Celebrate Safer Internet Day with Zero Trust for Normies!
Internet Safety might seem less important than car or home safety due to its digital nature. But recently, many have come to grips with how our information is constantly used for better or worse and how that can lead to dangerous consequences both in the digital world and the physical. Recent years have seen the rise of cyberbullying, social engineering, browser-based attacks, doxxing, and DDOS attacks, to name a few terrible ways people use the internet as a weapon. There are very few defenses for regular users to prevent these attacks. Businesses turned to the concept of Zero Trust to help make their apps and infrastructure more secure as attacks became more frequent. Veeam recently published a whole new standard for helping secure backup infrastructure called Zero Trust Data Resilience, but the regular internet citizen must rely on their own "street smarts" to stay safe.
That's why I wanted to share my concept: Zero Trust For Normies to help level the playing field and put safety back in the hands of the user. Zero Trust for Normies (ZTM) is super easy.
Step 1. Be skeptical. Assume that everyone and everything you interact with (or don't interact with but might be secretly watching you!) on the internet has a hidden intention. If you ask, "What's the worst that could happen?" with everything you post, DM, and share, you will quickly understand how others can take and use your data for ill intent. I'm not saying become a Luddite and live on a farm (though that does sound pretty cool), considering the point and purpose of the content you post and share can help create meaningful interactions that don't give away precious details like birthdays when you are away from your home, addresses, and other personal information better kept between you and your closest friends.
Step 2. Have Unique Passwords for EVERYTHING. You wouldn't wear your underwear two days in a row (I hope), so why would you use a password for two different accounts? Hackers hate this one simple trick because it locks them out of taking one compromised account and using it to break into another. This couldn't be easier today with password banks and managers built into every browser and device, so just do it!
Step 3. Don't Feed the Trolls. They are a sad lot since so many of the bridges they used to live under have been replaced with overpasses/underpasses, so they took to the internet to make us all miserable. So much of what gets posted is rage bait factory fresh from some low-life basement dweller that, at best, just wants to make you angry and, at worse, wants your information to make your life a living heck. Don't feed them; if you see a post that looks like it is just begging for attention, ignore it. Many of them are just nasty bots now anyway, and it's not healthy for you or the internet at large to get into online fights with those who don't deserve the attention they so crave.
While these steps are pretty basic and known, I think everyone can always use the reminder that the internet used to be a very cool place with new ideas and next-generation knowledge sharing, and it still could be, but we all need to work to make it that way. Whether it's app developers using Zero Trust to make the services we use more secure, backup and storage vendors adopting Zero Trust Data Resilience to ensure that even in the worst compromise, recovery is guaranteed, or just implementing my straightforward Zero Trust for Normies policy and making your day to day internet journey safer we can all play our part and put the grief back on the bad guys rather than take it on ourselves.