download The Basics of Cyber Safety: Computer and Mobile Device Safety Made Easy
Decently covers a range of cyber safety topics, including security and privacy aspects of the Internet, social media, computers, and phones. There's also a chapter on protecting children online. It doesn't go into a lot of detail, but does include many specific recommendations of practices, software, and websites.
This isn't one of the best books I’ve read on the subject, but it has information and advice that other books lack. Some of the info is dated, and several links are broken (in this review I've corrected them or left them out).
I read this to learn more about Internet safety, security, and digital parenting.
Notes
Before Connecting to the Internet
Password crackers aren't fooled by replacing letters with symbols (e.g., P@$$w0rd).
Test password strength with the Online Domain Tools Password Checker.
Software Problems and Solutions
Free antivirus can be as good as paid. Companies that offer free versions make money from paid versions.
Free antivirus/anti-malware for Windows, Mac, Android
• AVG
• Avast
Paid antivirus/anti-malware
• McAfee (Windows, Mac, Android)
• Panda (Windows, Mac, Android)
• Symantec (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android)
Protecting Your Reputation
VPN providers
• Private Internet Access
• TorGuard
• CyberGhost
To overwrite deleted data or completely wipe a drive
• In Windows, at the command prompt, type cipher /w: followed by the drive letter and optionally a folder name. For example, to overwrite D:\Data, type cipher /w:D:\Data and press Enter.
• Use CCleaner.
How to react to a data breach
1. Change your password.
2. Set up multi-factor authentication (if possible).
3. Contact appropriate authorities (financial institution, breached site, police, federal authorities, etc.).
4. If credit or debit card numbers were affected, request new cards.
5. Scan device for malware.
6. Install all software updates.
7. Check email rules and filters to ensure email isn't being forwarded.
8. Deauthorize third-party apps that have access to the compromised account.
9. If breach involved financial info, carefully check statements and credit reports. Consider freezing credit.
Beyond Technology—Dealing with People
How to meet in person someone you met online
• Meet in a public place with many people.
• Tell friends or family who, when, and where you're meeting. Tell them when you're home safe.
• Keep your phone with you.
• Don't drink open drinks.
How to do a simple background check
• Compare what the person says online to their online profiles.
• Do an image search on the person's photo, using Google Images
Protecting Your Kids
Your rules for your kids should be a combination of:
• Supervision: you oversee, regulate and help direct their online activity.
• Education: you teach them proper online behavior, and the prevention and solutions to various potential problems.
• Tools: software, hardware, and settings that limit risks and allow you to monitor their online activity.
Kid-friendly password generator: DinoPass.
Enable SafeSearch in search engines (Google, Bing, etc.)
Kid-friendly search engines
• KidRex
• KidzSearch
Popular parental control software
• Net Nanny (aff. link)
• CYBERsitter
• WebWatcher
• MMGuardian
Configure Family Safety controls in Windows.
If your phone is stolen, and you're able to track it, inform the police. Don't try to recover it yourself.
Rules for kids
• Use secure passwords.
• Don't reveal passwords.
• Don't share personal info online (address, school name, current or future location, phone number, birth date, age, etc.).
• Don't blindly accept that a person is who they claim.
• Don't visit disallowed sites (you'll need to define what these are).
• Never agree to meet in person, without parent's permission.
Occasionally review your child's friend/contact list.
Signs of child at risk from online predators
• Child possesses child porn (of themselves or other kids)
• Child receives mail from someone you don't know.
• Child has phone sex.
• Child discusses sex when talking on video games, video chat, etc.
• Child becomes withdrawn from family and friends.
If child is contact by sexual predator, report to local police and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (in US) or Canadian Centre for Child Protection (in Canada).
If you use parental controls or other monitoring software, tell child you have the ability to see and limit what they're doing online. Tell them it's not necessarily because you don't trust them, but to help them if they encounter problems, to protect them from seeing disturbing content, and to lower the risk of getting malware. Tell them you're willing to discuss the restrictions.
Tell child you have the right to review their technology and accounts.
Remind child that others can monitor their online activity, such as schools and libraries.
Help child configure privacy settings on all their accounts. Remind them not to put personal info in profiles. Paperback
The Basics of Cyber Safety: Computer and Mobile Device Safety Made Easy presents modern tactics on how to secure computer and mobile devices, including what behaviors are safe while surfing, searching, and interacting with others in the virtual world. The book's author, Professor John Sammons, who teaches information security at Marshall University, introduces readers to the basic concepts of protecting their computer, mobile devices, and data during a time that is described as the most connected in history.
This timely resource provides useful information for readers who know very little about the basic principles of keeping the devices they are connected to--or themselves--secure while online. In addition, the text discusses, in a non-technical way, the cost of connectedness to your privacy, and what you can do to it, including how to avoid all kinds of viruses, malware, cybercrime, and identity theft. Final sections provide the latest information on safe computing in the workplace and at school, and give parents steps they can take to keep young kids and teens safe online.
Provides the most straightforward and up-to-date guide to cyber safety for anyone who ventures online for work, school, or personal use
Includes real world examples that demonstrate how cyber criminals commit their crimes, and what users can do to keep their data safe The Basics of Cyber Safety: Computer and Mobile Device Safety Made Easy