With the number of data breaches, phishing attacks and other digital threats facing us today, you need to know how to stay safe when using technology. Check out these free online guides to understand digital security and protect your privacy.
Disbelievers try to infiltrate systems through various channels, such as browsers, phones, emails, and even the Wi-Fi networks you connect to. The first step is to learn how these attacks perform and then implement the steps to prevent them.
Along with this, it is also important to try and protect your online privacy. Security and privacy are different issues, of course, but they are deeply connected in the technological sphere.
1. Your Security Guide (Web): protect yourself online in 2 hours
Your Security Guide teaches you how to protect yourself online in just two hours
Your Safety is a place where beginners can learn what it takes to protect yourself online, in a walkthrough. The website divides online security and privacy into eight categories: browser, password, phishing, device, public access, network, personal data and advanced security details.
Each mini-guide provides you with some workable steps and warns you in advance about how long it will take to implement. For example, it only takes five minutes to protect your browser, as the guide recommends the best browsers, extensions and search engines.
The first seven steps take less than two hours to finish, so Your Security says you can do it while watching your favorite movie. Personal data protection is the longest, taking more than 40 minutes, so you may want to save it for another session. The advanced security details can take much longer, as it's up to you how many of the steps you want to practice.
If you like this approach, you should also check out our guide to improving online security and defending privacy , which goes deeper with password security and secure messaging.
2. Ononymous (Web): movies, games and guides on online security
Ononymous is a free collection of movies, documentaries, articles, guides and games to learn about online security and best practice
There are numerous organizations fighting for your digital rights, as well as trying to educate the public on how to protect yourself online. These resources are scattered around the web. Ononymous collects them in a single portal to educate yourself about online security.
The website includes content from Access Now, Center for Investigative Journalism, Digital Society Switzerland, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Front Line Defenders, Open Data City, Tactical Technology Collective and The Tor Project. It is a mix of animated films and
documentaries, articles and guides and online games. You can filter the content by type or manufacturer.
Ononymous has a large variety of resources covering various topics. There are far-reaching topics (the digital tracks we leave behind) as well as specific problems (digital security for the LGBTI community in sub-Saharan Africa). Watch, play or read to educate yourself about online security.
3. Google Phishing Quiz (Web): is it possible to spot a phishing scam?
Take the Google and Jigsaw Phishing Quiz to see if you can spot an email scam
The most common security threat on the Internet is a phishing scam. You receive an email that appears to come from a legitimate source (company, service or your contacts) but is cleverly disguised. After thinking it was real, you end up providing personal details that compromise your security.
It is often difficult to spot a phishing scam. Jigsaw, one of Google's affiliated companies, has created an online quiz to check if a phishing email can be distinguished from a legitimate one. The quiz is based on security training exercises with journalists, activists and political leaders.
In a series of eight questions, you have to click on a button to tell if the submitted email is legitimate or a phishing scam. You will immediately receive the correct answer and the quiz shows the telltale indicators of phishing. So it is not only a quiz, but also educational.
Even if you get them all correct, send this quiz to others you think are sensitive.
4. Email (Web) Self Defense : Learn email encryption
Email Self-Defense is the Free Software Foundation's guide to using GnuPG to encrypt and protect email from surveillance
It's no secret that your email isn't secure. Companies, governments, advertisers and others can read the contents of your inbox if they wish, without even notifying you. If you want to send something securely to another person, you need to encrypt your emails.
The Free Software Foundation teaches you the basics of email encryption with its email self-defense guide.
The website teaches how to set up GnuPG on a desktop email program like Thunderbird or IceDove. GnuPG (GNU Privacy Guard) is an open source way to use encryption to protect data. It can protect much more than email, including files and identities. But its most frequent use is to protect email.
After setting up GnuPG in the first step, you will learn how to encrypt emails with private keys. It also teaches you how to send those keys securely to the recipient, so that only they can decrypt the email. It is the simplest guide to email encryption using an open standard.
If all of this seems too problematic, there are already some secure and encrypted email providers online. They do the setup for you, but then you trust your data to another company.
5. Pixel Privacy (Web): Information on the protection of privacy
Pixel Privacy is a fantastic blog full of privacy-focused articles, software comparisons and guides to protect your identity
Pixel Privacy is an entire blog dedicated to teaching average people how to protect their online privacy. The producer, Chris Hauk, is himself an IT expert who stole his credit card, hacked his email and compromised his identity. That's why he created a single space for normal people to learn about privacy.
In general, Pixel Privacy has six categories: VPN, cloud storage, backup provider, password managers, antivirus and privacy guides. Each category informs you about the privacy deficiencies in that sector and provides you with the best practices to avoid falling victim.
The blogger team also conducts detailed comparisons of popular apps and software to help you choose privacy protection services.
The Online Privacy Guides section among the best resources of this type we have encountered. Each article uses plain English without jargon, provides the user with practical actions to protect their privacy and quickly gets to the point. Pixel Privacy is one of the best ways to know why online privacy is important and to claim it.
Important habits to stay safe online
These digital security and online privacy guides have already made you more aware of what to do. As is evident, the best way to protect yourself on the Internet is to change some bad habits and practices.