Here are the recommendations we have on how you can keep you and your family secure online. If you have any questions or need help setting any of this up, feel free to call us at 434-288-0098, and we will do this all for you for only $125. That’s a one-time fee to make sure you are secure and safe online from now on.
2 Factor Authentication
The most important thing you can do to secure yourself online is to make sure 2-Factor Authentication is turned ON for all of the sites you have an account with. Gmail, Amazon, Facebook, etc. Turn on your 2-factor authentication. A much more foolproof option is to download a 2FA app like Aegis or Google Authenticator, which will give you randomized codes instead of having a text sent to your phone. It’s more secure than using your phone since hackers and cyber criminals can intercept the codes sent to your phone via text.
Recommendation; Aegis for Android, 2FA for iOS
Anti-Virus
Honestly you are better off just using what comes with Windows aka Windows Defender right now. Most, if not all, antivirus software you can buy will cause more issues than it’s worth. Viruses are incredibly rare today, and Windows Defender does a perfectly adequate job for free right now.
Recommendation; Nothing. Just let Windows built in antivirus handle it.
Browsers
While Edge, Chrome, and Firefox are all fine options, they are not the most secure and definitely not private. All three of those browsers send information back to Microsoft, Google, and Mozilla (which is mainly funded by Google), where you have no control over what they do with your data.
Our recommendation is to use a browser that is “forked,” which basically means someone took one of those three above and set it up in a way that is secure for you and your family. For example:
Brave Browser is based on Chromium (aka what Google Chrome is based on) and is the best out-of-the-box browser for almost everyone. It works just like Chrome, without all the spying.
Librewolf does what Brave does, except it is based on Firefox. So if you like Firefox, then you will love Librewolf. It’s literally Firefox without all the spyware built in.
Recommendation: Brave or Librewolf.
Credit Cards
We know you love to shop online, but even if you shop on Amazon, it’s possible that you can have your credit card information stolen. We recommend using a burner card company like Privacy.com, which is 100% free, where you can take your real card, mask it with one of their burner cards, and use it as you normally would. If your card is caught in a breach, you can immediately close the Privacy.com burner card and get a new one without the hackers getting your real card number. So now you don’t have to wait ten days for a new card!
Privacy.com is 100% FREE.
Google scans your Gmail account. Microsoft scans your outlook/Hotmail account. They are both secure from hackers & cyber criminals as long as you use something like 2 Factor Authentication, BUT there are much better options out there that are 100% free that do not spy, and also keep your stuff encrypted so nobody can read your emails even if they broke into the server that hosted them.
Our personal pick is ProtonMail, aka just Proton now. There are other options like Tutanota or StartMail, but honestly, ProtonMail just works. Both are 100% FREE.
Recommendation: Protonmail (now known as proton.me)
Password Managers
Do you forget passwords constantly? You need a password manager. It’s the easiest way to keep up with your passwords without having to carry a notebook around. We recommend Bitwarden. We use it in the shop; it’s free, it works perfectly on our phones & computers.
Recommendation: Bitwarden.
Search Engines
Google is the best one. I won’t fault you if you want to keep using it. Just want to let you know that there are alternatives that are just as good as google, if not better. My personal favorites are Startpage.com which uses google results without spying, and Brave Search, which comes by default with your Brave Browser. I think Brave is better than Startpage for most things, but both are much better than stock Google.
Recommendation: Brave search or Startpage
VPN
You need a VPN. They are absolutely necessary as part of your internet security toolbox. Think of a VPN as an antivirus for your internet connection.
Anti-Virus will protect your computer from Viruses, but a VPN protects your computer from being spied on by cyber criminals and even gives you the ability to unlock the international version of Netflix, where you can see shows not available here.
For example. If you connect your VPN to Canada, then you can watch a lot of Nickelodeon shows FOR FREE on YouTube. If you connect it to the UK, you can watch the UK version of The Office on Netflix and other shows exclusive to the UK.
Our recommendation is NordVPN. We have tested all the others, and Nord is the best one, in our opinion. It costs around $60 to $90 for two years, depending on sales.
Recommendation: NordVPN
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