We love the internet. Whether we’re placing insomniac-fueled eBay bids on action figures from our childhood, emailing Taylor Swift’s latest conspiracy theory to our best friend, or simply paying our electric bill, being online makes our lives more fun, more connected, and so much more. easier.
Unfortunately, there are countless creeps who love that we love the Internet – and are eager to sift through our personal information. Last year saw a record number of data breaches, which will increase by 20% between 2022 and 2023. So if we are going to live digitally (and how could we not?), we must be vigilant about protecting our privacy.
We can start locking down our information by seeing how secure the internet is in our home.
“You probably won’t be shocked to hear that we’re the problem in this,” Alysa Hutnik, a privacy attorney at Kelley, Drye & Warren LLP in Washington, D.C., told us — Raj Punjabi and Noah Michelson, hosts of HuffPost’s “Doe Am I wrong?” podcast. “It’s usually human error in the way you set it up and how you manage your Wi-Fi.”
The first thing Hutnik advised us to do immediately is check our router settings.
“You get it out of the box – don’t leave yourself with the factory default settings because guess what? Aren’t they public?” she warned. “It’s very easy for hackers to get in. You can change those factory settings, including your password, and so it is very important to set a very strong password and not have the default one.
Next we want to make sure we use encrypted settings.
‘Usually somewhere inside [your settings]there is [an option to choose] “WPA, or Wireless Protected Access,” she said. “You can just turn that on, and that basically means you don’t leave your front door open, right? You wouldn’t do that in real life.”
Hutnik recommended that checking our settings doesn’t stop at our routers.
“Any time you buy technology, you go to the institutions,” she said. “Usually there’s a privacy option and a security option…spend 60 seconds exploring what those options are. Companies are getting so much better; we have a lot of new ones [privacy] laws – so they offer new options. [These protective settings] may not be standard, but you can certainly enable them.”
Hutnik had many more powerful privacy tips, including this one that only takes a second.
“[I am] paranoid as a privacy advocate,” Hutnik told us. “I love it [my webcam] covered if I don’t use it intentionally. There is potential malware that can take over your device [and hackers could use your camera to see into your home].”
She covers her camera with a post-it note or a sticker when it’s not in use, and when she’s done working on her laptop, she always closes it.
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“These are just things to think about – again, you reduce the risks. It doesn’t mean you’re going to get hacked, but I’d rather someone not look in my room if I can avoid it.”
We also discussed how to make your passwords as strong as possible, which setting she almost always turns off on her phone, and much more. So listen to the full episode here or wherever you get your podcasts.
Make sure you subscribe to ‘Am I doing it wrong?’ so you don’t miss an episode, including our investigation into the ins and outs of tipping, how to apologize or forgive your credit card debt, how to find love online or overcome fear, online shopping tips, grooming of your teeth and pooping like a pro, secrets of booking and staying in a hotel, how to deal with an angry person, cooking tips from celebrity chef Jet Tila, shocking laundry secrets, the tips and tricks for cleaner dishes and more.
Do you need help with something you did wrong? Email us at AmIDoingItWrong@HuffPost.comand we may explore the topic in an upcoming episode.
