About

Let me explain here the few motivations behind this humble website. In my opinion, security and privacy (data protection) are becoming key concerns for both consumers and professionals. We are now in the age of “everything connected.” Personal data are stored on computers, phones and other mobile devices. I receive my – several – phone bills by email, I pay my taxes through the Internet. And the list goes on, and on… and grows. I have an UPnP AV capable TV, gaming console… A couple of network storage devices where my backups lie. And don’t even get me started on cloud-computing… ! Don’t get me wrong : I do consider this a progress. But it also brings new challenges, and to my concern two are very important.

Security

This is pretty obvious, but easier said than done : the security of your computer(s) and mobile device(s), their exposure to intrusions, is paramount. Being connected to the Internet almost all the time means being exposed almost… all the time. Hence, security tools such as Firewalls or monitoring applications become vitals. Intrusions may be 99% of the times performed for “annoyances”, spams, spywares, whatever. But there is a 1% chance – I leave the figures for you to debate – intrusion is performed for fraudulent means. And I’m not only speaking of phishing or credit card abuse. With the increasing amount of personal data we now store on our computers, also increase the possibilities for abuses. Which leads us naturally to my second point, data protection.

Privacy

Preventing intrusions on your – several – Internet connected devices is one thing. Protecting sensible data stored on these devices is another one. Security lies in the hand of the end user and intrusions can also be achieved… from the inside. These two points are essential to understand for anyone willing to act on both security and privacy on its computer. In my opinion, storing such things as bills, tax records, etc. as we would store pictures and music files isn’t safe. These should be stored… well, safely. Not only in some place one couldn’t easily reach through network intrusion or lay his hand on. It should be stored so that only you, or people you elected trustworthy, can actually read the content of these files. With modern tools this can be very easily done and considering the benefits, or let’s say the safety net, it provides : don’t even think about not using encryption for your sensible data.

So…

So this is what this site is about. Security tools and their configuration, so that you can make your web experience as safe as possible – apart from the harm you could do to yourself. And privacy tools and measures, so that one day you don’t get an email from someone you retrieved your tax record on a P2P network (don’t laugh, there is a story behind this). Don’t be paranoid, be safe. But at least feel a little scared enough to act on.