In nontechnical language and engaging style 10 Don ts on Your Digital Devices explains to
non-techie users of PCs and handheld devices exactly what to do and what not to do to protect
their digital data from security and privacy threats at home at work and on the road. These
include chronic threats such as malware and phishing attacks and emerging threats that exploit
cloud-based storage and mobile apps. It s a wonderful thing to be able to use any of your
cloud-synced assortment of desktop portable mobile and wearable computing devices to work
from home shop at work pay in a store do your banking from a coffee shop submit your tax
returns from the airport or post your selfies from the Oscars. But with this new world of
connectivity and convenience comes a host of new perils for the lazy the greedy the unwary
and the ignorant. The 10 Don ts can t do much for the lazy and the greedy but they can save
the unwary and the ignorant a world of trouble. 10 Don ts employs personal anecdotes and major
news stories to illustrate what can and all too often does happen when users are careless with
their devices and data. Each chapter describes a common type of blunder (one of the 10 Don ts)
reveals how it opens a particular port of entry to predatory incursions and privacy invasions
and details all the unpleasant consequences that may come from doing a Don t. The chapter then
shows you how to diagnose and fix the resulting problems how to undo or mitigate their costs
and how to protect against repetitions with specific software defenses and behavioral changes.
Through ten vignettes told in accessible language and illustrated with helpful screenshots 10
Don ts teaches non-technical readers ten key lessons for protecting your digital security and
privacy with the same care you reflexively give to your physical security and privacy so that
you don t get phished give up your password get lost in the cloud look for a free lunch do
secure things from insecure places let the snoops in be careless when going mobile use
dinosaurs or forget the physical in short so that you don t trust anyone over anything.
Non-techie readers are not unsophisticated readers. They spend much of their waking lives on
their devices and are bombarded with and alarmed by news stories of unimaginably huge data
breaches unimaginably sophisticated advanced persistent threat activities by criminal
organizations and hostile nation-states and unimaginably intrusive clandestine mass electronic
surveillance and data mining sweeps by corporations data brokers and the various intelligence
and law enforcement arms of our own governments. The authors lift the veil on these shadowy
realms show how the little guy is affected and what individuals can do to shield themselves
from big predators and snoops.
