posted 2018-01-04
This was submitted by request for an article titled “advice from the trenches,” containing advice from various security experts and also me.
Computer security is hard. The usual sinking ship metaphor doesn't even do it justice. Instead of the ocean, you're in outer space, and the water is aliens, and the guy who built your boat has never seen a boat before, and actually there's 10,000 boats. We should all probably just give up and consume our computers for calories. But “give peace a chance” isn't good advice for someone in the trenches, so here's some practical advice that (like most good advice) is boring and impossible to follow.
Recall that computer security is easy. There's only one rule: don't run code from strangers. To help you follow that rule, here's a bunch more.
If any of that sounds hard—well, I warned you.