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(Continued from page 1) time are required to keep our assets (money, identity,
personal safety) secure when using all these tech
spend a lot of time and money keeping it working items and services in the new global digital electronic
safely. I want it all to work every time as I expect it world.
to work. Unfortunately, there is a lot more to our
tech lives than that. None of the tech revolution we There is no practical way to remain 100% secure in
have seen in the last decades would have been our modern connected world. Even if you turn off all
possible without money. It is commerce, capital and of your devices, disconnect them, put them in a box
the desire to make a profit that brought us most of and seal it up (and cancel all your related services),
this, including Microsoft, Google, Uber, Tesla and you are not safe. The government still has your per-
all the rest. Some key government investments in sonal information, and even if you are not on Face-
technology, in the space program, DARPA and the book, others could post about you. You will have to
military-industrial complex helped with fundamental go back to paying with cash, shopping and banking in
research, but the capitalist entrepreneurs filled in physical locations and communicating through per-
the rest. Money made tech great, but money also sonal visits and letters. Unless you want to step back
made it unsafe. into the 1950’s, you will have to adopt some addition-
al safeguards with every new tech item you acquire.
Entrepreneurs take legal risks to gain rewards;
criminals try to find the least risky ways to make Safety as a tech user is not an absolute, but a matter
money, legal or not. Each new tech device, app or of degree. More time and money spent to safeguard
service that comes out is studied for vulnerabilities our activities will provide more relative safety and se-
by the criminal elements intent on exploiting it for curity, but tradeoffs will need to be made. More secu-
monetary gain. Now that technology has intercon- rity comes at a higher cost and usually a greater in-
nected the world, we can be the victims of crime convenience as well. A user can make their tech life
originating from all over the globe. Even nation more resistant to attacks by cyber criminals and be-
states can get in the game, trying to steal infor- come more resilient should bad things happen, but it
mation for economic and political purposes. will require more time, money and effort on their part.
Lots of articles are written about protecting ourselves
All this leaves the poor tech user vulnerable. The online and describing precautions we all should take,
rapid rate of change, the ease of use and ubiqui- yet cybercrime is still prevalent.
tousness of these product and services just add to
the risk. How does a user evaluate the threat and
defend against it? Is it all worth the cost?

The criminals are out
there, ready to hack,
snoop, steal and de-
ceive. They want your
personal information
to steal your identity
and your passwords
to steal your money.
They want to trick you into sending them gift cards
and Bitcoin. Who is going to protect the tech user I think I take care of my tech household pretty well,
from all the cyber threats? Can the government pro- though there is always more that can be done. The
tect us? Laws may be passed, regulations put in things I value most (finances, identity, property) I pro-
place and enforcement attempted, but citizens are tect the most, while things of a lesser consequence I
still victimized. Unfortunately sometimes the govern- am a bit looser with. In some ways I probably go
ment is part of the problem, not protecting the sen- overboard in caution, but there are probably some
sitive data we entrusted to them. risks I don’t take as seriously as I should. I’m pretty
Can the companies we buy products and services careful with physical security, using strong pass-
from protect us? Their desires for profit over all else words, encryption, a VPN and two-factor authentica-
have created some of our tech problems. They will tion where appropriate.
sell us devices that are not secure if they think it I’m pretty resistant to social engineering threats and
makes business sense. They’ll collect and monetize am very careful with my personal information. Exer-
our personal information and then often fail to pro- cising care and vigilance online is good, but it re-
tect it adequately. It seems we as tech users must quires effort and some investments. I have several
find ways to protect ourselves, as no one else will laptops and desktops that my wife and I use, as well
take responsibility for our security. Unfortunately, as a couple of Chromebooks. All the computers we
that means additional costs in terms of money and
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