How To Maximize Your Digital Security and Privacy

8 min readJul 4, 2020

This article is intended to highlight best practices to keep you and your data safe while browsing the web and using your internet-connected devices (PC, Mac, iPhone, Android).

Note: Throughout the article, I recommend several IT (Information Technology) services. I am not affiliated with any of these services whatsoever and do not get any financial gain if you choose to buy them.

I first want to differentiate privacy and security in the context of IT. Security “refers to how your personal information is protected,” whereas privacy “relates to any rights you have to control your personal information and how it’s used.”[1] For example, consider Facebook. To ensure that only you can write posts and accept friend requests from your account, you create a unique username and password; this is a security measure that prevents unauthorized access to your account. On the other hand, to ensure that only your Facebook friends can see your posts as opposed to the general public, you have to set the appropriate privacy settings. This article will provide you with advice on how to best enhance your digital security and privacy.

Security

There are a variety of measures you can take to enhance your personal IT security. This section will cover antivirus software, best-practices for account passwords, as well as multifactor authentication. Following these tips will help substantially mitigate your chances of falling victim to cybercrime.

Passwords and Account Security

According to one study, over 80% of account breaches are due to weak passwords.[2] A strong password is one of the most effective ways to protect your online accounts and data. A strong password is one that:

Is unique to one website or application (I.E. Never use a password for multiple accounts)
Contains characters, numbers, and symbols
Does not contain any personally identifiable information (PII) (I.E. No address, social security, name, birthday)
Is at least 10 characters long

Older security guidelines recommended changing your passwords every 3–6 months; this is no longer the case. The following blog excerpt [3] provides good tips as to when you should update your password:

“Malware is running on your computer system or mobile device.
After the disclosure of a server intrusion.
After receiving a notification of unauthorized access to your account.
You shared passwords with someone who no longer needs access to the account.
If you logged on to a public or shared computer.
It’s been more than a year since you last changed your password.”

Of course, the trade-off with using a strong password is that it is often harder to memorize. This is where using a password manager can come in handy. A password manager “will generate, retrieve, and keep track of super-long, crazy-random passwords across countless accounts for you, while also protecting all your vital online info — not only passwords but PINs, credit card numbers and their three-digit CVV codes, answers to security questions, and more — with encryption so strong that it might take a hacker between decades and forever to crack.”[4] According to CNET [5], the best free password manager is LastPass. I use LastPass’s password manager to store many of my passwords!

Another effective measure to prevent unauthorized access to your web accounts is to use multifactor authentication (MFA). Multifactor Authentication “is the process of identifying an online user by validating two or more claims presented by the user, each from a different category of factors…The principle of MFA is that there is no perfect authentication factor. Any one factor that is implemented will have its strength and weaknesses. The concept of multi-factor authentication is that a second or third factor will compensate for the weakness of the other factor/s and vice-versa.”[6]

In many cases, MFA requires you to enter a PIN that you receive in a text message or via an authenticator app like Google Authenticator after you successfully enter the correct username and password for your respective online account. This is another layer of security that has proven effective in mitigating unauthorized account access.

Antivirus Software

“A system without an antivirus is just like a house with an open door. An open and unprotected door will attract all the intruders and burglars into your home. Similarly, an unprotected computer will end up inviting all the viruses to the system. An antivirus will act as a closed door with a security guard for your computer fending off all the malicious intruding viruses.”[18]

As the above analogy makes clear, antivirus software is an extremely important component of digital security. There are many different antivirus software vendors to choose from — and some vendors offer a free version of their software. That said, paid antivirus programs will give your computer and mobile devices more protection than their free counterparts. Some of the top-rated paid antivirus programs of 2020 are Kaspersky Total Security, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, Norton 360 Deluxe, Sophos Home Premium, and McAfee Total Protection.[19][20] Some of the top-rated free antivirus programs of 2020 are Kaspersky Security Cloud Free, Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition, Microsoft Defender Antivirus (built into Windows 10), Avast Free Antivirus, and AVG AntiVirus Free.[20][21] I have been using Norton 360 Deluxe on my Mac and PC for the last year and I am very satisfied with its performance and features.

Note: The US government banned the use of Kaspersky software on all US government computers in 2017.[22] Kaspersky Lab, the maker of the Kaspersky antivirus software, is based in Moscow, Russia. The US has alleged that the company has ties to the Russian government. Kaspersky Lab has denied these allegations and has taken several steps to ensure customers can safely trust the company’s software which includes 1.) allowing 3rd parties to examine its source code, and 2.) moving data processing operations for North American, European, and Candian customers to Switzerland. As of 2020, many security blogs still rank Kaspersky antivirus software as one of their top picks.

Privacy

Millions of prying eyes (individuals, government organizations, and private companies) track your online whereabouts at every moment. However, you can take measures to prevent this from happening to you. Such measures include using a VPN as well as a privacy-centric web browser and search engine.

VPNs

Every page you visit on the web can be logged by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). For most people in the US, this is either Verizon, AT&T, or Comast. As of 2017 ISPs have the right to sell your web history data without your consent.[7]

To keep your browsing data private it is recommended that you use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN “creates an encrypted tunnel between you and a remote server operated by a VPN service. All your internet traffic is routed through this tunnel, so your data is secure from prying eyes along the way. Because your traffic is exiting the VPN server, your computer appears to have the IP address of said server, masking your identity and location.”[8]

In addition to keeping your browsing data safe, a VPN will prevent hackers from exploiting insecure connections that make it easier for them to gain access to sensitive data such as account login credentials, credit card numbers, emails, and files sent over the web.[9]

Not all VPNs are created equal. For a great guide on how to select the right VPN, I recommend reading [10]. Some of the top-rated VPNs for 2020 are NordVPN, Express VPN, Surfshark VPN, Private Internet Access VPN, CyberGhost VPN, IPVanish VPN, ProtonVPN, and TunnelBear VPN.[11][23] I currently use NordVPN.

Web Browsers

Some web browsers have a better track record for privacy than others. Google Chrome is one of the fastest web browsers on the market and offers robust security features against viruses and malicious software. However, it has a terrible privacy record.[12] In fact, Google was just sued because Chrome it allegedly “illegally tracked millions of people in the U.S. using its Chrome browsers despite their enabling the software’s ‘Incognito mode’ for private browsing.”[13]

Brave is a web browser built on the same engine that Chrome uses (Chromium), so it looks and feels just like Chrome. However, Brave packs many additional security and privacy features compared to Chrome. For instance, Brave blocks advertisements and 3rd party trackers by default, stores all your browsing data locally (I.E. your browsing data is not stored in the cloud), and it encrypts all of your website connections (read more about encryption here).[14] By blocking 3rd party trackers, Brave can achieve significantly faster speeds compared to Chrome. Mozilla Firefox is another browser with a strong reputation for privacy.[15]

Search Engines

Google is by far the world’s most popular search engine and arguably the best in terms of finding information. However, this is only because Google collects far more data than any other search engine. Every time you use a service like Google Search, Google Maps, Google Flights, YouTube, or any other Google service for that matter you are feeding Google a lot of valuable data. Perhaps, too much. A few months ago I decided to look at all the data Google had collected on me throughout my life. I found that Google had logged my every whereabouts since 2013 or so. I decided to delete this data and modify my Google account settings such that Google does not collect such data going forward. You have the right to modify your Google account privacy settings, see exactly what data Google has collected from you, and even delete this data from Google’s servers. For more information see [16].

While I still use Google, I have also begun using DuckDuckGo. Unlike Google, DuckDuckGo does not record or store any of your personal data. The company still makes all of their money from advertising but does it in a way that preserves user privacy:

“It is a myth that search engines need to track you to make money on Web search. When you type in a search, we can show an ad just based on that search term. For example, if you type in, “car” we show a car ad. That doesn’t involve tracking because it is based on the keyword and not the person.”[17]

Concluding Remarks

Today’s best practices and recommendations may look vastly different even just a few months from now. I will update this post to reflect any changes.