Securing Your Digital Life in 2024 and Beyond
About the Author
My name is Jason Wise – information security researcher, ethical hacker and avid technology privacy advocate. I‘ve spent decades on the front lines analyzing cyber threats and vulnerabilities, developing protective solutions, and advising both Fortune 500 CISOs as well as everyday consumers on safeguarding their data.
I run this blog to raise public awareness regarding escalating cybercrime risks and provide regular guidance on tools plus best practices to lock down your privacy. My goal is to explain complex security topics in simple terms, making robust digital self-defense accessible to anyone willing to learn.
I‘ll be candid regarding threats while offering hope via emerging technological safeguards and secure user habits. With vigilance, we can still realize many benefits of connectivity without forfeiting personal privacy. But it takes proactive effort, thoughtful consumer choices, and selective adoption of the latest privacy-enhancing protections.
So bookmark this blog as your go-to resource for plain talk on modern data security tradecraft. I‘ll decode the headlines and distill insider expertise into practical actions you can take starting today. Please reach out with any questions or requests for coverage related to your digital security. Now let‘s explore recent developments and how you can better defend your personal data in 2024.
Surveillance Capitalism Running Amok
By now you‘re likely aware of Facebook‘s relentless data harvesting and record of prioritizing profits over user privacy. But the problem extends much wider than just one company. Researchers coined the term "surveillance capitalism" referring to the prevalence of extracting as much consumer personal information as possible for sale to advertisers, political campaigns, and other third parties.
This business model underlies many major platforms from Google and Amazon to mobile apps like TikTok. They influence the technology we adopt most not due to empowering user features but for maximizing data collection. And this often occurs via covert means versus informed consent.
For example, a recent FTC study found numerous fertility tracking apps sharing sensitive health information with advertisers for targeting purposes. Even kidnapping victims have become unwitting data sources, with real-time location data sold to bail bondsman allowing them to locate fugitives holding victims hostage.
Centralized Data Hoards: Prime Targets for Cybercriminals
This vast accumulation of personal data centralized into "honeypot" corporate databases creates irresistible targets for hackers. Hardly a month passes without some new mega data breach. According to the Identify Theft Resource Center, the number of U.S. breaches nearly doubled from 2020 to 2021. Healthcare, finance, and education sectors saw significant incidents exposing sensitive information like Social Security numbers, bank accounts, and medical diagnoses on millions.
So while companies entice us to hand over more personal data for rewards like convenience and tailored recommendations, we must weigh benefits against substantial privacy risks. Cyber thieves now reliably monetize stolen information via extortion, identity theft, and selling to shady parties with unknown motives on hacker forums.
Emerging Alternatives to Data Exploitation Ecosystems
Fortunately, alternatives do exist to surveillance capitalist models. New decentralized and distributed web architectures aim to keep data sharing strictly opt-in while limiting concentration into centralized stores. The Solid project funded by web inventor Tim Berners-Lee enables users to keep data in personal, private "Pods" instead of apps taking it. User then granularly allows access per app.
Blockchain-based models also show promise for consumer-controlled data sharing. And encrypted data storage projects like Ink and Gene allow private syncing across devices without companies hosting unencrypted copies. These innovation demonstrate technical options to balance utility and privacy.
Adopting multi-layer encryption for communications and stored data provides another path to short circuit mass surveillance. Messaging apps like Signal and Session use end-to-end encryption so only you and the recipients read messages. No central server holds decipherable copies. IPFS peer-to-peer filesharing transmits encrypted data making eavesdropping infeasible. And full disk encryption on devices ensures lost laptops don‘t lead to data leaks.
Start Taking Charge of Your Privacy
So what steps should you prioritize to get started taking control over your personal data? Here are best practices I advise universally:
Audit App Permissions
Many convenience features we appreciate involve extensive background data collection unseen to users. Spend time scrutinizing what information various apps request access to – location, microphone, camera, contacts etc. Then limit any unnecessary access. This also applies to browser extensions which often quietly harvest far more data than expected.
Routinely Scan Connected Accounts
Research shows average users have over 100 online accounts, with 61% individuals reusing passwords across many sites. This leaves you massively exposed because a breach on one low security site leads to credential stuffing attacks gaining access across your ecosystem. I recommend services like HaveIBeenPwned which allows you to easily scan for compromised accounts to change passwords and enable added protections like 2FA.
Approve Smart Home Device Access
Internet connected cameras, household appliances, assistants and electronics each present surveillance risks well beyond their core functions. Make use of available privacy settings, connectivity restrictions and traffic encryption mechanisms to limit data leakage. Cybersecurity provider Cujo AI offers network firewall services helping homeowners regulate smart home gadgets by blocking shady communication destinations and known malware infrastructure.
Utilize Encrypted Alternatives
When feasible, opt for privacy-focused messaging apps, file storage, email providers, web hosting, DNS resolution and other services leveraging state-of-the-art end-to-end and transport encryption. This forces intermediaries to only observe encrypted streams in transit rather than collecting user content and metadata in decrypted form for exploitation or exposure during security incidents.
Mask Online Identity
Limit how much personally identifiable information gets linked to your online activities over time. Frequently clear browser cookies and cached data. Optionally route connections through multi-hop VPN/proxy chains making tracking more difficult. Use anonymous communication apps like Tor browser for added layers of identity obfuscation. The more you can decouple app usage, search queries and site visits from common identifiers like login accounts and advertising IDs, the better.
Prepare for Future Quantum Threats
While advancing, quantum computers capable of breaking modern encryption remain years away from mass deployment outside research labs. However online activities and data you want kept confidential beyond the next decade may necessitate upcoming cryptographic algorithms designed for quantum-resistance when selecting services. This includes information like medical records, proprietary business data and politically/culturally sensitive content vulnerability to future decryption.
Ongoing Vigilance Moving Forward
In our rapidly digitizing world, threats to privacy and data security continue escalating in both frequency and impact. Preventing identity theft, confidential leaks, stalking, fraud and other harms requires ongoing diligence implementing cybersecurity best practices combined with adopting privacy-enhancing technologies.
I‘ll cover additional measures you can take in future posts. But start applying the basics here first, beginning with auditing the access you and your family already grant to mobile apps, websites and smart home gadgets. Stay safe!
Jason Wise
Cybersecurity Researcher & Privacy Advocate
@infosecexpert