Last week’s census debate raised plenty of issues – a lot of them around what it means to secure data, and what it means to be ‘hacked’.

In the online world, ‘hack’ has two meanings. Last week’s definition concerned the breaching of security measures to obtain control of another computer or to obtain data. The more positive version of a ‘hack’ means ‘an easy fix, and is the definition we’ll work with today.

 

Laptops

Take a look at Zuck. This is a guy who has bad literally billions of dollars providing a poorly secured service to pretty much everyone on the planet. What makes this image so interesting is that even as a man with unlimited resources, he is paranoid about his own online security.

 

3 things about this photo of Zuck:

Camera covered with tape
Mic jack covered with tape
Email client is Thunderbird pic.twitter.com/vdQlF7RjQt

— Chris Olson (@topherolson) June 21, 2016

 

To be honest, taping over your camera is actually a pretty good idea. If you think about it, an open laptop in the home can capture a lot of information about what you get up to (…yep, that as well…), so investing in a square centimetre of black tape is probably money well spent.

 

Image: Kapersky Labs

The microphone is certainly an interesting one. It’s definitely possible for someone to listen in while you are talking about work or family, so this is probably a good one to consider – especially if travelling to certain countries…

 

Browsers

It can’t be much simpler than this: get a VPN. There are now so many reasons as to why this is a good idea, that we’ve bothered to only list five.

1. Secure access on public wifi (and secure your data)
2. Access blocked sites when overseas (such as Facebook in China)
3. Keep out Government snoops (just ask Edward Snowden)
4. Prevent browsers from logging your activity
5. Beat geoblocking (watching iView when overseas)

 

 

Do it now. There’s a comprehensive list of options available from Lifehacker.

 

Phones
No piece of tech is more vulnerable than an unlocked phone in a public place. Inside are you contacts, personal details, health data and, possibly, banking details.

At the very least, ensure there is a four-digit passcode that auto-enables as soon as the phone is in use. After that, look at six numbers or a combination of letters to add further security.

 

 

Biometrics are even better. Every iPhone now offers fingerprint access, and Samsung is working on retina scanning to unlock the next generation of their flagship Galaxy phones.

After you’ve added the best security possible, ensure that the ‘Find My Phone’ app is implemented to help you find your phone should it suddenly disappear from site.