Practical Paranoia Security Essentials v5.0.1 Released
Practical Paranoia Security Essentials book series for Android, Chromebook, iOS, macOS, and Windows is the easiest, most comprehensive, and fastest way for the average user to harden their cybersecurity and internet privacy.
FBI Reports Cybercrime Up 100% in Last 14 Months
FBI reports cybercrime increased 100% in the past 14 months. Over $1B lost due to Business Email Compromise.
iOS 14.5 Update is Vital to Your Security & Privacy
Apple recently updated iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 to version 14.5. Although there are many tweaks included with this update, by far the most important to your cybersecurity and internet privacy is the addition of App Tracking Transparency.
App Tracking Transparency lets you control which apps are allowed to track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites for ads or sharing with data brokers.
Firefox 88 Enables JavaScript Embedded in PDFs by Default
As reported in Slashdot today... Firefox has included a built-in PDF viewer for a long time, eliminating the need to install another third-party extension. Until now, this viewer has had its ability to execute JavaScript embedded in PDFs disabled. This is important....
8 Years Running
For over 8 years The Practical Paranoid has been bringing you the best-selling, easiest, step-by-step, most comprehensive guides and training to ensuring your security and privacy.
Practical Paranoia macOS 11 Security Essentials Hits the Bookstores
Practical Paranoia macOS 11 Security Essentials Hits the Bookstores We're Baaaack! The best-selling DIY cybersecurity book series is back, fully updated, and guaranteed to be the easiest, most comprehensive book to secure your home and office computers, tablets, and...
Is it Time to Move from LastPass to Bitwarden?
For years I have recommended the use of a password manager to help generate and store strong passwords. My go-to product has been LastPass. But now that LastPass has moved many of their features away from their free to their for-fee product, you may want to take a...
Disable Human Voice Recording Review in Alexa
As reported in Venture Beat on August 3, 2019, Amazon has almost silently announced that Alexa users are now able to choose to block human reviewers from listening to their recordings. Although this human listening is intended to provide quality assurance that the AI...
Q: Is it safe to use thumb drives with my work computer?
A: Let's start with this: Federal cybersecurity guidelines are that any portable external storage (USB drive, thumb drive, flash drive, SD card, etc.) are not to be permitted. This is a mandate for government systems, government contractors, health care providers, and...
Q: What is an encrypted chat client?
A: Probably best to take this one bite at a time:
Encrypted: The process of encoding a message or information in such a way that only authorized parties can access it and those who are not authorized cannot.
Stop Amazon From Listening
As reported yesterday, Amazon has thousands of staff listening to you through your Echo devices. But there is a way to stop this listening: Open the Alexa app on your mobile device. Select the menu icon. Select Settings, found at the bottom of the submenu list. Select...
Yes, They ARE Listening
As reported in Bloomberg <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-10/is-anyone-listening-to-you-on-alexa-a-global-team-reviews-audio>, Amazon has thousands of staff listening to what their devices hear. Based on the information provided by Amazon, it is...
Q: Is it possible to eliminate the possibility that opening an email will result in a virus on my computer?
A: If you are talking about absolutes, no. However, you can dramatically reduce the chances of compromise when opening email: Use an email provider that pre-scans your mail for malicious content. This is one reason I favor Google. All incoming email is scanned by over...
Facebook pays teens to spy on them
As reported on TechCrunch January 29, 2019, it appears that as bad as we thought Facebook to be, it has the resources to be far worse. Facebook has been secretly paying people to install a “Facebook Research” VPN that lets the company suck in all of a user’s phone and...
More Junk Apps on Android
All of these apps do the same thing–add an advertising layer on top of Google Maps. At least one even has the gall to request payment to remove the ads in Google Maps–ads that wouldn’t exist except for that app itself!If you have any of these apps installed on your Android device, remove them ASAP.