Announcing the Ragtag Home for the Holidays SECURITY CHALLENGE
Ah, the wintertime holiday season, when many of us will be visiting home again, enjoying time with our family, giving gifts, sharing meals, and fixing our loved one’s computers. You know the drill… Mom wants a new app on her Kindle, your uncle has a question about his phone, your cousin has a printer that he can’t get to work… As tech nerds, we do all kinds of support for our families. This year, let’s work to make them all a little more secure.
We present to you the Ragtag Home for the Holidays Security Challenge!
How it works:
We’ve listed nine tasks below. Some are simple, others might be a little more difficult. All will help to make your family’s online experience a more secure one. Do them all, or pick and choose which ones you want to do. Each of the tasks has a point value. To earn points, complete a task with a family member, friend, or new acquaintance who needs help upping their security game. The more people you help, the more points you can earn! Help one person audit their Facebook apps? That’s ten points! Help two people, that’s twenty! And so on. For bonus points, tweet your accomplishments with the hashtag #RagtagSecurityChallenge. (One bonus point per tweet per task. Negative 1,000,000 points if you tweet any sensitive information about the folks you’re helping out. So don’t get cute and tweet out their new wifi password.)
When you’re done, let us know which ones you’ve done here. You can fill out this form multiple times, so let us know each time complete a task. And no, you don’t have to prove you’ve done the tasks. We’re working on the honor system here.
The top point scorers will get prizes of little to no monetary value, but with immense emotional value and at least some entertainment value. Specifics tba. Some other people might get prizes, too. Also, INCREDIBLE amounts of bragging rights. Everyone will win with more secure accounts in the world.
You can collect points through January 7th, at which time we’ll turn off the reporting form. Time is limited, so get crackin!
The Ragtag Home for the Holidays Security Challenge
- Help someone audit their Facebook account connections and third party app permissions. Help them understand what access they’re granting, and help them remove any apps they don’t want anymore. (10 points)
- Install Stethoscope on their Macs or Windows computers to make sure they have all the right settings. Stethoscope is very easy and satisfying to use, so it’s a great tool for those who are less tech proficient. (5 points) Follow along with the Stethoscope instructions, which will walk you through the steps of securing your computer. (10 points)
- Make sure everyone’s phone operating system has the latest updates. (5 points) Bonus: Set auto-updates, if available! (5 points) Double Bonus: Set auto-updates for their apps. (5 points) We’ve found the instructions for you, so you can get to the fun parts: Android OS updates, App auto-updates; iPhone OS updates, App auto-updates.
- Have The Talk: are they still using the same password for all their accounts? Is it their street address and their cat’s name? Do they understand why this is probably not a good idea? (5 points) Help them set up a password manager, and show them how it makes logging in to all their apps easier and safer. (20 points)
- By now most people have password protected their home’s WiFi. But has your family changed the default SSID and password? If not, help them change it. Since this is a home, we think it’s ok to have mercy on them and tape their new password to the router where they can find it easily later. (10 points)
- Help them audit third party app permissions on their Gmail, Microsoft, or Yahoo email accounts. Make sure they know which apps and third party developers have access to what information in their email account. (10 points)
- Give your social network a checkup. Help your family members run through Facebook’s Security Checkup (5 points) and Privacy Checkup. (5 points)
- You may have to dig deep for this one: Help someone set up two-factor authentication on their email account. We know this might be a tough sell. But it wouldn’t be a challenge if it wasn’t challenging! (20 points + 5 bonus points for a physical second factor.)
- Install HTTPS Everywhere on their browser, and help them avoid unencrypted connections. (5 points)
Remember to take frequent breaks, stretch a little before getting started, have snacks on hand and stay hydrated. Most importantly, have fun! Working with tech things can be frustrating for those who aren’t familiar with it, but with your help, they can feel good about the results, and maybe learn something new along the way.
