂 Otherwise I hope the following will help you be more conscious on the internet.

Your surroundings

Are you at home, on your local router? Or in a pub on the wifi? Or a park on your 3/4/5G connection? Depending on where you are and what you use (a phone, a tablet, a computer, etc.) be careful of your surroundings.

Ask yourself these basic questions before starting to fly online:

1. Am I the only one using this internet connection?
2. Can I see the router that provides this connection? Do I have access to it?
3. Can I see people using their computers with routers or other small network devices attached to their computers near me?
4. Do I trust the place where I’m connecting from?
5. Did I receive any notification or alert from my device related to the connection?

Things are straightforward when you are at home and see/have access to the router that provides your connection. You can always check the router to see how many devices are connected – if you recognize them all, that is good, and if not, reset it(the router) and change your credentials.

When outside of your home, your focus needs to be on the place and connection used. If you see around you people with routers connected to their laptops, or devices that have antennas (most routers do), you should probably turn on a 3/4/5G connection and connect to that instead of using the shared wifi.

Most modern devices will warn you when a strange network behavior is detected. Do not skip those messages! Read them and understand what they are saying.

If you receive such messages on a cellular connection, contact your phone carrier to understand what it is. (A man-in-the-middle attack, can be performed also on carrier connections, and your device might detect the abnormal connection)

If on wifi, and the connection has “weak” security protocols, passwords, etc., be aware of the fact that those connections are the easiest to hack and you may be in danger while connected to them.

Your connection

Depending on what you do and adding up to the previous point, please ask yourself:

1. Is my connection encrypted or not?
2. Am I using a protected application or not?
3. Am I browsing a secure website or not?

The ISP or Internet Service Provider “knows” most of the things you do online depending on their encryption (all unencrypted and the destination to those encrypted). To reach your ISP you are connecting to a router usually, and the router is the point of contact with your ISP.

At home

Try to check the following when securing your router:

• Select a strong security model for your password – WPA3 Personal is the best at the moment on WiFi 6 routers, but if that is not available for you, just go with WPA2 Personal (AES)
• Choose a strong password – 8 characters or more with numbers, lower and upper case characters, and special characters – save it in a password vault(most devices have a way to store secrets – find it and use it), not in a note or text file.
• Go with a fixed DNS setup and not DHCP (if possible) and assign all the devices that connect to the internet as a fixed list – this way, if a friend or neighbor wants to connect to your wifi, after giving the password you will need to explicitly add him to that whitelist to grant access to the network.
• Enable logs on the router – this is helpful anytime
• If not needed, disable the VPN and tunneling features of the router

Outside your home

You are outside your home and want something from the internet:

• Again check all alert messages from the device related to the connection
• If possible use 3/4/5G connections
• If on wifi, if the connection is not password protected, use a 3/4/5G one or a password-protected one if available(or just don’t use it :))
• If a wifi connection is password protected and the security of the router is not something you have on your home router proceed with caution or simply not use it.

Anywhere

Regardless of where you are:

• When browsing web pages be aware of security notifications (most modern browsers will alert you)
• On web pages, if you need to insert sensible information like card details or personal details, check the lock and click on it to see if the information on the page matches the information of the certificate – if anything looks or seems sketchy don’t proceed.

• When using applications be aware of their encryption – sometimes this is specified and sometimes not. Usually, the apps that do not explicitly specify encryption end to end don’t have encryption. Be aware of those and use them with caution.

Your local security

The last part of our small security journey ends on your device with some tips on how to be more aware:

• Use an antivirus solution and keep it updated
• Read the notifications that are produced by the security applications or the system you are using
• While typing passwords or sensible information, look around you first and make sure no one is looking
• Never store credentials on your device in clear text (notes, stickies, text files, etc. – use the device password store instead)
• Never use personal data in your passwords – this is a common thing that makes passwords easy to hack and guessable – imagine a password like NamePetName1234 – Do not do that!

Before you go

I am sure that what was shared above is a bare minimum of the things that you can do to be more secure online. While writing it, I was thinking about my mom (she used to have a passwords.txt file on her desktop, she never reads notifications and hits on continue or skip, etc.) If this is helpful for you or your parents, please let me know, or share it with whoever needs it, otherwise be safe (not paranoic – I know I gave a slight sense of paranoia to this writing, but please be cautious and don’t take for granted security anywhere).

I will disconnect now and have a walk. 🙂