Updated on September 9, 2020 at 12:23 am
I was just reading a story on Techradar basically giving the impression that angry hordes of hackers are waiting at every turn of the internet to mess you up.
I have a whole big issue with the generic use of “hacker” by the media but that’s a different post.
Being online and getting compromised at every turn is starting to sound like the media perception that the US is a giant shooting gallery and if you stick your head out the front door of your house, it’s going to get blown off.
The story continues on to tell how to stay safe on the internet… usual stuff like passwords, don’t open suspicious emails, anti-virus, etc.
What isn’t talked about is the fact that a lot of these “hacks” on high profile internet companies are because the companies couldn’t be bothered to implement even the basics of security like properly encrypting/protecting the data they do hold. Or they can’t be bothered to fix security holes they know about or have been brought to their attention by security researchers.
Many of these big name compromises happen due to 10 year old vulnerabilities so it’s not like the bad guys have to try very hard.
If you really want to get something that makes a difference for your personal security on the internet, get a product that filters DNS queries. DNS is what makes the magic happen on the internet and filtering/blocking a request to a malicious host before you even go there is way better than going there and hoping all you other defenses hold up while you browse the site.