Digital Self-Defense

Episode summary The first priority of our email workshop is simple: reduce your email stress. It might sound surprising, but I see lowering email stress as a vital -- and often overlooked -- security improvement. When we’re stressed, we think less clearly and are more likely to click on something we shouldn’t. Some people are so overwhelmed by email that they check it as little as possible. That’s...

Episode summary In this episode, we’re exploring who can benefit most from our email workshop. If email causes you stress, frustration, or fear -- this workshop might be for you. But improving your email situation requires doing things differently, and you need to be ready to do that. There are many strategies, and I’ll work with you to find the ones that best match your needs and priorities. The...

Episode summary Email has never been more important. It’s the master key to all your online accounts and the universal way we communicate. But for many of us, email is also a constant source of frustration -- spam piling up, the fear of clicking something dangerous, or just feeling overwhelmed by the flood of messages. That’s why I’m going to be running a live, interactive group workshop over Zoom...

Helpful episodes to listen to first Do I Need to Upgrade to Windows 11? Should I Upgrade to Windows 11? Episode summary If you are sticking with Windows 10, I highly recommend installing the InControl app from my favorite security podcaster, Steve Gibson. Fair warning: his website looks like it’s straight out of the early 2000s and is geared toward technical folks like me. If you poke around, just...

Helpful episodes to listen to first Do I Need to Upgrade to Windows 11? Episode summary If you’re wondering whether to upgrade to Windows 11, the answer is probably: yes - if your computer can handle it. If you have an older PC, it might not meet the requirements. You can check by installing Microsoft’s PC Health Check App . From a security perspective, there’s not a huge difference between Window...

Episode summary When shopping on Amazon, how do you decide what product to buy? If you're like most people, you look primarily at the cost and reviews, and maybe the brand. What most people are missing out on is paying attention to the seller. You can find this just under the Buy Now button - each product has 2 sellers - the "Ships From" and the "Sold By". Anytime you are buying something "Sold By...

Helpful episodes to listen to first The Safe Website Checklist Episodes Episode summary One tool that can be useful to help you shop safely online for quality products is paying attention to brands. On the other hand, sometimes the brand doesn't matter much. If you can look at a product and determine for yourself if it's well made, then brand doesn't matter so much. My daughter knows how to sew, s...

Episode summary After October 14, 2025, Microsoft will no longer provide free updates or fixes for the many bugs found each month in Windows 10. That means it's time to make a hard decision. Option 1: Do what Microsoft recommends and upgrade to Windows 11. There's many good and valid reasons not to, and my personal plan is to avoid it for hopefuly 5 years still. Option 2: Pay Microsoft $30 for one...

Episode summary If you shop at Amazon much, you've seen a lot of weird brands. I just searched for juggling balls, and here's a sample of the brands it showed: Duncan, Zeekio, POITOI, Schylling, GloFX, Elcoho, Leitee, GoSports, Lawei, URATOT, Cedilis, DSJUGGLING, speevers. Have you ever wondered why? If not, now's the time to consider it, because the way Amazon does business has massive implicatio...

Episode summary Have you ever looked at a supposed sale price on Amazon, and wondered if it was real? Wonder no longer! There's an awesome tool with a funny name - CamelCamelCamel. You just copy the internet address from the item you're looking at on Amazon, and paste it into CamelCamelCamel.com , and you get a detailed price history. To make it even easier, you can add a special "bookmarklet" tha...

Episode summary After recording nearly 80 episodes, I've learned a lot about how I like to teach. So it's time for my next experiment. I want to try again to make episodes of about 10 minutes. I want it easier for you to find what you're looking for, and catch up on just the parts that are of greatest value to you. I also want more flexibility, so we are dropping the opening questions, and the cal...

Helpful episodes to listen to first Introduction to Privacy.com Questions we answer in this episode What is Makani's most used online shopping tool? What are 2 key features it provides? What 3 subscription problems does it fix? Episode summary Privacy.com offers super powered Privacy Cards that you can use to shop online. You create a unique Privacy Card for each business, then pause and set a spe...

Helpful episodes to listen to first Check #1 - Is the website less than a year old? Check #2 - What does Trustpilot say? What is a Protection Partner Questions we answer in this episode Why does this check sometimes get skipped? What’s one super simple way to spot a fake shopping site? Why might a scammer want you to contact them? Which red flags in a reply should make you walk away? Episode summa...

Helpful episodes to listen to first Episode on Safe Website Checklist Item #1 Questions we answer in this episode What is Trustpilot? How did they help Makani identify a highly enticing scam? How can you use Trustpilot to help you stay safe while shopping online? When does Makani use Trustpilot? Episode summary Trustpilot helped me avoid a scam for a bogus body scale, called Body Pod and sold by H...

Helpful episodes to listen to first Don't Let Websites Send You Notifications Give Every Website a Unique Email Questions we answer in this episode What bad stuff can happen when you are browsing a new shopping website? How has browser safety changed over the years? What are 4 rules to stay safe while browsing the web? Episode summary Browsing the web today is safer than it's ever been, as long as...

Episode summary Kem humbly shares his "epic fail" (his words, not mine!) story so we can all learn from his mistakes. As the story opens, Kem searches for a nice picture of Wellington, New Zealand for his wife's computer wallpaper. As he was speeding along, he accidentally clicked yes on a popup he shouldn't have, giving some malware backdoor access to his computer. As it tried to spread farther t...

Helpful episodes to listen to first Makani Leaks His Own Data Questions we answer in this episode What's the first skill we need to stay safe shopping online? What are the two buckets of bad shopping websites? What are the two buckets of phishing websites? What is the first item on our "safe website" checklist? Episode summary A vital skill in staying safe while shopping online is knowing how to t...

Helpful episodes to listen to first What is a Security Stack Questions we answer in this episode What are the 6 layers in the Bulletproof Stack Formula? How are they grouped? What are the most neglected layers? Episode summary There are 6 types of layers we can review to help us build a Security Stack. They help us build redundancy into our Security Stack. Yes, that's a good thing! We want as many...

Helpful episodes to listen to first Seven Critical Router Security Settings How DDoS Attacks Affect You Questions we answer in this episode What are the 5 questions in the Bulletproof Stack Formula? How do they help us? Episode summary There are 5 questions we can ask to help us build a Security Stack. These questions help to ensure that our Security Stack is relevant. This means there is a legiti...

Helpful episodes to listen to first Our Super Chatty Devices Questions we answer in this episode What are the 4 phases in a Security Stack? How do they help us? Which one is the most important? Episode summary The 4 phases of a Security Stack are: Learn, Prevent, Detect, and Repair. This parallels how an attack affects us over time. We want to Learn about an attack before it hits us, and ideally P...

Helpful episodes to listen to first 4 Strategies for Picking Your Priorities Questions we answer in this episode What does Makani love building? What is a Security Stack? How do you build one? What is the twist on our usual Call-to-Actions for this series? Episode summary A Security Stack is a piece of your Personal Security Plan focused on a specific area. It is comprised of layers of protection...

Questions we answer in this episode What is the 4P formula? What are 4 strategies for picking your priorities? What is the theme of our new series of episodes? How many episodes do you think it will take Makani to finish it? Episode summary There's a lot of ways you can improve your online security. But where should you begin? It can be a daunting question to answer. Picking your priorities goes a...

Helpful episodes to listen to first Unique Email Addresses Troy Hunt Phished Troy Hunt Part 2 Questions we answer in this episode Why is Makani sharing his story? What is a domain name registrar? What is whois data? How can it help me stay safe online? Episode summary A domain name is what we think of as a website - facebook.com or makanimason.com. In order to have your own domain, you need to pay...

Helpful episodes to listen to first Episode 62, Even a Security Expert Can Get Phished (Troy Hunt, Part 1) Episode 17, Eliminating Email Exhaustion - Part 2 - Unique Emails Episode 42, Website and Email Filtering, Part 3: Email Friends Questions we answer in this episode Who is to blame for Troy getting phished? How can you reliably tell who sent you an email? How can you cut down your email spam?...

Questions we answer in this episode Who is Troy Hunt? How did he get phished? What are some lessons we can learn from his story? Who will we be inviting as a guest to the podcast? Episode summary Troy Hunt, a security expert, got phished. He clicked a link in an email, and entered his password into a fake website. The hackers logged into his Mailchimp account that he uses to send his email newslet...