Tips for Average Users from Black Hat, Defcon Conferences

[vtqhtr413]

During the week of Black Hat and Defcon, tens of thousands of security experts and hackers flock to Las Vegas for the back-to-back conferences. They hold discussions on issues like smart cities getting hacked, two-factor authentication, and security issues with voice assistants. It can all get a little technical. But with so much cybersecurity knowledge in one place, I decided to ask individual experts for a single useful cybersecurity tip for the average person.

One of these tips may end up making all the difference when a hacker comes after you. Learning a little about how to protect yourself is increasingly critical at a time when hacker attacks on companies like Equifax and Yahoo can expose your personal information. But cybersecurity advice tends to be technical or inconvenient, which is why a lot of people tend to ignore it.

Tip #1 from Parisa Tabriz, director of engineering at Google

Use Chrome.

I'm obviously biased, but Chrome stays up-to-date, and there are a lot of things we build in to keep people from ever encountering a phishing site or a site that's going to download malware. We definitely invest in making it the most secure browser from an exploitation standpoint. Think about the software you're using in the same way that you'd look at a safety report for a car you're going to buy.

Full Story Black Hat and Defcon cybersecurity experts share tips on how to protect yourself

 

[oldschool]

I could say the same thing about Edge. I am a director of domestic engineering for Coco's Domestic Engineering and Consulting Services.
But I do appreciate the article! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Moonhorse]

Mikko Hyppönen, chief research officer at F-Secure
''Back up your phone, back up your computer, back up your tablet, then make a backup of your backup so you can restore them even if your house burns down.''

Love this guy, the guy who made me create twitter account just to follow him.
Absolute mad man

Best tips in my opinion:
- 2 factor authentication
- never share personal email & phone number, i have secondary email for everything else than personal stuff

 

[Burrito]

Use Chrome.

I'm obviously biased, but Chrome stays up-to-date, and there are a lot of things we build in to keep people from ever encountering a phishing site or a site that's going to download malware. We definitely invest in making it the most secure browser from an exploitation standpoint. Think about the software you're using in the same way that you'd look at a safety report for a car you're going to buy.

Hmmmm.... most of the info I've read indicates that Edge is safer.

But they are probably very comparable in a safety sense.

I don't use Edge.... I like Chrome better...

 

[ForgottenSeer 72227]

Interesting read What I like most about it is that if you read all the suggestions you can see that there's an overall general theme, that is, learn about security, practice safe habits, keep everything up to date, etc..., all of these are basic security 101. It's nice to see that these experts are reinforcing these principles and aren't telling everyone to go out and buy/use a ton of software. Granted that software will always help in playing a role in keeping you safe, but these basic principles aren't to be ignored either.