6 life-changing tech habits you need in 2022

[RV_]

Turning the page on the calendar and starting a new year is a great opportunity to develop some good new habits. These tech recommendations will make anyone smarter and safer. Number 4 was tough for me but I learned it very well in 2019. I do still install SSDs and RAM but I leave Windows pretty much alone save for cleaning out trackers etc. with CCleaner free. I use Windows Defender but bought 5 lifetime licenses to Malwarebytes Premium ~8 years ago that are still updated, upgraded fully supported into today's retail versions. It works well WITH Defender.

The article covers these topics with links, how to do it, and more info:

1. Back up to the cloud

2. Get smart about passwords

3. Turn on 2FA everywhere

4. Stop tweaking things

5. Take your updates

6. Uninstall your antivirus

Source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-6-life-changing-tech-habits-you-need-this-year/?ftag=CAD2e14604

 

 

[Jim & Alice]

Good article, Derek.   Confirms some good practices... Here's what I do:

1. Cloud backup -  I perform such nightly, in addition to local Acronis backups to external storage (two types: USB drive and external SSD drive.
2. Passwords - I use a password manager (Roboform), for my desktop and for my laptop.   All things are encrypted, synced, passwords generated...
3. 2FA - still hit or miss on this... but for all Financial sites and 'other' sites of importance, I use multi-factor authentication.
4. Tweaking... - I have pretty much given up on this... just too much trouble for questionable gain.
5. Updates - Serious & Religious attention to updates, for all significant software.
6. Antivirus - Not ready to part with my Norton yet... I also use Malware Free in addition to Norton.   Big reason for keeping Norton is their VPN... works well for me.

Thanks for he good article, Derek.   Lots of bad stuff going on nowadays... Good Practices can make a huge difference.

[folivier]

2FA is good but if you live in an area where you have to drive a couple miles to get a cell signal just to get your code then rush back and hope you can enter it before it times out....it can be a pain.

These companies need to have some flexibility.  Some do, others don't care.  One will call our landline with the robo-code.

[Bill Joyce]

1 hour ago, folivier said:

2FA is good but if you live in an area where you have to drive a couple miles to get a cell signal just to get your code then rush back and hope you can enter it before it times out....it can be a pain.

These companies need to have some flexibility.  Some do, others don't care.  One will call our landline with the robo-code.

We put our cell phones on Wi-Fi and can get calls and texts that way.

[RV_]

Jim glad you liked it. You're ahead of most folks I run into.

This is long but just for Jim so skip this otherwise.

I really got into system images and clones back in 2010-2012 and Windows 8, and since. I tried my first SSD after making a system image of my laptop's drive and then making one of the Winows 8 pre-release Developer's Editions (8DE) of Windows 8. So once a month I would image my version of 8DE and then restore the Windows Vista image to do monthly updates, image it, and then restore the 8DE image to continue testing for the next month. THen I decided that although reliable and easy it took too much time so I decided to test my first SSD and got a Crucial 64GB SSD and had it for 8DE testing and kept my Vista image on the HDD and swapped them out to do the monthly Windows updates. Much faster but I became expert in making and restoring my images on my hardware using Acronis back them and then the free version of EaseUS ToDo.

Today I have 2 pre-made external Hard Drives a desktop 4TB and a portable 1TB, both as well as more than 20TB in loose Hard drives, mostly 1-2TB 3.5" internal drives and four 500GB ones, as well as six 320GB-640GB 2.5" notebook drives. To use them I have two powered USB 3.1 drive docks that do both 3.5" and 2.5" drives, and five external 2.5" portable USB 3.1 drive enclosures that are powered by the USB itself so need no power supply. One drive dock is by my main computer to use any of them, and a powered external "WD Elements" desktop 4TB HDD also attached for all my system images and file copies/backups. The other Dock is on my backup mini PC system for its images.

In addition to the 4TB desktop external "WD Elements" desktop drive on my main system I have one 2.5" 1TB WD "My Passport" USB powered portable drive on Lynda's main system.

I have one portable drive assigned each of the four Surface Pro and Go2 systems which all have 256GB and 128GB SSDs. I have ~ ten TB of formatted drives for any future requirements.

All that to say I feel more secure with my backups on HDDs locally. I am thinking about doing a Faraday cage bucket and put my backup main drive and Lynn's backup in it as well as the Pro 7 tablet in it, saving all pics, docs, and music. Today an EMP strike is more likely than a destructive attack. These EZPZ ones work, are relatively inexpensive, and can be made much larger. Lots of misinformation out there on Faraday cages too.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/us-vulnerable-to-chinese-electromagnetic-attack-experts-say

If you really want to backup for all eventualities instead of just in another location have them in a Faraday bucket. N. Korea is a real possibility-

Excerpt: "There is no need for precision. North Korea doesn’t need to have a very good ballistic missile in order to precisely deploy and detonate the weapon," Doynov warned.

China has invested heavily in its EMP program, with a strategy that "emphasizes suppressing, degrading, disrupting or deceiving enemy electronic equipment throughout the continuum of a conflict while protecting its ability to use the cyber and electromagnetic spectrum," reads a recent Pentagon report on Chinese military capabilities. "The PLA is likely to use electronic warfare early in a conflict as a signaling mechanism to warn and deter adversary offensive action. Potential EW targets include adversary systems operating in radio, radar, microwave, infrared and optical frequency ranges, as well as adversary computer and information systems."

If China or any other adversary such as Russia were to successfully cause a large scale blackout, Pry warns that there is little the U.S. could do in response.

While the U.S. possesses the technology and capability to defend the nation's infrastructure from such an attack, deploying it across a country that has several different state agencies and utility companies responsible for the grid will be a challenge."

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/us/us-vulnerable-to-chinese-electromagnetic-attack-experts-say

This book I read in 2017 made a believer out of me. https://www.amazon.com/Second-After-John-Matherson-Novel/dp/0765327252

I am not a prepper but do have a month's worth of freeze dried meals, a bathtub liner for water and four large 7 gallon reliance water jugs that have been sanitized, dried out, and stored. At the bottom of the video are online sources for the material in the read more section. I just ordered them from Amazon. Jim thanks for the reminder about the cloud which will go down in an EMP strike, some with just a solar storm of sufficient intensity. HDDs are notoriously reliable for long term storage rather than SSDs as long as they are not subject to EMP either.

I use a password manager and have all passwords on two 16GB USB flash drives that are copies of all in a file. I am religious about keeping them current whenever I register on a new place.

I am 100% 2FA on all places that support it.

I have no problem with using just Windows Defender. I have five lifetime licenses for Malwarebytes Premium, I do use Malwarebytes Premium with Windows Defender on five systems and just Windows Defender for real time protection with Malwarebytes free as a backup on the other three systems.

Another thing I do is shut down my computers when not in use and turn off the power strip they are connected to so no remote boot and access is possible unless someone physically flips the power strip switch to on.

And I use CCleaner before shutting down daily.

I am not trying to persuade as your methods work and are your familiar routine actions.

And I really did just order the locking little trash can and rubber inside bucket for a Faraday cage. Way overpriced but those are tested. 

 

Edited December 22, 2021 by RV_

[RV_]

On 12/18/2021 at 6:24 AM, folivier said:

2FA is good but if you live in an area where you have to drive a couple miles to get a cell signal just to get your code then rush back and hope you can enter it before it times out....it can be a pain.

These companies need to have some flexibility.  Some do, others don't care.  One will call our landline with the robo-code.

Hey guy if you are logging onto something you must be connected so just select to get your code by email. I do that all the time on my desktop. Or our phones. Am I missing something here?

[RV_]

Or that Bill. I think most phones can use WiFi today.

[Jim & Alice]

Derek, thanks for your well thought and documented response!   It will take a while for me to absorb it... Quick question - I organize all my essential data into one high-level folder.... and keep up-to-date copies of that large folder in several places.   One of those 'places' are portable USB drives (plural).   Derek, how vulnerable, do you think, are USB drives, unshielded & unprotected, to EMP strikes?   

Thanks, and Merry Christmas!   Hope you are feeling well.

Edited December 22, 2021 by Jim & Alice

[fortytwo]

RV,  To damn much work!  I've been in the web over 30 years (pre windows) and am basically buck nekked.  Everything about me has been captured somewhere.  Bit late to worry about the barn door. 

I download financial and health data to a folder and immediately move it to a thumb drive and disconnect it.  Otherwise 3-4 laptops and 4 tablets sleep when not being used.  The HP AIO desktop only sleeps at night.  Don't use (trust) the cloud.  I don't own it.  Have back-ups on a dozen external drives of various sizes.  Some of the old ones are Firewire and I don't have a PC with a port anymore.  My 5 1/4, 3  1/2, and Zip cartridge data has likewise disappeared (from me  - I'm sure some server out there has most of it).  Half of my digital video is in a format no longer supported, but no one wants to see it anyway so I've mostly stopped taking video.  I've found that no one but me gives a crap anymore, and mostly I waste time when I look for anything.  I've lost more unsaved stuff to Microsoft's updates than to any virus so block them and catch up monthly.  Guess I'm a Ray Stevens "streak".

Wes

[RV_]

On 12/21/2021 at 7:10 PM, Jim & Alice said:

Derek, thanks for your well thought and documented response!   It will take a while for me to absorb it... Quick question - I organize all my essential data into one high-level folder.... and keep up-to-date copies of that large folder in several places.   One of those 'places' are portable USB drives (plural).   Derek, how vulnerable, do you think, are USB drives, unshielded & unprotected, to EMP strikes?   

Thanks, and Merry Christmas!   Hope you are feeling well.

Jim flash drives would be totally vulnerable. And if the flash drive did survive what would you put it in? You really want to read the can't put down book "One Second After" and then think about N. Korea, and several other countries. The Saudis are building ballistic missiles with the help of Moscow right now. Thus my bucket. That is why I am making the little Faraday bucket. BTW the galvanized locking bucket came in and all I am waiting for is the inner rubber liner, and now it appears I need a larger one for a solar charging system too. This is more a fun hobby that may pay off in the unlikely event of any natural or civil catastrophe. Just like our 15 day supply for two of Mountain House freeze dried food and water. https://mountainhouse.com/collections/just-in-case

[RV_]

Wes. you do you, I am just sharing what I do. It is actually very easy

 

The drive dock on the left handles up to 2TB drives and is connected all the time with a 2TB drive connected but not powered until I use it, so no remote turn on. I have a lifetime license to EaseUS Todo and do a system image to it not uncompressed data.The factory external drive on the right is my 4TB WD Elements HDD. I leave it connected all the time too but the power cable, which you see next to it unplugged, is not plugged in until I use it to sync all my data not in an image, and to do a Windows system image using the Windows  backup program that is still in Windows 10. One button usage not too much work I have it overwrite the old image so the magnetic 0s and 1s are refreshed. I do a chkdisk once a year or so and just ignore them overnight.

All of the 3.5" drives in the rubber protectors and bubble wrap are 2TB HDD two are clones of the 27" AIOs so if the SSD fails I can just pop it in to the right system and be back up and running in ten minutes. No panicking or hard work just a drive swap only if a failure happens. Then I can restore the latest image to it. The rest of the HDDs are formatted and empty 1TB and a few 500GB HDDs. The 2.5" enclosures on the left have 320GB-500GB 2.5" formatted empty notebook spare drives in them. And the cables are notebook optical drive to USB cables to use old drives as external optical drives, 3.5" and 2.5" HDD drive wires, and m.2 drive to USB adapters.

Above is my one factory WD 1TB external "My Passport" HDD, and three of my five external 2.5" enclosures with 640GB notebook 2.5" drives in them. They are USB 3.1 powered. The 1 TB WD is for my wife's Dell 17" I use for the four Surface tablets  for their backups as needed. They are mostly recliner side systems but I have system images so if there is a necessity to wipe and start from scratch with a new drive I have the original system drivers and chipset firmware. They stay by the tablets. Other than the WD external My Passport I only have the $4.99-$8.99 fop the enclosures on sale I bought several years ago. The drives came out of my own laptops when I upgraded them to SSDs and for some I did for others who did not want to keep them even as clones. So the HDDs were free essentially. I am about to upgrade to an external m.2 drive case. I tried one and it was amazing!

Anyway once set up there is no work or complication. Even my back up desktop system in the last picture below, using a FHD TV as a computer monitor, 4k Fire Stick for streaming, and my HP G1 mini has a Drive dock too and I just press a button there too. My system image software is not quirky like Acronis in the old days. I just start it and come back later.

[RV_]

Jim I will fill you in on what I am using in my Faraday cage later.

[Jim & Alice]

3 hours ago, RV_ said:

Jim I will fill you in on what I am using in my Faraday cage later.

Thanks, I appreciate it, Derek.   And I appreciate your commentary on my USB drives vulnerability... I figured as much but did not want to accept it because they are so darn easy to use!     I was hoping you would see something I didn't.   Funny, but my Air Force 'recent out' son just happened to bring up a Faraday Cage right after our posts... We may end up there yet.

And, Merry Christmas and good night, Derek.   Hope all is well for you.   Our grandkids are in bed waiting for Santa to arrive... Grandmother (Mamaw) is tired out, and Mom & Dad even more tired out.   Me?   I just stay out of the way, else I might end up getting gift-wrapped and placed under the tree. 🙂 Take care, Derek!

Added afterwards:   Derek, I checked out your recommended book, "One Second After"... looks to be a good read, as well as written by a very credible Author.   I happen to 'know' I am getting some Barnes & Noble gift cards for Christmas... Think I know where to start using them.

Edited December 25, 2021 by Jim & Alice
Followup.

[RV_]

Jim you will love the book!

OK here is a preliminary report on my Faraday Cage (hereafter FC) project. I have a first setup that will change over time with input from others and my own changes as time goes on. I included our two perfect condition old smart phones because they work fine without any connection as screens for portable movies and they have all our contacts with street addresses in them. They also can play 128GB of music in our 128GB micro SD cards loaded in them and our current phones. If we have any warning we can throw our daily use phones in he FC and I may build a larger one for a solar setup generator. There will be lots of dead vehicles with gas tanks that can be drained. The generators that are not in a FC will not work if there are any integrated circuits in them. I have much research to do yet and changes WILL be needed as my knowledge base increases.

Here is my first pic of it loaded:

The Surface Go 2 Tablet with LTE is the gray case. The phones and other stuff are going to be in Mylar bags later which adds EMP resistance and keeps them from scratching. For now they are in Zip lock bags which are good enough.

Here is what is in the FC now:

Faraday Cage Inventory

1.      2 Motorola Z3 phones with two day batteries w/ Pico Projector mod, 2 wireless charging battery mods that charge when on the phone wired or wirelessly, or off wirelessly.

2.      Surface LTE Tablet w/Typecover, Microsoft Arc mouse, Surface 12 volt car charger, Surface wall charger, Surface pen, USB C - USB A adapter, Anker 341 USB C Hub 7 in 1 port replicator hub, j5 Create USB C 3 in 1 hub, USB C to USB A Adapter cable, 2 USB A to Micro USB cables, 2 USB A to USB C cables, 2 USB C to USB C charge/data cables, Micro USB 3 to USB C power/data cables for 2.5” external drives.

3.      Three 2TB 3.5” drives are in the pics but will be replaced by 2.5” USB 3.1 USB powered portable HDD drives. One 1TB WD My Passport HDD. (Note my case of HDDs And one of my two Thermaltake Blacwill be in a Faraday box I make in the basement.

4.      Anker 13000mAh power bank, Emigvela Type C 20,000mAh 45 Watt PD Power Bank, 3 USB A fast phone wall AC charger, Orico DCAP -55 5-port AC wall charger USB A max 2.4 Ah when using all five, Nitecore Digicharger D2 110 AC/12v DC  with 12 volt car charging cord which is a two-slot rechargeable battery charger for Li-Ion (26650, 22650, 18650, 17670, 18490 17500, 18350, 16340(RCR123), 14500, 10440)  NiMH and NiCd (AA, AAA, AAAA, C rechargeable batteries.

5.      Armitron solar powered watch and a Seiko solar powered watch, one LCD battery watch with 10 year battery.

6.      Micronta 22-185A Digital multimeter. One inline USB diagnostic tool USB A with USB C adapter cables left out as they are not dmaged by EMP alone, 3X magnifier with LED light, #3 Jeweler’s loupe.

7.      Two LED hi power 3.7v 18650 Li-Ion battery flashlights,

8.      USB Flash drives- three 16GB, one 32GB, two 64GB, one 128GB, One 256GB.

9.      Micro SD cards, one 32GB, two64GB, one 128GB with full size adapters and a USB A to micro SD card and full size SD card adapter.

10.   One Earbud HQ headset, Oontz Angle 3 Ultra Bluetooth speaker, Toshiba RP-F11 FM/MW/9-SW 11Band radio/receiver w/ rechargeable batteries and AC adapter.

Notes:

1.      I will need to take out the solar watches to charge in the sun, and the Tablet, Bluetooth speaker, etc. once a month to check battery charge states and on rechargeable batteries and charge/replace as necessary.

2.      Wires for the multimeter, reading glasses etc. are not affected by EMP so don’t go in the Faraday cage. I also have my grandfather’s antique Timex self-winding/automatic watch that takes a licking and still is ticking/works great and can survive an EMP attack and still be used too.

 

OK so I need to sort my rechargeable batteries and find out if alkaline batteries are affected by EMP. I don't have spare batteries assuming alkaline will do OK out. If not I can build another or a larger second FC.

I'll do an in depth thread on this later in "Other topics."

Edited December 30, 2021 by RV_