Kevin Van den Brande

A no nonsense guide in the realm of cyber security and privacy, facing IT chaos with a smile on his face and with a natural curiosity in new tech, code and tools.

Security tips

Strong passwords

Strong passwords are a must! Give every account a different one too, that way a password leak won't impact other accounts. To help you manage all those passwords use a decent password manager.

Multi-factor authentication

A strong password is good but a password can get leaked, guessed, phished, ..., add an extra security layer with multi factor authentication.

Check links before clicking

Hover over a link to see where it would take you, is it pointing to an URL that doesn't match the domain of the sender it's usually a red flag.

Up-to-date

Besides new features, updates can also hold security updates, every flaw patched is a potential weakness less to worry about.

Use privacy focused apps

Know what your software does with your data, big players like Google, Facebook, Amazon, ... collect what they can when you use their apps to provide a "better service" or to promote own products?

No jailbreaking

Sure you might get extra features but you lose the update ability when jailbreaking a device. Are you sure you want to give up the security aspect? If so use with caution and don't use it with sensitive data.

Public wifi, use a VPN

All data send over an unknown external network can be monitored, read or even manipulated. Using a VPN will encapsule everything in an encrypted tunnel datastream.

Don't get tracked

Every action on the internet starts with a DNS request, a DNS server might know a lot about you so choose wisely who you trust with your internet activity.

Know your network

Received a modem/router from your internet provider? Do they perform security updates on that device? What else is running on it to monitor your internet activity?