Saturday, July 23, 2022: 1:00 pm (DAC 206): The focus of the tech press has always been on the sky falling. The disaster of the day makes for great headlines, defending yourself does not. When defensive advice is offered by the press, it is typically the same old thing over and over. This talk will not round up the usual suspects. For example, when it comes to VPNs, Michael will cover features to look for that the tech press has never mentioned, along with multiple ways to verify that a live VPN connection is functioning correctly. One of the best ways to avoid being tracked and spied on is DNS, so he will cover DNS starting with an overview of legacy vs. encrypted DNS, then ways to test your DNS environment and NextDNS. Anyone who understands the rules for domain names cannot be fooled by scam websites, so both the rules and common scammer naming tricks will be covered. You will see how the concept of a secure website is, in many ways, a scam. A new approach for dealing with passwords will be suggested.

Defensive computing is not security. This talk is not about software bugs or vulnerabilities. In general, it is for non-techies, but techies are sure to get something from it and their input will be most appreciated.

If time allows, other topics on the agenda will include: Chromebooks, router security, locking mobile apps, Gmail, banking, creating multiple email addresses, and keeping important medical information on a cellphone.

Michael Horowitz