With technology advancing on a seemingly daily basis, and with everything being connected to everything, cyber security for preppers is becoming increasingly important. With governments and companies gathering your data, and tracking every move you make, and hackers trying to take every dime you have, protecting ourselves is a full time job.

Last week we talked about how the future of prepping is changing. Technology, artificial intelligence and automation are a major part of that. The problem with how quickly we are advancing with technology, is that security is always one step behind innovation. 

SPP257 Cyber Security for Preppers

This week I had a great guest on to talk about some things preppers should be thinking about when it comes to cyber security. James has been in the I.T. and security field for 15 years, and has some great incites about how to keep our information safe.

Below are some of the topics and questions we covered in this weeks show, and also some questions I received from our listeners.

We went over some of the basic cyber threats like phishing, malware, ransomware, and how these threats are changing. James mentioned that the I.T. field is a constant cat and mouse game where hackers find a vulnerability, and security experts try to fix it.

We hear all the time that apple is more secure than windows, is this true? Or is it because apple has a smaller market share? Basically, is there a “best” operating system to use?

With everything being connected, and everything being computerized, how do you see these threats evolving in the future?

Last week Lisa and I talked about future warfare being different. This week I asked James about how technology and hacking could cause that, and cyber warfare in general.

Protecting your Phone

Shawn asked a few questions about how to increase privacy on smart phones. Should we put tape over our phone cameras? Any tips on more secure internet browsing on smart phones? What’s the best private encrypted messaging app?

Is an antivirus on a cell phone necessary? James’s answer to this was interesting because it seems that an antivirus is more necessary on an Android phone than an Apple phone.

Operational Security online

Towards the end of the show we went over some do’s and don’ts of online browsing, social media, and making purchases online. Some of this is common sense, but doesn’t get done as often as it should.

Listener Questions

Here are a few other really good questions from the listeners.

Jeff: Is it worth paying for anti-virus or is a free one enough?

Andrew: What’s the most secure browser (if there is one)? What’s a good method for secure passwords? Is there any way to better mask my card online?

Brad: With corporations, credit companies and even governments getting hacked, isn’t the term “Cyber Security” an oxymoron? Especially at our level of usage.

Angelo: Thought on TOR (dark web) browsers?

Jason: Do VPN’s really offer secure connections? A VPN is a Virtual Private Network.

Closing Thoughts…

The world we live in these days means there is no way to be completely “off the grid”, but this doesn’t mean we are completely defenseless. While it is almost impossible to be “offline” there are some things we can do for security, and even some things we do that put us at risk.

The game is changing on a regular basis, and it up to us to stay ahead of the curve. This means paying attention to where technology is heading, and being proactive with our online security and privacy.