What are some of the best tools to protect yourself from getting hacked?

Question

In light of the recent news about the CIA/WikiLeaks fiasco, there's heightened awareness about the threat of hacking. What apps and resources can individuals use to protect themselves as much as possible?

Lachlan Campbell · Accepted Answer

Signal is a Snowden-approved, end-to-end encrypted chat app. It's widely considered the safest messaging service. 💬

Jack Dweck · Answer

Use a password manager like 1Password to create super secure passwords for all of your accounts.

Nipun Gupta · Answer

Best product for those people who spend most of their time on the web browsers. Helps filter out ads in the most non-obvious locations and origins, thus returning the best value on a free software unlike Adblocker which has become almost useless.

Alex Heikel · Answer

The best way to talk with your friends safe (not only for the encryption)

Julia DeBari · Answer

It also allows you to share a password with others without them seeing the actual password. You can also store notes such as wifi at different locations. Its mobile app needs some work though.

Answer

After very strong recommendations by @andreasklinger and @mscccc I swapped by low-tech spreadsheet for 1Password and OMG I have not looked back. It's freaking changed my life and I swear by it. All my passwords are locked up and I can access them across all my apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac) with ease. Plus, 1Password helps recommend lovely, super complex passwords that it then saves for you, so you don't have to remember a string of gibberish while keeping all your online shopping accounts safe.

Nipun Gupta · Answer

I recommend MalwareBytes wholeheartedly as the best replacement for traditional consumer anti-virus software which has repeatedly failed to do its job. For heavy consumers of content over the web and those not knowing cybersecurity enough, MalwareBytes provides adequate protection for your PC. It has protected me from spyware, adware, drive by downloads - truly enterprise grade security.

Answer

Use Lastpass to stock your passwords and secure it

Taylor Banks · Answer

Generate disposable single-use credit cards  (backed by your own bank account)  to use online without risking your real cards being stolen, leaked and/or used fraudulently.

Sebastien Barrau · Answer

We built and use this to share passwords and secret keys with our team and friends. Its secure fast and easy to use. paste your password or passphrase and you get a link and a pin to reveal the password. The shared  passwords get deleted from the site after they are viewed by recipient.

Arun Sathiya · Answer

Authy is a great choice for TOTP generation. I have replaced Google Authenticator for this.

Romain QUECHON · Answer

I'm using a personal cloud solution like Cozy (https://cozy.io/fr/) hosted in France to avoid being tracked by the CIA for example. They've developed many apps to help you managing your personal data as banks accounts, photos and administrative issues 😊

Ben · Answer

Cross platform VPN with a solid team and fair pricing. No claims about "no logs", but clearly explained policies and great customer service.

Romain QUECHON · Answer

Use a personal cloud solution like Cozy (https://cozy.io/fr/) hosted in France to avoid being tracked by the CIA for example! They've developed many apps to help you managing your personal data like banks accounts, photos and administrative issues!   😊

Taylor Banks · Answer

Combo privacy filter, ad blocker and VPN. Available for desktop and mobile.

Jay S. Hemmady · Answer

Dead simple to use with their Chrome plugin.  the 'only drawback' is that it's tied to a debit card or checking account - so no points if you have a mileage card or credit card w/ cashback.

Ryan Hoover · Answer

This was shared by @om earlier today, a tool that scans your cloud (e.g. Gmail) for sensitive information like social security numbers, so that if you do get hacked, you're less exposed.

Ben Lang · Answer

Logodog has a bunch of apps and tools for monitoring your accounts and receiving alerts when there's suspicious activity.

Engin Kurutepe · Answer

Make sure your private photos stay private.

Hayden Evans · Answer

Great service to keep tabs on vulnerabilities that may impact you. As soon as you receive an email from Have I Been Pwned, go to the site in question, immediately change your password, and that should keep you out of trouble for many leaks and breaches that hit third party sites.

Maia Bittner · Answer

Have I been pwned emails you whenever it finds your information has been compromised in a hack

Giancarlo Fiorarancio · Answer

Dashlane gives you a security score and shows you sites where you have used the same password or weak passwords.  I have even seen several instances when there is a major breach on a site in your password list that it notifies you of it and recommends a password change. Finally, and perhaps the most important feature, is that it has a password changer tool that can automatically change your password on many supported sites to one that is random generated and stored automatically back in your profile (not to mention all at once for multiple sites!)

Alexis Naibo · Answer

Last version is super slick!

Arun Sathiya · Answer

Yet another password manager that is recommended.

Bryan Kuester · Answer

Great home security wifi router. Provides IDS for all your IOT devices. Unlimited protection for computers, tablets and phones.

Travis Martin · Answer

This is BY FAR the easiest way (if you take an hour or a bit less) time to set up the tokens! They will alert you if your files are being looked at - even by folks at Dropbox!  I am personally a fan of Nathan House, a great UK OPSEC Advisor see his explanation on the tokens here: https://www.stationx.net/canarytokens/

Oren J. Falkowitz · Answer

If you want to protect yourself or your company from being hacked you need to focus on phishing. 95% of all cyber incidents (hacks) start with phishing, and it's not an email problem.  This is the only comprehensive and accountable product.

Florian Karmen · Answer

Firefox Focus is designed to block online trackers, including third-party advertising, with the end goal of both improving browsing speed and protecting users' privacy.

Florian Karmen · Answer

ProtonMail uses client-side encryption to protect email contents and user data before they are sent to ProtonMail servers, in contrast to other common email providers such as Gmail and Outlook.com. The service can be accessed through a webmail client, the Tor network or dedicated iOS and Android apps.

𝔻𝕒𝕪𝕝𝕖𝕟 𝕊𝕒𝕨𝕔𝕙𝕦𝕜 · Answer

Get 2FA codes easily from all of your accounts (Slack, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). The best part is that if you have a Microsoft account, you just get a notification when you enter your email address, and use your phone's fingerprint or face scanner in place of your password. I don't get why you can't just use the fingerprint scanner on your laptop, but at least it's a start.

Florian Karmen · Answer

Privacy Badger is a free browser extension for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Its purpose is to promote a balanced approach to internet privacy between consumers and content providers by blocking advertisements and tracking cookies that do not respect the Do Not Track setting in a user's web browser.

Todd Trann · Answer

I use the Family Sharing feature to share some passwords with my wife, so when I change the password she always has the latest one.  Love it!

Guillaume Commagnac · Answer

Free & Open Source, supported multi-platforms.
One master password to access to all your passwords.

Pierrick Blons · Answer

Easy to use, generate very string password and they don't store the generated pass. And full opensource on github.

John Ozbay · Answer

Cryptee can keep your Documents, Notes, Journals, Todo-lists and your Photos encrypted and safe. It works on all platforms, all devices, all OSes. Your key is never stored on your device, so say if you're hacked one day, your files will be safe, and even if Cryptee is hacked one day, your files will still be safe, as they are encrypted on your device, and no-one, not even Cryptee can access your data. (which means potential future hackers can't either)

Shashwat Pradhan · Answer

Has a FB Privacy feature that monitors login locations that can keep a check if your account has been hacked.

Nick Walker · Answer

Fully encrypted at the local level cloud storage, with 2FA, preventing anyone from snooping on your data if servers get compromised (unlike google drive/dropbox/box/etc...). Works cross platform.

Thomas J. Raef · Answer

We use anomaly detection, behavior analysis and signature based malware detection in our service. What that means to you is 100% accurate website malware identification. 100%

You need to know, if your website is ever infected by cyber criminals, you must know, how it happened. We provide that where even the more expensive services DON'T! Without knowing that, how do you know you won't get re-infected?

You don't.

The price you pay for website security services with us isn't inflated for affiliate payments or revenue sharing agreements. We go direct to website owners.  You deserve the best pricing while getting more services.

Our automation and innovation provide you with this.

Manik · Answer

Works great and has an affordable subscription

Taylor Banks · Answer

Great way to setup your own private, secure VPN to use and share with family and friends.

Taylor Banks · Answer

One of a few well-reviewed, industry-professional trusted VPNs that I like and use. Clients for most platforms, easy 1-click on/off.

Atif Unaldi · Answer

For very safe browsing ;)

Melissa Grody · Answer

My passwords are much more secure (AND different) now that I use LastPass. It works across multiple platforms which also makes my life easier. I can't imagine not having it.

Eddy de Heij · Answer

Honestly think, this is one of the best thing out there. FortKnoxster offers end-to-end encrypted inbox, chat, decentralized storage, calling, video conferencing, voice messages etc. – all within one web and mobile platform.

Mitch · Answer

I've tried basically every password manager. I always go back to Enpass. It has Syncing, and lets you choose where to save the encrypted file. I have it saved on Google Drive, so if I get a new device, I just log into drive and all my passwords are there. The file is encrypted, so if someone gets to it in your Drive/Dropbox/Etc, they can't do anything with it unless they have the Enpass app as well as your master password for the app.

The desktop Windows/MacOS apps are free and open source (Open source is huge for me) and they're good looking and easy to use.

The only thing I don't like is that the mobile apps are $10 *per platform*... I happily paid for it on Android, but if I switch to iOS or want to download the actual Windows App (not the desktop version) from the App store, I'll have to pay another $10. I would love to be able to switch platforms since I already paid for it... but not a huge deal.

AndraZaharia · Answer

One of the reasons I used CyberGhost (long before I joined the team last week - full disclosure) is because of its no-logs policy, fast servers and great support.

Tommy Tompkins · Answer

I’d highly recommend Undercover Pics - https://undercoverpics.com for protecting your images, document scans, passwords... etc from hackers. The nice thing about this encryption service is that it doesn’t require any apps and your data is protected anywhere you keep it such as your email, phone, hard drive, network drive...etc

Alex · Answer

Its a secure business messenger, which has more encryption than just end-to-end like Signal or other messenger. It also encrypts all app information/data on your phone.

For business use with a exportable compliance archive.

Joanna Szafirska · Answer

halo

Sebastien Barrau · Answer

I love one password, I prefer it over lastpass as the password database is stored locally (If you choose).

Alex · Answer

Yes! It helps a lot!

Answer

I love this extension.

Roberto Quiñones · Answer

Useful and safe.

Luc Castera · Answer

It's like snapchat to share passwords. Passwords get destroyed after they are retrieved with a pin (or after 48 hours) and you are not asked for any other info outside of the password so even if compromised there is no way to link that password to you or your account.

Miles Varghese · Answer

Works effortlessly and flawlessly

Jerry Vida · Answer

Only Biometric Authentication access control password manager.  Plus it stores your password and login info directly on the card, meaning none of your vital info is stored on the cloud or on your local device making it virtually un-hackable!

Cameron Peterson · Answer

Best password manager