The Beginner’s Guide to LastPass

You know you are supposed to use a password manager. In my workshops, attendees often ask me how I manage my passwords, and my answer is to use LastPass. At first glance, it seems like password managers are a pain to set up. Good news: getting started with a password manager is easier than you think.

In this workshop, I will cover the basics of LastPass and what makes it my favorite.

How to:
Log in to LastPass
Save a Site
Create a Form Fill
Generate a Password
Share a Password
Secure Your LastPass Account
How to Use LastPass on Your Smartphone

Don’t Get Phished!

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month in the US and European Cyber Security Month in Europe. I came across this excellent infographic produced by Digital Guardian on how to avoid phishing attacks.  I didn’t know about smishing, so I am glad I became aware of it. You will probably learn something from this infographic. Stay vigilant!

Search Anonymously on Web with Startpage.com

You are probably aware that many service engines keep track of your search behaviors. Both Google and Bing do that.

I stumbled on Startpage.com which I learned has been online since 2005 with a focus on privacy. A unique feature about Startpage.com is that it uses a proxy so that the user is invisible to all web sites that he visits. It used to be that when the user left the search page, then other web sites can keep track of the search.

The downside is that since the query has to go through Startpage.com before the results are displayed, the pages load more slowly. I don’t notice any significant delays while I use Startpage.com.

I like Startpage.com for 3 reasons:

1. It still uses Google as the backend engine, so you are getting Google results, without being tracked.
2. The page has a Chrome addon to make the search easier.
3. The page lets you save your preferences without using cookies. This means the preferences are not saved on your computer. Instead, it offers a different method, where you save your preferences via a specific StartPage URL. You can share the URL with your other computers and see the same preferences. Pretty cool.

If you are worried about Google keeping track of your search behavior, I would say Startpage.com is a strong alternative.

 

What Documents To Keep, What to Shred

I am preparing a presentation on how to go paperless. One key in organizing the paper clutter is knowing what documents to keep and what to shred (you should shred the documents to maintain privacy). Thankfully, the Federal Trade Commission has an infographic that is easy to understand.  The link is here:

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0527-shredding-infographic

Some papers should not be scanned. But for others, this handy graphic can tell you what to keep/scan and what to toss (click on the picture below to zoom). One step in organizing your paper clutter!

Community Career Center: Cyber Security at Home

According to one security firm, 2014 was a record year for malware. The firm Panda Security says the number of new malware strains it detected doubled from 2013 to 2014, and it is not going down in 2015. The data breaches are happening more regularly. Are you doing everything you can at home to secure your privacy? This workshop will go over ways you can implement today to secure your home network and computers. Topics include:

Which operating system should I use?
Which browser should I use?
How do you set up strong passwords?
How do I secure my router?
How do I use antivirus software and a firewall?
And more!

Advanced Topics:
Two-factor authentication
Virtual Private Network
OpenDNS

Keeping Your Financial Data Private

Staying vigilant with your online privacy can be daunting. Here is an infographic on how to keep your financial data private. It is not the complete list, but it’s a good start. The key is start now, and continue working on it.