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“Staying safe online” has become a miserable jungle of jargon and technology that most of us aren’t interested in, don’t understand, or don’t need.

It doesn’t have to be rocket science …

Hi there and welcome to techdebunked.com

We pledge 3 things on this site:

We’ll only speak in plain English – no tech jargon!
There’ll be no scaremongering here – we’ll deal with the facts as they apply to the everyday internet user
To give you the information you need to decide whether you want or need to improve your own online security

The internet is such a useful, convenient, powerful tool but with almost daily stories of breaches and hacks it can feel like it’s all too much hassle staying safe online.

We’re here to show that it doesn’t have to be that way…

Hi there and welcome to techdebunked.com

We pledge 3 things on this site:

1. We’ll only speak in plain English – no tech jargon!

2. There’ll be no scaremongering here – we’ll deal with the facts as they apply to the everyday internet user

3. To give you the information you need to decide whether you want or need to improve your own online security

The internet is such a useful, convenient, powerful tool but with almost daily stories of breaches and hacks it can feel like it’s all too much hassle staying safe online.

We’re here to show that it doesn’t have to be that way…

Most recent articles

Most recent articles

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Recent Insta posts

Recent Insta posts

These are unusual times. Barely any of us reading

These are unusual times. Barely any of us reading this won't have had our daily lives impacted one way or another by the outbreak of Coronavirus.

While it is already difficult enough for us to deal with, we can only contemplate from afar what it would have been like had this happened, say, 25 years ago - without the aid of mass, distanced communication that the internet has enabled.

However, even if we somehow count ourselves lucky that we are able still to keep in touch with our family and friends, most of us are still anxious.

Anxious about how likely we are to catch the virus ourselves, in our household, or in our family. Anxious about just when and how the restrictions to our daily lives that most of us are living under are going to be relaxed. Even when they are, we are possibly anxious about just what kind of normality we will be returning to.

On top of that physical, real anxiety is also the potential for us to worry about how we temporarily convert our usual day-to-day social and physical interactions into ones that are compatible with communicating exclusively online.
While we can tele and video conference relatively easily in 2020, those services are often jittery and flaky, with connection often lost - that becomes frustrating in a world where our social interaction is already being so severely limited.

The problem potentially comes when we get frustrated enough that we, on an impulse, go and sign-up for something new to try and find different ways of communicating with our friends when all else has failed. We can either be tempted to try un-proven applications and software, or become more lax about how we sign-up and drop some of the good personal online security habits that we should always follow, but that have actually become even more essential in these unusual times.

If I were to pick just 2 things to help you focus on at the moment, they would be:

1 Never re-use the same password more than once, and

2 Always keep your operating system and antivirus software up-to-date

Stick to the basics and your online life will be just as enjoyable, but that little bit safer too.
#stress #health #stayhome #selfcare #online #security

Imagine Santa Claus suddenly speaking to your youn

Imagine Santa Claus suddenly speaking to your youngest daughter while she plays around in her bedroom.⁠⠀
That's exactly what happened to a Mississippi family in December - only it wasn't Santa Claus, it was a hacker who had gained access to a webcam the family used in their girls' bedroom to keep an eye on them at night.⁠⠀
Read the whole chilling story here - https://techdebunked.com/smart-devices-in-the-home-look-away/ - and, more importantly, the really steps you can take to make sure it doesn't happen in your home - whether it's a camera, thermostat or anything else connected to the internet.⁠⠀
#online #security #lifestyle #family

If you've even thought for a second recently that

If you've even thought for a second recently that maybe you need to change a few passwords, or go through the hassle of doing that 2-Factor Authentication thing on your social media accounts, use today as an excuse - it's Data Privacy Day - and people and businesses all around the world are taking just a few minutes to do just that and beef-up their own security.⁠⠀
⁠⠀
So don't wait for something to go wrong - take the initiative and take that next step to keep your online life safe.⁠⠀
⁠⠀
#online #security #dataprivacyday #justdoit #goals

I don't know about you, but I find that my inbox s

I don't know about you, but I find that my inbox swells with hoax emails asking me to click on various links in waves of activity.⁠⠀
⁠⠀
Mine seems to be going through one of those periods right now - it's the time of year for tax returns, so I'm getting emails from the "tax authority" telling me to file a tax return, emails from "banks" keen to help me out after over-spending at Christmas and offering loans via links in emails, "diet" emails inviting me to click through to discover how to lose all the pounds put on over the festive season.⁠⠀
⁠⠀
What have all these got in common? They're all FAKE - taking just a second to hover your mouse over the links they want you to click gives you a really good idea if they are coming from the genuine source or not - 9 times out of 10 it seems that they point you to a web address that is a load of gobbledegook that, at best, will take and use any data you might care to give on that page or, at worst, could download other awful software to your device.⁠⠀
⁠⠀
Be click aware everyone!⁠⠀
⁠⠀
#beclickaware #taxseason #online #security #happynewyear⁠⠀

While we're all in that New Year mood for change a

While we're all in that New Year mood for change and renewal (not to mention being strapped for cash!) why not try something that will cost you nothing, but could help you to enjoy your online life with greater peace of mind.⁠⠀
Go ahead - break out - change some of those old, re-used, easy-to-crack passwords or just be a bit more mindful of the personal information and insight into your life you've always shared in the past - either on social media or with companies you "trust".⁠⠀
⁠⠀
Let 2020 be the year that you take back control of your online life, and there's no better time to start than in January! #happynewyear #relax #mindfulness #refresh #online #security

Happy New Year everyone!! If you read our post bac

Happy New Year everyone!! If you read our post back in September about how New Year really isn't the best time to think about making changes in our lives - https://www.instagram.com/p/B2zTyg6Hmec/ - and quite a few of you got in touch to agree - well, we thought we'd kinda remind you that, actually, even if it isn't the absolute BEST time, with all the electronic things being shared around as gifts in the last couple of weeks, turning your attention to your online #security and #privacy and the basics like #antivirus and strong passwords is worth thinking about ANY time of year!

OK so maybe this is slightly tongue-in-cheek, but

OK so maybe this is slightly tongue-in-cheek, but keeping those 3 simple words in mind whenever you're doing anything online will help you to stay safer in our always-connected world.⁠
If you're struggling with ideas for how to come up with new but memorable passwords, we have some really helpful ideas to inspire you - so please come and take a look.⁠
#lifestyle #love #security #online #happy #life

Can there be a much more autumnal scene by the sea

Can there be a much more autumnal scene by the seaside? We're lucky enough to have this just a 5-minute walk from us and it reminded me that, with the days getting shorter, we're all probably going to spend more time "indoor shopping" or "indoor socialising" ... online.⁠
Now is as good a time as any to make sure you take the time to make those passwords individual and strong - never re-use them, and make sure your phone, tablet or computer, their apps and programs are all up-to-date to keep you guarded against the chill of being compromised online.⁠
#online #security #autumn #lifestyle #fall #beach

Email accounts, online #shopping accounts, #online

Email accounts, online #shopping accounts, #online accounts with utility providers, jobs boards - even free trials and apps.
Our #personal data is littered across the internet in millions of places - it's an inevitable part of our online #lifestyle in 2019.
But what about all those accounts, #apps and free trials we no longer or never used?
Those are all the billions of "zombie" accounts out there that we might have forgotten about but that are still as likely to be hacked or breached as any other live account ... unless you delete them properly, one-by-one.
We can help you keep the zombies at bay and live your online life safely.

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Quick links to personal online security tools

Quick links to useful tools

Creating strong, unique passwords

Anti-malware and anti-virus software

2-factor and multi-factor authentication tools

VPN software

Creating strong, unique passwords

Anti-malware and anti-virus software

2-factor and multi-factor authentication tools

VPN software

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