As promised, here is the second part of the post the other day. A disclaimer, these are only services and resources I’ve used in the past and found useful or appropriate for the situation at that time. I’ve noted the ones that I’m using currently and why I’m still using them despite more well known products or resources being available. The majority of what I’ve found in my experience is that online protection and security is more behavior (knowing what not to do or recognizing signs its bad stuff) rather than finding the right application to rely upon. What I’m using currently is an extension to my own experience and knowledge that helps when its not clear if I’m going down a road to something malicious.
Online Safety Resources
These are sites that I’ve come back to time and time again as resources to help people. Everyone has to realize that it’s their responsibility to keep themselves safe online because no one else is going to do it for you (unless you’re a child with proactive parents). The wife and I have consistently kept a lot of technology away from our daughter on purpose because we knew she wasn’t ready to 1) listen to our advice and 2) properly police herself online. A recent foray into YouTube that got her into some real-life videos with questionable content is a perfect example. She didn’t know enough to say “I shouldn’t be watching these” and close the application. The computer is now only allowed in open family space, no more in the bedroom with a closed door!
YouthSpark Hub (sponsored by Microsoft)
StaySafeOnline.org (sponsored by National Cyber Security Alliance)
Protection (Anti-Virus / Anti-Malware / Web Filtering)
Out of all the things that you can choose to passively keep yourself safe out there, these are the three that I highly recommend. They’re a good balance between protection and minimal resource impact on the machines you’re running them on. I’ll address each individually to make things easier.
Microsoft Internet Safety & Security Center
This is a combination service that includes Microsoft Security Center and Windows Defender that come bundled with Windows 8.x and Windows 10. It’s automatically enabled by default and if you don’t know that they’re there, you’re already protected to a certain extent. I like this application because it literally sits in the background and only reminds you its there when something bad is about to happen or your actions are going to trigger something bad. It would well despite some of the bad press online, however its free and capable at protecting the “macro” stuff.
Probably one of the best services I’ve seen from Microsoft, this lets you create an account for your child with a password they select, yet let you watch/see/block anything you want. An amazingly easy interface, you create the Microsoft account while logged in with your account and authorize their account on only the devices you want them to be able to log onto. You have the ability to restrict their total time, the time frames they’re allowed to log on, as well as see everything they download/install/browse online. If a site shows up you don’t want them getting on, a quick click of “Block” next to the site will remove their ability to get to it via any browser. You can also block installations of certain applications (like Firefox or Chrome) forcing them to use IE or Edge so you can keep track of their online behavior. Instructions are easy and they take you through every step.
Sophos Home (anti-virus/anti-malware/web filtering)
I highly recommend this service due to the ease of use and quick setup. You create an account, then install the Sophos Home agent on every computer you want to protect (up to 10 for free). Each computer shows up individually by machine name (I change them to be specific, e.g., “DaughtersLaptop”) and lets you review their online activity. This is an added blocking defense for any site that they got to that Family Safety didn’t block for some reason. In addition to the web filtering, this is also an added anti-malware tool and has an extensive database of web sites that have been reported as having a bad reputation in regards to malware or virus activity. Simple installation and small footprint (less than 50MB of memory used when running), this passively watches in the background.
Passwords
I can’t stress enough how important it is to have strong, complex, and long passwords. A password using capital/lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters that is 8 characters long, can be cracked in about 6-8 hours @ 1,000 attempts/minute. The same type of password at 15 characters will take 2-3 years @ 1,000 attempts/minute. Once you add in non-standard characters, it could take decades to crack. It’s not a matter of making your password uncrackable (that’s impossible) but more a matter of making it so long to get it cracked that they move on to the poor guy that has decided to use “12345678”, “p@ssword1”, or “qwerty1234” as their password for their banking site. And please, don’t be a smart-ass and make it “passwordWITH1number”….. that’s just stupid.
I personally use LastPass and definitely utilize the password generator built into it for everything now. I can access my password database on all my devices including my mobile. The database is encrypted even in the cloud to the point where LastPass is unable to decrypt it should I happen to forget my master keycode. They also just released an authenticator application (numbers that sequence every 60 seconds) to allow for dual-factor authentication on sites that allow it. WordPress supports it 🙂
How to Create a Strong Password (and Remember It)
How to Create a Super Strong Password (Infographic)
Well, there you have it, a lot of information to digest and absorb. It’s worth the read in my opinion as it holds true: “It’s not a matter of if, but when” you get hacked / you get a virus / you get malware / you get phished / etc. Stay safe out there!
Life Between 0 and 1 
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