Digital Self-Defense

Master Keys means identifying which parts of your digital life unlock the most doors, then protecting them first and best.

We've talked a lot about email as a Master Key, but there are many others. One of the most important is your password manager. In many ways, it is just as important as your email account, though for different reasons.

Despite its importance, most people don't give much thought to which password manager they use. They treat that decision the same way they would choose a password for a single website - do whatever is easiest. Like storing their passwords in Google Chrome. That's completely understandable. Most people have never been taught why a password manager deserves more careful consideration.

But that's exactly what I want to help change. I want you to build a habit of recognizing the Master Keys in your digital life and then take the time to think carefully about how you protect them. The more doors a key can unlock, the more attention it deserves.

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Learn the 3 Safety Skills

Confident Awareness means knowing which threats matter most to you and learning how to face them with confidence.

Confident Awareness includes learning about the potential threats you may face, understanding your options for defending against them, and taking time to think about which threats are most relevant to you.

It's also a mindset. For many, this is the greatest obstacle they face. Here are 4 common problematic mindsets I will help you overcome:

1. Innocent Ignorance - You don't understand the threats you face, but only because you aren't aware they exist. Young children and older adults are often the most likely to fall into this category, but all of us experience this at different points.
2. Casual Complacency - You know there are things you should do to improve your online security, but you procrastinate and never quite take it seriously enough to make it happen.
3. Danger Denial - I don't think I've met a single person who believes the internet is a totally safe place. But I've met plenty who think they are too smart or too capable to ever get hacked or scammed.
4. Panicked Paralysis - You know how scary the internet can be, and you're willing to do whatever it takes to stay safe. But you get stuck when it's time to take action because it feels so overwhelming.

Most importantly, Confident Awareness is a decision. You decide that you are capable of defending yourself and you commit to taking the action to make it hapen.

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Learn the 3 Safety Skills

Episode 4: Protection Partners

Protection Partners means building habits that help you pause and check with trusted people before making important digital decisions.

The most fundamental, universal and powerful defenses against digital threats are humans you can trust. That has always been true, but recent advances in AI have raised the stakes in profound ways. As scams become more convincing and technology changes faster, we need trusted people around us who can help us slow down, think clearly, and make better decisions.

There are many different kinds of Protection Partners. The one we have mostly focused on is the first and most fundamental one: your Daily Protection Partner. This is someone who listens without judgement and supports you in your efforts to improve your digital self-defense skills. Hopefully they join you on the journey too.

One of my goals with this podcast is to be a Protection Partner to every one of my listeners. But not a Daily Protection Partner. My goal is to be your Digital Self-Defense Coach. I want to, over time, earn your trust, so that when you have a tough question about online security, I'm one of the people you know you can depend on.

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Learn the 3 Safety Skills

Today is our first episode under the new name of the podcast: Digital Self-Defense. This isn't just a rebrand, though. The new name reflects how much my approach to teaching online safety has evolved.

Along with the new name, I want to introduce our new focus: 3 fundamental Safety Skills. Each episode will focus on one Safety Skill - a new way to learn it, apply it, or think about it differently.

Safety Skill 1: Protection Partners means building habits that help you pause and check with trusted people before making important digital decisions.

Safety Skill 2: Confident Awareness means knowing which threats matter most to you and learning how to face them with confidence.

Safety Skill 3: Master Keys means identifying which parts of your digital life unlock the most doors, then protecting them first and best.

You don't need to become a computer geek to defend yourself. Keep listening as we focus on these 3 Safety Skills, practice them over time, and prepare for the digital threats of today and tomorrow.

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Beginning with our next episode, we are renaming the podcast to "Digital Self-Defense."

Here’s the quick story behind the change.

When I started this business three years ago, I knew I wanted to teach people how to stay safe online.

What I didn’t know yet was the fastest, clearest, and most effective way to help people get there.

So over the past few years, I’ve been experimenting - here on the podcast and elsewhere - and learning a lot along the way.

Today marks a milestone in that learning journey.

I have a much clearer vision of what I want to teach, and that vision is represented by the new name of the podcast.

It’s far from the end of the journey, but it is an awesome next step.

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A forwarding alias is an email address that passes along email to your real email address without the original sender ever knowing what that email is.

They usually allow you to reply, with the email coming from your alias also, thus providing privacy in both directions.

Unlike burner aliases, you will need to create an account in order to start creating forwarding aliases. One solid option is 33 Mail.

There are lots of ways to use forwarding aliases, but the one that provides the most benefit is to create a unique alias for every website or company that you share your email address with.

This gives you the most power to block spam and thwart phishing attacks.

Email Alias Provider: 33 Mail

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Burner aliases are short lived. You don't have to register an account to create one, or share any personal information.

Some of the services that provide burner aliases automatically delete the alias after as little as 10 minutes. This is a great security and privacy feature.

I mostly recommend burner aliases for cases where you want to receive only a single email, and nothing super sensitive or critical. Also, if a service requires a browser extension to use it, I recommend against it.

If you want to play with this type of service, here's one to check out: 10 Minute Mail.

https://10minutemail.com/

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There are three types of email aliases. They each work quite differently but share the same purpose: to avoid exposing your real email address to abuse.

The first type is a burner alias. These are very short lived email aliases, often used for receiving just a single email.

The second type is a forwarding alias. These stay around for as long as you need them, but can be deleted at any time. They can do almost everything a burner alias can do, but often cost money.

The third type is an integrated alias. These are quite similar to forwarding aliases, but a bit simpler and safer to use. They can do everything forwarding aliases can. They are by far my preferred choice of alias, and the one I use almost exclusively.

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Email has a lot of flaws. One of the biggest is that anybody can send you an email without your permission.

They don't have to know you - they just need to discover your email address - by any means.

Email aliases can't directly fix this flaw, but they can do a lot to help mitigate the problems it causes.

The idea of an email alias is simple.

It's an email address that will deliver email to you, but without exposing your real email address.

There are 6 benefits that email aliases, used correctly, can provide:

Privacy: Prevent your real email from being exposed in data breaches

Spam Control: Disable individual aliases to totally shut down spam.

Organization: For the control freaks among us (like me), aliases are a great tool.

Tracking: Never wonder again who sold your email address.

Account Protection: Prevent stolen login reuse.

Phishing: Enables clear and reliable identification of phishing emails.

That all may sound too good to be true, but it's not. Stay with me, and I'll teach you how.

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Episode 96: Why Your Email Account Should Only Be For Email

They say pick your battles. Well, I'm picking mine. I want you to ditch Gmail.

Maybe you're holding back because you think that means giving up Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Photos, or some other Google service.

If this is you, I have great news. I promise: you can ditch Gmail, but keep all the rest of the Google services you use.

Option 1 - Let your Gmail account survive, but transition away from ever using it. Not using the Gmail service doesn't stop you from using any other Google service.

This works great if you are a heavy user of Google services.

Option 2 - Create a new Google account, using a non-Gmail email address. I know that might sound crazy and impossible, but it's easy.

It works the same as creating an account at any other website, other than the fact that Google makes it the default to signup using Gmail.

Drop me a note when you've made the switch!

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