Cybersecurity Basics:
Learning More and Going Further
Do You Want To Learn More About Information Security?
Bruce Schneier has developed several cryptographic algorithms, both ciphers and hash functions. But while he's brilliant at math and logic, he also does a very good job of explaining complex topics. He has more recently become very interested in psychological issues of how we perceive and handle risk. His monthly Crypto-Gram newsletter is a very readable review of information security news. Information security issues surround us, but we don't always recognize them as such. Bruce points them out, and makes them about as clear as they can be for the masses.
If you think you might be getting interested in the details
of computer and network security, keep reading the
Crypto-gram but also check out
Brian Krebs, Dark Reading, and the Kaspersky Lab blog.
Brian Krebs and Dark Reading should be readable by most
anyone, they have pointers to the real details.
Kaspersky's blog is a mix of overview and detailed analysis.
Krebs On Security
Dark Reading
Kaspersky Lab blog
Help Net Security
Information Week
Ars Technica,
Wired,
The Atlantic (especially some of James Fallows'
articles from when he worked in China),
and other publications include cybersecurity stories
aimed at the educated general public.
Forbes sometimes carries good articles on
information security,
but the irony is that the forbes.com site is notorious for
pushing malicious software out through ad content.
Ars Technica
Wired
The Atlantic
Forbes (patch your browser first!)
Maybe Go Further
You can set up Two-Factor Authentication. That means that it requires something you know (a password) and something you have (your phone). Several web sites now allow you to set up two-factor authentication (or 2FA) so that when you try to log in, they ask for your password and a code they send to your phone as a text message.
There are also 2FA apps for smart phones, like:
Google Authenticator
Ask your bank what two-factor authentication they support for on-line banking. If they say they aren't using any yet, that's probably OK. If they don't know what you're talking about, don't do any business with them on-line.
To go deeper into hardening Windows,
Windows Security From The Ground Up
Finally, if you want to go
even deeper into the details,
my cybersecurity web pages are largely collections of
references and links, organized by category.
Further Cybersecurity References