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IMPORTANT NOTICE

Legal Disclaimer: The information, methods, tools, and software recommendations provided by Ken Harris are based on his experiences and knowledge, primarily in the context of the United States. Different regions may have varying cybersecurity standards, laws, and best practices. Users are encouraged to consider this when implementing any advice or methods. Ken Harris is not responsible for any damage to your devices, loss of data, or any other adverse outcomes. Implementing security and privacy practices requires a certain level of technical skill and may impact the functionality and compatibility of your device. Always back up your data before making changes and seek professional advice if unsure. While Ken Harris provides information in good faith, he does not offer warranties or guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness, or applicability of the information itself, nor for any third-party tools or software mentioned. Users should consult individual terms of service or EULAs for third-party products. By using the information on this website, you agree that Ken Harris is not liable for any consequences of your actions.

Warning

Pay attention to these warning notices throughout this site. Not adhering to them could result in irreversible damage or data loss.

Why should I care about cybersecurity?

You might not have given much thought as to why you should care about this topic, so let me give you some significant reasons. As we go into the next few years, cybersecurity is going to become more important than it is today. This is because of things like digital transactions being a normal part of life, your identity being worth a lot of money to a scammer, and the incoming AI threat just to name a few.

There was a big spike in news articles about 15 years ago where scammers were figuring out how to steal the identity of a person and open up lines of credit and even get the victim named as part of a crime when they never knew what was happening. Anytime something like this happens, it can take months of time and annoyance to clean up, and even then, you'll still have to keep an eye on your identity and credit to make sure scammers aren't still using your info.

Then there's people who've had their privacy violated by hackers. Malware was installed on computers, phones, and other devices, and this was used to spy on people without their knowledge. Imagine what would happen if all your most private areas of your life were to suddenly be exposed to the public, just because you didn't know about cyber hygiene. Usually, the hackers will blackmail people for a lot of money to not release what they have (sometimes they are just bluffing and don't actually have any private info).

Now we come to what is becoming a disturbing reality for the world, and that is the combination of AI and intelligent hackers. I'm consistently seeing stories of business being fooled into paying for fake invoices and losing massive amounts of money. I'm also seeing stories of people who were tricked into thinking they were talking to a family member in trouble, but it was actually a scammer who was able to dig up enough personal info and use a cloned voice of a family member. Some of these people then lost huge sums of money.

I could keep going on and on about reasons why you need to be paying more attention to this stuff. This paints a good picture for you. Now that you have some context, you're probably wondering what you can do about it. Let's cover that now.

How Do I Protect Myself?

This will look different for you depending on what it is you are trying to protect, how you want to do it, and how much you are willing to do to protect yourself. I made this site to cover many of the different aspects that are important. You may decide you're mostly interested in outsmarting a scammer, or you may decide that you also want to harden your devices and network against hackers. The degree of how far you want to go is entirely up to you.

Many people get overwhelmed by what there is to know and do. I'm going to mention a few things. First, knowing is half the battle. Now that you're starting to become aware of this, it puts you farther ahead. A lot of people aren't even aware of how important this info is.

Second, you can either dip your hand in the sea of security and privacy or you can talk a long walk off a short dock. Some people immerse themselves in this world just because they want to and others only want to learn some things here and there. That's why this site has been structured so meticulously. I've made it so you can just learn one or two things at a time and work at your own pace if you so choose, or you can spend hours researching each topic and supplementing it with Google to learn more about that topic and sub topics.

Third, there's a lot of info on the web which is very fragmented, which means you have to figure out which sites to go to in order to learn what's what. There also tends to be a lot of fluffy garbage. A lot of people that talk about cybersecurity use meaningless words for a home user like "stakeholders" and "military grade encryption." I kept that garbage out from this site, because it won't do anything to help bring more people into this field to help them learn what they need.

How does this site fit into all this?

I decided it was time to make something that was going to be useful for home users. A centralized site where you can learn a lot of different topics. What I have on this website took years to learn and I wanted to condense the useful info into knowledge for others to use. I also wanted to make something useful for a home user. There are a lot of sites that will teach things that apply more in a business or government environment, but some of that knowledge doesn't work for a home user.

I also made a more realistic approach to how I give this knowledge. Any IT professional understands that bugs will always exist and nothing is ever 100% secure. It's not a matter of if you get hacked, it's a matter of when. I know that probably sounds alarming - it's meant to be realistic. If you've already taken steps to secure yourself and you have a plan in place to cleanup after a hack, you'll be way ahead of most people. For some people, a hack can destroy their much of their life and cause months of chaos.

Here are some benefits for you to know about security and privacy:

  • Knowing how to keep your private life confidential
  • Help to keep malware from infecting your devices
  • Protecting your finances from scammers and hackers
  • Protecting your identity from ruined credit and a damaged reputation
  • Enjoying the internet more by knowing how to protect yourself
  • Learning more about tech

I also took an approach of covering both theory and practicality. Having the tools of the trade is important, and I strongly recommend people use them to help protect themselves, but the human element is the most important part. A person could have the best antivirus in the world but could still get hacked if they don't use good judgement. The theory side of all this is what I strongly recommend you work on. If you know how to shield yourself against hackers, you don't need to rely nearly as heavily on tools to help you.

Also, I strongly recommend you find other sources of information to use as a supplement. I've found that sometimes I won't be able to understand a topic when one person teaches it, but quickly grasp it when another person does. There are topics on this site I might have explained in a way that won't make sense to you, but might make sense from another source.

I'll also mention that I'm not an expert in cybersecurity. I think the word expert gets thrown around way too much these days. If you haven't seen any of my YouTube videos yet, you'll see that cybersecurity is one of my favorite domains in the world of IT. I've been immersed in learning and practicing in this field for many years and it's one of the most mentally stimulating things I've ever done. That being said, someone could spend the next 50 years doing cybersecurity and still not know everything there is to know about it. Much of that is because what's learned today is outdated by tomorrow and everything has changed. That goes for anything else in IT and just about every other profession on this planet. No one is infallible and I've made a lot of mistakes and broken a lot of systems to learn what I discuss on this site. You should always do your due diligence and seek out as much information as you can to get a full picture of what you're doing.

Also, none of the information on this site will protect you from a nation state actor like a federal law enforcement agency. There's a very small group of people that seek out info like what is on this website because they want to try to hide something illegal. I don't have info like that on this site. After enough study, you'll know why it's impossible to hide from a nation state actor if they want to catch you. Trying to be an "off grid" person draws suspicion to you. No matter how good someone is with trying to hide, they can easily be discovered by a nation state actor.

One last thing to note. While there is software that I recommend throughout this site, it is the responsibility of you, the user, to do your due diligence to determine if it's right for you and suits your needs.