A beginner's guide to improving your digital security

In 2017, I led a series of workshops aimed at teaching beginners a better understanding of encryption, how the internet works, and their digital security. Nearly a decade later, there is still a great need to share reliable resources and guides on improving these skills.

I have worked professionally in computer security one way or another for well over a decade, at many major technology companies and in many open source software projects. There are many inaccurate and unreliable resources out there on this subject, put together by well-meaning people without a background in security, which can lead to sharing misinformation, exaggeration and fearmongering.

I hope that I can offer you a trusted, curated list of high impact things that you can do right now, using whichever vetted guide you prefer. In addition, I also include how long it should take, why you should do each task, and any limitations.

This guide is aimed at improving your personal security, and does not apply to your work-owned devices. Always assume your company can monitor all of your messages and activities on work devices.

What can I do to improve my security right away?

I put together this list in order of effort, easiest tasks first. You should be able to complete many of the low effort tasks in a single hour. The medium to high effort tasks are very much worth doing, but may take you a few days or even weeks to complete them.

Low effort (<15 minutes)

Upgrade your software to the latest versions

Why? I don't know anyone who hasn't complained about software updates breaking features, introducing bugs, and causing headaches. If it ain't broke, why upgrade, right? Well, alongside all of those annoying bugs and breaking changes, software updates also include security fixes, which will protect your device from being exploited by bad actors. Security issues can be found in software at any time, even software that's been available for many years and thought to be secure. You want to install these as soon as they are available.

Recommendation: Turn on automatic upgrades and always keep your devices as up-to-date as possible. If you have some software you know will not work if you upgrade it, at least be sure to upgrade your laptop and phone operating system (iOS, Android, Windows, etc.) and web browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.). Do not use devices that do not receive security support (e.g. old Android or iPhones).

Guides:

Limitations: This will prevent someone from exploiting known security issues on your devices, but it won't help if your device was already compromised. If this is a concern, doing a factory reset, upgrade, and turning on automatic upgrades may help. This also won't protect against all types of attacks, but it is a necessary foundation.

Use Signal

Why? Signal is a trusted, vetted, secure messaging application that allows you to send end-to-end encrypted messages and make video/phone calls. This means that only you and your intended recipient can decrypt the messages and someone cannot intercept and read your messages, in contrast to texting (SMS) and other insecure forms of messaging. Other applications advertise themselves as end-to-end encrypted, but Signal provides the strongest protections.

Recommendation: I recommend installing the Signal app and using it! My mom loves that she can video call me on Wi-Fi on my Android phone. It also supports group chats. I use it as a secure alternative to texting (SMS) and other chat platforms. I also like Signal's "disappearing messages" feature which I enable by default because it automatically deletes messages after a certain period of time. This avoids your messages taking up too much storage.

Guides:

Limitations: Signal is only able to protect your messages in transit. If someone has access to your phone or the phone of the person you sent messages to, they will still be able to read them. As a rule of thumb, if you don't want someone to read something, don't write it down! Meet in person or make an encrypted phone call where you will not be overheard. If you are talking to someone you don't know, assume your messages are as public as posting on social media.

Set passwords and turn on device encryption

Why? Passwords ensure that someone else can't unlock your device without your consent or knowledge. They also are required to turn on device encryption, which protects your information on your device from being accessed when it is locked. Biometric (fingerprint or face ID) locking provides some privacy, but your fingerprint or face ID can be used against your wishes, whereas if you are the only person who knows your password, only you can use it.

Recommendation: Always set passwords and have device encryption enabled in order to protect your personal privacy. It may be convenient to allow kids or family members access to an unlocked device, but anyone else can access it, too! Use strong passwords that cannot be guessed—avoid using names, birthdays, phone numbers, addresses, or other public information. Using a password manager will make creating and managing passwords even easier. Disable biometric unlock, or at least know how to disable it. Most devices will enable disk encryption by default, but you should double-check.

Guides:

Limitations: If your device is unlocked, the password and encryption will provide no protections; the device must be locked for this to protect your privacy. It is possible, though unlikely, for someone to gain remote access to your device (for example through malware or stalkerware), which would bypass these protections. Some forensic tools are also sophisticated enough to work with physical access to a device that is turned on and locked, but not a device that is turned off/freshly powered on and encrypted. If you lose your password or disk encryption key, you may lose access to your device. For this reason, Windows and Apple laptops can make a cloud backup of your disk encryption key. However, a cloud backup can potentially be disclosed to law enforcement.

Install an ad blocker

Why? Online ad networks are often exploited to spread malware to unsuspecting visitors. If you've ever visited a regular website and suddenly seen an urgent, flashing pop-up claiming your device was hacked, it is often due to a bad ad. Blocking ads provides an additional layer of protection against these kinds of attacks.

Recommendation: I recommend everyone uses an ad blocker at all times. Not only are ads annoying and disruptive, but they can even result in your devices being compromised!

Guides:

Limitations: Sometimes the use of ad blockers can break functionality on websites, which can be annoying, but you can temporarily disable them to fix the problem. These may not be able to block all ads or all tracking, but they make browsing the web much more pleasant and lower risk! Some people might also be concerned that blocking ads might impact the revenue of their favourite websites or creators. In this case, I recommend either donating directly or sharing the site with a wider audience, but keep using the ad blocker for your safety.

Enable HTTPS-Only Mode

Why? The "S" in "HTTPS" stands for "secure". This feature, which can be enabled on your web browser, ensures that every time you visit a website, your connection is always end-to-end encrypted (just like when you use Signal!) This ensures that someone can't intercept what you search for, what pages on websites you visit, and any information you or the website share such as your banking details.

Recommendation: I recommend enabling this for everyone, though with improvements in web browser security and adoption of HTTPS over the years, your devices will often do this by default! There is a small risk you will encounter some websites that do not support HTTPS, usually older sites.

Guides:

Limitations: HTTPS protects the information on your connection to a website. It does not hide or protect the fact that you visited that website, only the information you accessed. If the website is malicious, HTTPS does not provide any protection. In certain settings, like when you use a work-managed computer that was set up for you, it can still be possible for your IT Department to see what you are browsing, even over an HTTPS connection, because they have administrator access to your computer and the network.

Medium to high effort (1+ hours)

These tasks require more effort but are worth the investment.

Set up a password manager

Why? It is not possible for a person to remember a unique password for every single website and app that they use. I have, as of writing, 556 passwords stored in my password manager. Password managers do three important things very well:

  1. They generate secure passwords with ease. You don't need to worry about getting your digits and special characters just right; the app will do it for you, and generate long, secure passwords.
  2. They remember all your passwords for you, and you just need to remember one password to access all of them. The most common reason people's accounts get hacked online is because they used the same password across multiple websites, and one of the websites had all their passwords leaked. When you use a unique password on every website, it doesn't matter if your password gets leaked!
  3. They autofill passwords based on the website you're visiting. This is important because it helps prevent you from getting phished. If you're tricked into visiting an evil lookalike site, your password manager will refuse to fill the password.

Recommendation: These benefits are extremely important, and setting up a password manager is often one of the most impactful things you can do for your digital security. However, they take time to get used to, and migrating all of your passwords into the app (and immediately changing them!) can take a few minutes at a time... over weeks. I recommend you prioritize the most important sites, such as your email accounts, banking/financial sites, and cellphone provider. This process will feel like a lot of work, but you will get to enjoy the benefits of never having to remember new passwords and the autofill functionality for websites. My recommended password manager is 1Password, but it stores passwords in the cloud and costs money. There are some good free options as well if cost is a concern. You can also use web browser- or OS-based password managers, but I do not prefer these.

Guides:

Limitations: Many people are concerned about the risk of using a password manager causing all of their passwords to be compromised. For this reason, it's very important to use a vetted, reputable password manager that has passed audits, such as 1Password or Bitwarden. It is also extremely important to choose a strong password to unlock your password manager. 1Password makes this easier by generating a secret to strengthen your unlock password, but I recommend using a long, memorable password in any case. Another risk is that if you forget your password manager's password, you will lose access to all your passwords. This is why I recommend 1Password, which has you set up an Emergency Kit to recover access to your account.

Set up two-factor authentication (2FA) for your accounts

Why? If your password is compromised in a website leak or due to a phishing attack, two-factor authentication will require a second piece of information to log in and potentially thwart the intruder. This provides you with an extra layer of security on your accounts.

Recommendation: You don't necessarily need to enable 2FA on every account, but prioritize enabling it on your most important accounts (email, banking, cellphone, etc.) There are typically a few different kinds: email-based (which is why your email account's security is so important), text message or SMS-based (which is why your cell phone account's security is so important), app-based, and hardware token-based. Email and text message 2FA are fine for most accounts. You may want to enable app- or hardware token-based 2FA for your most sensitive accounts.

Guides:

Limitations: The major limitation is that if you lose access to 2FA, you can be locked out of an account. This can happen if you're travelling abroad and can't access your usual cellphone number, if you break your phone and you don't have a backup of your authenticator app, or if you lose your hardware-based token. For this reason, many websites will provide you with "backup tokens"—you can print them out and store them in a secure location or use your password manager. I also recommend if you use an app, you choose one that will allow you to make secure backups, such as Ente. You are also limited by the types of 2FA a website supports; many don't support app- or hardware token-based 2FA.

Remove your information from data brokers

Why? This is a problem that mostly affects people in the US. It surprises many people that information from their credit reports and other public records is scraped and available (for free or at a low cost) online through "data broker" websites. I have shocked friends who didn't believe this was an issue by searching for their full names and within 5 minutes being able to show them their birthday, home address, and phone number. This is a serious privacy problem!

Recommendation: Opt out of any and all data broker websites to remove this information from the internet. This is especially important if you are at risk of being stalked or harassed.

Guides:

Limitations: It can take time for your information to be removed once you opt out, and unfortunately search engines may have cached your information for a while longer. This is also not a one-and-done process. New data brokers are constantly popping up and some may not properly honour your opt out, so you will need to check on a regular basis (perhaps once or twice a year) to make sure your data has been properly scrubbed. This also cannot prevent someone from directly searching public records to find your information, but that requires much more effort.

"Recommended security measures" I think beginners should avoid

We've covered a lot of tasks you should do, but I also think it's important to cover what not to do. I see many of these tools recommended to security beginners, and I think that's a mistake. For each tool, I will explain my reasoning around why I don't think you should use it, and the scenarios in which it might make sense to use.

"Secure email"

What is it? Many email providers, such as Proton Mail, advertise themselves as providing secure email. They are often recommended as a "more secure" alternative to typical email providers such as GMail.

What's the problem? Email is fundamentally insecure by design. The email specification (RFC-3207) states that any publicly available email server MUST NOT require the use of end-to-end encryption in transit. Email providers can of course provide additional security by encrypting their copies of your email, and providing you access to your email by HTTPS, but the messages themselves can always be sent without encryption. Some platforms such as Proton Mail advertise end-to-end encrypted emails so long as you email another Proton user. This is not truly email, but their own internal encrypted messaging platform that follows the email format.

What should I do instead? Use Signal to send encrypted messages. NEVER assume the contents of an email are secure.

Who should use it? I don't believe there are any major advantages to using a service such as this one. Even if you pay for a more "secure" email provider, the majority of your emails will still be delivered to people who don't. Additionally, while I don't use or necessarily recommend their service, Google offers an Advanced Protection Program for people who may be targeted by state-level actors.

PGP/GPG Encryption

What is it? PGP ("Pretty Good Privacy") and GPG ("GNU Privacy Guard") are encryption and cryptographic signing software. They are often recommended to encrypt messages or email.

What's the problem? GPG is decades old and its usability has always been terrible. It is extremely easy to accidentally send a message that you thought was encrypted without encryption! The problems with PGP/GPG have been extensively documented.

What should I do instead? Use Signal to send encrypted messages. Again, NEVER use email for sensitive information.

Who should use it? Software developers who contribute to projects where there is a requirement to use GPG should continue to use it until an adequate alternative is available. Everyone else should live their lives in PGP-free bliss.

Installing a "secure" operating system (OS) on your phone

What is it? There are a number of self-installed operating systems for Android phones, such as GrapheneOS, that advertise as being "more secure" than using the version of the Android operating system provided by your phone manufacturer. They often remove core Google APIs and services to allow you to "de-Google" your phone.

What's the problem? These projects are relatively niche, and don't have nearly enough resourcing to be able to respond to the high levels of security pressure Android experiences (such as against the forensic tools I mentioned earlier). You may suddenly lose security support with no notice, as with CalyxOS. You need a high level of technical know-how and a lot of spare time to maintain your device with a custom operating system, which is not a reasonable expectation for the average person. By stripping all Google APIs such as Google Play Services, some useful apps like Signal no longer function. And some law enforcement organizations have gone as far as accusing people who install GrapheneOS on Pixel phones to be engaging in criminal activity.

What should I do instead? For the best security on an Android device, use a phone manufactured by Google or Samsung (smaller manufacturers are more unreliable), or consider buying an iPhone. Make sure your device is receiving security updates and up-to-date.

Who should use it? These projects are great for tech enthusiasts who are interested in contributing to and developing them further. They can be used to give new life to old phones that are not receiving security or software updates. They are also great for people with an interest in free and open source software and digital autonomy. But these tools are not a good choice for a general audience, nor do they provide more practical security than using an up-to-date Google or Samsung Android phone.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) Services

What is it? A virtual private network or VPN service can provide you with a secure tunnel from your device to the location that the VPN operates. This means that if I am using my phone in Seattle connected to a VPN in Amsterdam, if I access a website, it appears to the website that my phone is located in Amsterdam.

What's the problem? VPN services are frequently advertised as providing security or protection from nefarious bad actors, or helping protect your privacy. These benefits are often far overstated, and there are predatory VPN providers that can actually be harmful. It costs money and resources to provide a VPN, so free VPN services are especially suspect. When you use a VPN, the VPN provider knows the websites you are visiting in order to provide you with the service. Free VPN providers may sell this data in order to cover the cost of providing the service, leaving you with less security and privacy. The average person does not have the knowledge to be able to determine if a VPN service is trustworthy or not. VPNs also don't provide any additional encryption benefits if you are already using HTTPS. They may provide a small amount of privacy benefit if you are connected to an untrusted network with an attacker.

What should I do instead? Always use HTTPS to access websites. Don't connect to untrusted internet providers—for example, use cellphone network data instead of a sketchy Wi-Fi access point. Your local neighbourhood coffee shop is probably fine.

Who should use it? There are three main use cases for VPNs. The first is to bypass geographic restrictions. A VPN will cause all of your web traffic to appear to be coming from another location. If you live in an area that has local internet censorship policies, you can use a VPN to access the internet from a location that lacks such policies. The second is if you know your internet service provider is actively hostile or malicious. A trusted VPN will protect the visibility of all your traffic, including which websites you visit, from your internet service provider, and the only thing they will be able to see is that you are accessing a VPN. The third use case is to access a network that isn't connected to the public internet, such as a corporate intranet. I strongly discourage the use of VPNs for "general-purpose security."

Tor

What is it? Tor, "The Onion Router", is a free and open source software project that provides anonymous networking. Unlike with a VPN, where the VPN provider knows who you are and what websites you are requesting, Tor's architecture makes it extremely difficult to determine who sent a request.

What's the problem? Tor is difficult to set up properly; similar to PGP-encrypted email, it is possible to accidentally not be connected to Tor and not know the difference. This usability has improved over the years, but Tor is still not a good tool for beginners to use. Due to the way Tor works, it is also extremely slow. If you have used cable or fiber internet, get ready to go back to dialup speeds. Tor also doesn't provide perfect privacy and without a strong understanding of its limitations, it can be possible to deanonymize someone despite using it. Additionally, many websites are able to detect connections from the Tor network and block them.

What should I do instead? If you want to use Tor to bypass censorship, it is often better to use a trusted VPN provider, particularly if you need high bandwidth (e.g. for streaming). If you want to use Tor to access a website anonymously, Tor itself might not be enough to protect you. For example, if you need to provide an email address or personal information, you can decline to provide accurate information and use a masked email address. A friend of mine once used the alias "Nunya Biznes" 🥸

Who should use it? Tor should only be used by people who are experienced users of security tools and understand its strengths and limitations. Tor also is best used on a purpose-built system, such as Tor Browser or Freedom of the Press Foundation's SecureDrop.

I want to learn more!

I hope you've found this guide to be a useful starting point. I always welcome folks reaching out to me with questions, though I might take a little bit of time to respond. You can always email me.

If there's enough interest, I might cover the following topics in a future post:

Stay safe out there! 🔒