[HN Gopher] Ask HN: What steps do you take to protect yourself a...
___________________________________________________________________
Ask HN: What steps do you take to protect yourself and your family
online?
This week, I found out that someone opened a bank account in my
name. I was able to block the account, but I am not receiving any
help from the bank. They don't even have a phone number to let me
talk to someone. Everything is done via email :( What steps can I
take, to protect myself online? By now, it is safe to assume that
my SSN, address, employment info are in multiple databases
somewhere. Given this scenario, any advice?
Author : akudha
Score : 102 points
Date : 2021-11-26 15:06 UTC (7 hours ago)
| jacquesm wrote:
| No Windows based computers. As for identity theft, it happens as
| well here in Europe, but not as often because there is a pretty
| strict KYC requirement for banks.
| foepys wrote:
| I don't understand why you single out Windows. iPhones seem to
| get owned by iMessage exploits regularly, every Android patch
| seems to include critical fixes to the media framework (if
| those patches even reach your device), macOS has had its fair
| share of exploits and viruses, and Linux is just not
| interesting enough at the moment.
| watermelon0 wrote:
| Majority of malware (intended for average users) still
| primarily targets Windows, so there is just less chance you
| will ever encounter it on other platforms. It just makes
| sense to target 95% of people, and not care that much about
| the rest.
|
| Most if not all vulnerabilities on up-to-date iOS/Android are
| used for targeted attacks (people with power, journalists,
| etc.) and not to reach regular people.
|
| AFAIK most malware is still delivered when users install some
| software, so it would be nice if Windows would become a bit
| more locked down by default, and only allow installing from
| approved stores (i.e. Microsoft Store, Steam, and similar.)
| rohithkp wrote:
| Bitwarden, Adguard-Home/NextDNS, UBlock Origin, Privacy Badger,
| Disable Flash, LocalCDN(Replacing Decentraleyes), Selfthosted
| Paperless-ng and Nextcloud instances for storage and documents
| with seperate accounts for each family member secured behind
| authelia with 2FA. Docker-Mail-Server instance with catchall
| emails for each family member. Enabled 2FA for every sensitive
| account. Private Selfthosted Wireguard tunnel to access local
| network services publically (behind a CGNAT network). Non
| technical family members have been instructed to never use real
| names while signing up for trivial services online. Guacamole to
| provide remote assistance when required.
| ksec wrote:
| >LocalCDN(Replacing Decentraleyes),
|
| I am sure this isn't the first time the idea has popped up.
|
| Should LocalCDN be a built-in feature in Browser?
| rohithkp wrote:
| Ideally, going by the cancerous nature of the internet in
| 2021, web browsers should ship with ublock origin, automatic
| https upgrades, an usable js-blocking toggle and LocalCDN-
| esque features out of the box. Chrome would never do
| something like that but maybe firefox could. Improves privacy
| and usability overall.
| fsflover wrote:
| Using https://qubes-os.org as a daily driver. Browsing Internet
| in disposable VMs. Storing passwords in offline VMs.
| vmoore wrote:
| > I found out that someone opened a bank account in my name
|
| How did you find out that?
| [deleted]
| bigmattystyles wrote:
| I understand that politicians don't necessarily look out for the
| best interest of their constituents over that of powerful
| lobbies, like big finance. But if it were legislatively possible,
| would there be any down sides to society as a whole to flipping
| the script? Meaning make banks the ones responsible for opening
| an account without doing due diligence? Make credit reporting
| companies the ones responsible for essential libeling someone for
| fraudulent credit report entries... I can't think of any, banks
| would have to pay to do due diligence but most businesses should
| have to.
| rsync wrote:
| There is really no reason to use your real name and address for
| anything online - perhaps only airline tickets and government
| agencies (eftps, ftb.ca.gov, etc.).
|
| _Remember_ : Visa/MC cannot verify cardholder name. They pretend
| that they can and merchants believe that they can but there is no
| mechanism to do so.[1] If the numbers match up, you can use
| "Mickey Mouse".
|
| No online retailer/merchant/provider has ever seen our real name
| (or real address). We created a pseudonym and attached it to a PO
| BOX in our town and a twilio phone number.
|
| This doesn't solve every problem but it does solve the simple
| issues of identity theft and impersonation or (very low level)
| attackers correlating our activity to other activities.
|
| YMMV. IANAL.
|
| [1] There _is_ some weird "verified by visa" thing that _does_
| attempt to confirm identity but I 've only seen it once in the
| last 12 years ...
| calcifer wrote:
| For card payments, yes there is no verification but for bank
| transfers, at least here in the UK, "confirmation of payee" is
| a thing and wrong names are rejected [1].
|
| [1] https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/confirmation-of-payee
| traceroute66 wrote:
| Its a tough question to answer, with so many "if's" and "maybes".
| There have already been some good suggestions here which I won't
| repeat.
|
| But one I would suggest is minimising the number of places with
| your "real" information, i.e. if "real" information is not
| required by law (e.g. financial services, health services,
| insurance, billing etc.), then train yourselves to use pseudo
| information.
|
| For example, if a website asks for your date of birth. Ask
| yourself, is it required by law or is it just for user profiling.
| If the latter, then just invent a date of birth (and if the date
| of birth may be required for password recovery, make a note of it
| in your password manager).
|
| The same goes for your "real" name. Do you need to give them your
| real name as shown on your government ID ? Or can you give an
| abbreviation or even pseudonym ?
|
| The same goes for answers to "security questions", just invent
| stuff, don't give the "true" answer.
|
| You can take all the technical countermeasures you like, but
| sometimes it's easier to KISS ... if a service doesn't need your
| details, don't give it to them in the first place.
| isbvhodnvemrwvn wrote:
| And have separate e-mails. I have three tiers of them - one is
| for official matters, the other for semi-official, the third
| for the rest. I almost always use garbled usernames as well.
| traceroute66 wrote:
| > And have separate e-mails
|
| Absolutely ! But that aspect is not just a security thing,
| its an anti-spam thing.
|
| Infact I'd almost consider the security aspect a bonus, the
| ability to kill off email addresses if you start getting
| spammed is the primary benefit (for me at least!).
| cinntaile wrote:
| It is a security thing since you use your emailaddress for
| logging in and resetting passwords. If somebody gains
| access to your email it can be troublesome.
| HPsquared wrote:
| It can also prevent phishing attacks (the address isn't out
| there anywhere).
| MerelyMortal wrote:
| > The same goes for answers to "security questions", just
| invent stuff, don't give the "true" answer.
|
| Invent _plausible_ stuff. Do not use random characters or
| nonsensical words, because then you make it easier for a social
| engineer to bypass that when talking with customer service.
|
| For example, "What was your first pet's name?"
|
| Make up something like "Mister Bubbles", something childish
| that could actually be a pet's name.
| jonplackett wrote:
| This is a very important point. Many customer service agents
| will let people in if they just say "I dunno I just kinda
| mashed the keypad" or "oh it was just some random letters".
|
| Once you beef up your security, social engineering is the
| weak link that always remains.
| [deleted]
| DamnYuppie wrote:
| I have an easy to remember scheme I use for those annoying
| security questions that alleviates the need to write them down.
| I came up with this idea because everytime I am asked for these
| stupid questions I get very annoyed and my default reflex was
| to internally curse profusely. So I thought I would leverage
| this reaction.
|
| My scheme is this, for any security question there is usually a
| primary noun you can key off of. So I just construct the
| following string: "fyour" + PRIMARY_NOUN. The "f" is spelled
| out to be the more profane form of fornicate but thought I
| would keep it clean for HN.
|
| This allows me to always have an easy to remember answer to all
| security questions where I can satisfactorily express my
| complete disdain for them. I have had to say these out loud
| many times to CSR's and it usually gets a chuckle.
| Viliam1234 wrote:
| > For example, if a website asks for your date of birth. Ask
| yourself, is it required by law or is it just for user
| profiling. If the latter, then just invent a date of birth
|
| I opened YouTube, clicked on a video that requires age
| verification... Google told me to provide a credit card or a
| government ID.
|
| F*** Google.
| acd wrote:
| 1. Duckduckgo search engine, privacy
|
| 2. Noscript, ublock, privacybradger, vpn ad network
|
| 3. No Google, facebook for kids
|
| 4. Limited youtube
|
| 5. Privacy dns settings, dnsdec over tls
|
| 6. Encrypted backups
|
| 7. Password manager
|
| 8. Paranoid security auto updates
| [deleted]
| starwind wrote:
| I generate random passwords and use my browser's password manager
| cause I didn't like the way other password managers integrated
| with my browser. I just keep the passwords I need manually in
| sync between devices. I have a Yubikey for for some really
| important accounts and I've thought up a way to generate unique
| passwords that I have to remember (like work passwords) that
| aren't just upping the number at the end by 1 like "pepperoni4"
| to "pepperoni5". If I can pick an alternative to phone-based 2FA,
| I'll do it, otherwise I'll just roll with the phone-based stuff
| cause it's way better than nothing.
|
| I have a fake life that I made up like a different grandfather,
| first car, or first job, and I add a number between -10 and 10 to
| every digit of my birthday to get a new one for signing up for
| password recovery.
|
| I block 3rd party cookies and delete other cookies weekly. I have
| an ad blocker and I don't use the default DNS from my ISP, and I
| keep things updated for my modem and router. I don't hit up
| sketchy sites so I don't feel like I need a JavaScript blocker.
| Most of the crap I've seen has been through malicious ads. I use
| a container for Google.
|
| I went through the tedious process of having my info deleted from
| the biggest data brokers and wiped out from some online
| databases. They pop up again now and again but usually an email
| takes care of it. I had my identity stolen in the past so I just
| cite that reason.
|
| I don't give out my SSN except to banks, employers, and the
| government. I use my passport if someone needs to establish my
| citizenship. Utilities are the most pushy but if you give them
| like a $50 deposit or set up autopay they'll skip that part.
| Again, saying I'm the victim of identity theft goes a long way. I
| set up accounts with Social Security and I have an IRS pin so no
| one beats me to it.
|
| I have 7 year fraud alerts and froze my credit for the three
| bureaus, and I do free credit monitoring (useful before I froze
| my credit). I did the same for Chex, Innovis, LexisNexis and
| NCTUE. I froze my info from the Work Number. I asked my bank for
| additional security measures and they happily obliged. I use my
| AmEx for near everything online and contactless payment for
| paying at gas stations or if I'm worried about skimmers. I never
| use my debit card for anything except to get cash out of the ATM
| and I have a daily limit set up.
| hourislate wrote:
| I'm assuming you're in the USA.
|
| The most important thing you can do too prevent things like Bank
| Accounts, Credit cards, etc opened in your name is to lock your
| Credit History. Without access no one can open up any kind of
| account. You might also want to lock down your SS Account.
|
| Here are some links to get you started.
|
| https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/topics/identity-theft
|
| https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/what-know-about-credit...
|
| https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-stop-junk-mail
| bellyfullofbac wrote:
| It seems like there needs to be a political push to fix the
| easily exploited systems that just use SSN, etc. E.g. make laws
| that require banks, etc. to need some other form of
| authentication.
|
| But I guess an upgrade of systems will cost hundreds of
| millions of dollars...
| hourislate wrote:
| I was given some good advice a decade ago by my father inlaw.
| Every time you are asked for personal info, give as little as
| possible (need to know/least privilege). When filling out
| forms, just the necessary fields (ex: no middle name/initial,
| home phone, etc). Do they really need a copy drivers lic at
| the doctors office? You can even call your Medical Insurance
| company and get a code that the dentist or doctor can put in
| instead of your SS number, that way you're not giving it out
| as much. There are plenty of things that require little
| effort that can go a long way. Opt out of CC/Insurance/Junk
| mail. Reduce the paper trail is good practice, bills should
| be handled online, direct deposit, etc. And I shouldn't have
| to say this but never use your real name online and refrain
| from all social media unless you can participate anonymously.
| I go as far as using a VPN and Private browsing as a
| minimum/baseline. At Thanks Giving, I would duck and hide
| every time someone took a photo so my face wouldn't end up on
| FB or other social media. My goal is to one day disappear
| from having any online presence or a minuscule foot print, no
| email, dumb phone, services, etc.
| em-bee wrote:
| names are not unique.
|
| i can probably find at least half a dozen people sharing the same
| first and last name as me.
|
| how does someone opening a bank account with the same name as you
| enable them to affect you?
|
| if it does, then there is a system that is seriously broken.
| starwind wrote:
| I'm assuming they used ops SSN. They may have been trying to
| write bad checks or launder money through the account
| slvrspoon wrote:
| disclaimer: i'm a co-founder. https://joindeleteme.com/ we
| consistently find in our DeleteMe searches fairly "rich" profile
| info sold by data brokers and SEO'd on Google not just on our
| customers themselves but also their family. This often includes:
| spouse full name and age (and obviously relationship) and, more
| disturbingly, children's names and ages. We try to remove all
| this via opt-outs. The implications of such full family profile
| data being easily available by simple Google searches and for
| sale "cheap" at data brokers are not imhop awesome. Lastly,
| leaving privacy aside, from a security perspective, do NOT use
| children/family members names and years of births in ANY
| passwords.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Freeze children's SSN with all 3 credit reporting agencies. Open
| irs.gov, social security, and other government accounts before
| someone else can. I use Strongbox with Keepass databases to keep
| track of it all stored in iCloud so spouse can access TOTP it for
| shared items.
|
| Use content blocker (I use Wipr) in Safari, and ublock origin
| Firefox/chrome. And then don't download or install random
| software. Check your credit report every year at each credit
| reporting agency every 4 months by going to
| annualcreditreport.com
| farski wrote:
| There's a fourth credit agency now that it's recommended to put
| a freeze on, but I don't remember the name off the top of my
| head.
| starwind wrote:
| You're probably thinking either Innovis or NCTUE (which does
| utilities and telecom stuff). Innovis makes it real easy to
| freeze or put a fraud alert on your report with them
| kube-system wrote:
| Innovis?
| t0bia_s wrote:
| Pi-hole as primary DNS, 9.9.9.9 as secondary DNS. All browsers
| with plugins uBlock, Unhook, Privacy Badger, Decentraleyes. No
| google services on any device, preferred open source SW. No
| banking apps on smartphones, all card payments need to be
| verified by code from SMS and PIN. Pay by cash everywhere it is
| possible.
| dudul wrote:
| Freeze your credit report with the 3 main companies.
| [deleted]
| replwoacause wrote:
| - Bitwarden - Privacy.com - Fastmail - kDrive - 2-factor on all
| services
| MerelyMortal wrote:
| Since there are probably young people reading this, or parents of
| young people (teach them this): Do not give out you SSN to anyone
| except the government, and try every possible way to avoid giving
| it out to anyone else.
|
| Paper forms ask for it all the time, leave it blank. In fact,
| leave as much blank on any form as possible (I have never been
| asked for info that I've left blank).
|
| Cell phone companies and utility providers ask for it, instead
| offer to pay a deposit or go post-paid.
|
| I haven't tried this before, but my understanding is that U.S.
| law requires banks to have a unique personal identifier number
| for its customers. Banks default to SSNs, but the law does not
| specify it has to be a SSN. Try to create an account in-person
| and use a Driver License number.
|
| If I have any incorrect understandings, please reply with your
| knowledge; or if you have any further ideas, please reply with
| your advice. Thank you.
|
| Edit: removed idea about not getting a SSN for kids. Sounds like
| way more hassle than any potential benefit.
| PopAlongKid wrote:
| It is vastly easier to apply for the SSN at the hospital at
| time of birth. If you don't, there are many non-trivial hurdles
| to jump through later[0]:
|
| At a Social Security office: If you wait to apply for your
| child's number, you must: * Complete an application for a
| Social Security card; and * Show us original documents proving
| your child's: -- U.S. citizenship; -- Age; and -- Identity. *
| Show us documents proving your identity and your relationship
| to the child.
|
| [0] https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10023.pdf
| MerelyMortal wrote:
| Sounds like that's pretty easy, except you have to do it
| instead of the hospital doing it. Sounds like they just need
| a birth certificate.
|
| Anyway, I removed that part of my comment because I am not
| fully knowledgeable about that, and don't want spread any
| false information, and it probably won't help with security
| that much.
| starwind wrote:
| Reddit has a bunch of posts by 19 year olds asking for help
| sorting out their lives because they don't have a social
| security number and the government basically doesn't know they
| exist
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/578jm8/19m_hom...
|
| It's really sad. Get your kid an SSN. If you really want to be
| safe, don't announce their birth on facebook until like 6 weeks
| afterwards and ask family not to post birthday pictures until
| way later
| waynecochran wrote:
| I didn't have a choice w my 3 kids. In fact I was forced to
| give my second child a name (we waited a couple of weeks
| deciding on a name) otherwise the name was going to be "Baby"
| in the birth certificate. We received SSN cards which
| laughably they had to sign. Interesting since I didn't get a
| SSN until I was a teenager.
| MerelyMortal wrote:
| Interesting, thank you for sharing. I've also removed that
| part from my original comment.
| cameronh90 wrote:
| Not really relevant to the topic at hand, but interestingly the
| UK doesn't really have any national ID number valid for both
| children and adults. The only one is the NHS Number but that's
| not used outside of a medical setting.
|
| Additionally my birth certificate isn't digitised. It was
| handwritten with a fountain pen by the local register office.
| For most intents and purposes, the central government didn't
| know I existed until I hit 16 and signed up for a National
| Insurance number.
| dymk wrote:
| Skipping setting up a SSN for your child seems like it's going
| to set them up for major headaches once they're older.
| MerelyMortal wrote:
| Edited my original comment to remove it. I do not have enough
| info to give adivice. Sorry.
| PopAlongKid wrote:
| No, if someone is eligible for an SSN, they are not
| eligible for an ITIN.
| auslegung wrote:
| For your specific issue, you can do a credit freeze (or whatever
| it's called). These have pros and cons, and there are different
| levels of freezes (all called different things iirc). Research
| them and use them if it makes sense.
|
| Signup for regular credit score reports. I get a monthly email
| from one of the credit score companies, plus immediate emails if
| my credit gets checked.
|
| I use 1password and Fastmail with my own domain, and privacy.com.
| With those three (and their integrations) I can easily create
| unique debit cards, unique email addresses, and unique passwords
| each time I register for another site/service. This doesn't help
| your specific issue but it helps with a lot of things.
|
| Use NextDNS on your router and devices and set it up to use dns-
| over-https. Block ads etc.
|
| Links to above mentioned sites which may benefit me and/or you:
|
| - https://nextdns.io/?from=k6bqh5rg
|
| - https://ref.fm/u26310488 (fastmail)
|
| - https://privacy.com/join/JCPFN
| moneywoes wrote:
| Anyone know if these are possible in Canada?
| akudha wrote:
| I have done a credit lock, is that enough? Or do I need a
| credit freeze?
| [deleted]
| auslegung wrote:
| That's where I'm not sure and you'll need to do some
| research. It's been a while since I knew these things and
| even then I didn't know them well. But I am aware that banks
| don't always check your credit right away when you open a new
| credit card, so even with a credit lock or credit freeze
| someone else could still open a credit card in your name. Or
| at least that was true once upon a time, regulations may have
| change by now.
| starwind wrote:
| Credit "locks" are kind of a scam. You definitely want to put
| a 1 year fraud alert on your credit report where a lender is
| supposed to call the number you include to verify that you
| applied for credit. You can also freeze your credit if you
| have no plans to apply for any credit cards or a mortgage in
| the immediate future.
|
| Get the fraud alert on Chex, too. They're the equivalent of
| the credit rating agencies for bank accounts. If you don't
| need to switch banks soon, I'd definitely freeze that one.
|
| https://www.chexsystems.com/web/chexsystems/consumerdebit/pa.
| ..
|
| https://www.chexsystems.com/web/chexsystems/consumerdebit/pa.
| ..
|
| If you have a credit card through Chase, AmEx, or CapitalOne
| you can get free credit monitoring where they'll email you or
| send you a push notification as soon as a lender does a hard-
| pull against either your Tranunion or Experian reports.
|
| Have you filed a police report? I've had my identity stolen
| and helped some of my friends resolve identity theft issues
| so I speak from experience: you will get _so much further_ if
| you can fax or email people copies of a police report
|
| Hmu if you need any help resolving this.
| wnevets wrote:
| You probably want the credit freeze. These companies are
| required by the US law to provide the service for free.
| Credit locks usually require payment to get.
| [deleted]
| jszymborski wrote:
| Sorry to hear it.
|
| # Here are some of the things that I've done. Here's to hoping
| it's effective.
|
| 1) Everyone uses Bitwarden[0] to store their passwords. We have
| an Organisation account which makes sharing passwords easy. I
| check master passwords against HaveIBeenPwned, and ask they use
| the generated Bitwarden passwords for their accounts.
|
| 2) The least tech-saavy amongst my family either get Chromebooks
| (which I despise because Google), or they get a Windows machine
| that I lock down pretty hard [1]. The lock-down may look
| draconian to power users, but they've yet to mention they can't
| do something they want to.
|
| 3) Its listed in the link in (2), but I make sure everyone runs
| uBlock Origin. It's far more useful than an antivirus.
|
| 4) I have a few catch-all emails I encourage my family to use for
| subscriptions. When asked for an email, use [website
| name]@[family member code].[domain].[tld]. That way, unless
| spearfished, you're likely to know the true providence of an
| email.
|
| 5) We have a NAS that is 3-2-1 backed-up, and encourage everyone
| to keep sensitive information there. Hopefully this is enough to
| avoid cryptolockers extorting us.
|
| # Things I want to do
|
| 5) It would be better if we used one of those self-hosted random
| email generators to prevent maliciously constructed email domains
| at our catch-all instilling false confidence.
|
| 6) I'd like to install PiHole [2].
|
| 7) I have a Twilio number that goes straight to voice mail and
| sends me the audio files and forwards SMS. I'd like to create
| these for my family (maybe using extension numbers?) so they can
| use them on forms.
|
| [0] https://bitwarden.com/
|
| [1] https://noteaureus.org/post/tutorials/sysadmin/win4unsavvy/
|
| [2] https://pi-hole.net/
| garrtt wrote:
| Not very familiar with self hosted emails, could you explain
| how the subscription emails work? How does putting the website
| before the @ work? Does your email server then forward those
| emails to the corresponding family member since I'm guessing
| the email address doesn't exist before subscribing.
| jimktrains2 wrote:
| Each family member has a subdomain all to themselves. The
| website before the @ allows them to know where the sender got
| the email address from. You can have catch-all addresses on
| emails, so anything without a mailbox is sent to the default
| mailbox that's configured.
|
| It need not be self hosted to do this. Most email providers
| provide this functionality.
| jszymborski wrote:
| That's exactly right. I don't self-host the email (you can
| use any service that takes catch-alls like mailbox.org).
|
| anything '@subdomain' gets forwarded to its respective
| family member's email.
| 2Gkashmiri wrote:
| i use mailinabox on a cheap vps. 10-20 minutes install no
| problem. what the poster meant was
| hackernews@12.familyname.xyz here 12 is family member code
| and hackernews is the actual website where that person is
| trying to get registered.
|
| this is pretty awesome setup because if you get spams from
| anyone, you can simply see which family member signed up for
| which website and which one is leaking data. the next step,
| if required would be to delete that account/email and be done
| with it. no more spam, no more going back. If you do need
| that email in future, recreating it would be trivial, like if
| you need to get back into an old account or the like
| unbanned wrote:
| >I check master passwords against HaveIBeenPwned
|
| How?
|
| I'm just imagining the wallet inspector from that episode of
| the Simpsons
| jszymborski wrote:
| haha, yah there's a deal of trust in managing systems like
| this. Luckily they can also check the passwords themselves,
| but I try to teach them not to input their master password
| into websites that aren't on the bitwarden domain.
|
| I use the website directly
| https://haveibeenpwned.com/Passwords
| a-r-t wrote:
| The problem with Twilio numbers (or any other VoIP) is that
| most websites don't accept them for account creation.
| rsync wrote:
| If you're really going to go down this rabbit hole (and this
| is HN, after all) you should consider creating and
| maintaining a "2FA Mule":
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28251107
| jszymborski wrote:
| Interesting! This honestly does not seem that awful to set
| up at all.
| codegeek wrote:
| Also go here https://identitytheft.gov and make sure to follow
| the steps they have.
| runjake wrote:
| If you can't find time to getting Pi-hole going, check out
| NextDNS, which is only $1.99 a month and very configurable (if
| you want. It also has sensible defaults.)
|
| https://nextdns.io
|
| I believe the fellow who runs NextDNS is on HN.
| rymurr wrote:
| your tutorial for locking down windows is super useful, thanks!
| Any recommendations for remote administration? I would like to
| set this up for my parents but need to be able to address any
| issues they might have w/o a transatlantic flight ;-)
| hluska wrote:
| My parents have different levels of technical skills but I
| help both. My Dad is a nerd - I didn't see it coming but I'm
| planning on stealing his lunch money the next time I get to
| see him. My Mom really hates computers and though I know this
| isn't technically possible, they seem to hate her back.
|
| Despite their differences, I can use Quick Assist with both.
| And between my Dad's sudden turn towards becoming me in high
| school and my Mom's innocent transgressions, I've never run
| into anything I couldn't fix with it.
|
| Worst case scenario, my Dad and I have talked about a
| volunteer based group of people who help other cats around
| his age. If your parents are on the same side of the ocean as
| we are, we can help in a closer timezone. My Dad is a retired
| police officer (you can trust him) turned nerd (you maybe
| shouldn't trust him) and I've been drafted into the odd role
| of his nerd supervisor. If you're worried about your folks,
| he'll give them his phone number.
| PenguinCoder wrote:
| AnyDesk is free for personal use, as long as you're not for
| some reason domain joined.
| jszymborski wrote:
| Glad you liked the tutorial :)
|
| I don't have a lot of experience with remote administration,
| but I use Tailscale with RDP/VNC/SSH to access my own
| machines when I'm away from them.
|
| I like to avoid TeamViewer/AnyDesk/etc... because the GUI
| makes it too easy for folk to get scammed (watching Kitboga
| all these years makes me want to avoid them like the plague).
| admax88qqq wrote:
| I seem to be on a continual quest for better backup/storage.
| I'd love to hear more about your NAS setup.
| verve_rat wrote:
| Yes, me too. I've got a unraid nas at home and I've really
| struggled to figure out a no hassle backup solution.
| jszymborski wrote:
| I doubt it's the perfect backup set-up, but I've been able to
| do regular restore tests.
|
| I have a Synology NAS which has a Borg community package. I
| use BorgBase for remote backups, and have another local
| backup on one of the volumes in the NAS. I keep dailies for a
| week, monthlies for a year and three yearlies, with automatic
| pruning.
|
| Once a year, I do my best to back-up my most important stuff
| on DVDs, but I'm not a very disciplined person. I keep them
| on a spindle, which is also probably bad practice.
| bob331 wrote:
| Delete all of your social media
| GoodbyeMrChips wrote:
| > I found out that someone opened a bank account in my name......
| but I am not receiving any help from the bank.
|
| Interesting.
|
| Assuming this is to take out loans in your name, it is the bank
| who are being defrauded, not you. Registered snail-mail to the
| banks fraud/legal team reiterating this often works wonders.
|
| I say snail mail as it gives you a legal trail, goes directly to
| the department responsible and (at least in this part of the
| world) gives very cheap next day delivery. This is much easier
| and less stressful than being kept on hold indefinitely, only to
| speak to a clueless fuckwit in a call centre.
| starwind wrote:
| They should start by filing a police report for identity theft,
| and emailing things to customer service or faxing can give a
| faster and better paper trail
| GoodbyeMrChips wrote:
| I agree with you in principle, however calling it "identity
| theft" is to be discouraged.
|
| Assuming this is to take out fraudulent loans, the 'theft' is
| occurring from the bank, not OP. Calling this "identity
| theft" is an attempt to put the onus of blame on OP for the
| failure of corporations to protect personal information and
| combat fraud. My point is that OP needs to strongly push back
| against this.
|
| This is for the bank to fix, and OP should put a legal claim
| into the bank (aka bill them!) both for their time and any
| financial losses they suffer due to the banks negligence.
|
| Regards email vs snail mail; a recipient cannot claim
| registered snail mail was not received, unlike the case with
| email. This is a reason legal departments use registered
| snail mail :-)
| starwind wrote:
| You're right, I missed when you said _registered_ snail
| mail, I didn 't see that (I need new glasses, it's getting
| too hard to read) and I thought you just meant normal mail.
|
| Second point: this absolutely is identity theft and that
| isn't a strike against op at all. Someone impersonated op
| to open an account. You're correct that the bank is liable
| for the fraud, but op is still the victim of a crime and
| has to jump through hoops to fix it. And the bank isn't
| going to pay a dime to op. For all we know, someone
| submitted a really good fake driver's license (or a copy of
| the real one) and SS card and opened the account.
|
| I'm not blaming op at all--I had my identity stolen twice
| and the most you can _blame_ me for is not putting fraud
| alerts on my credit reports, including one I didn 't even
| know about--but the balls in their court to fix this
| GoodbyeMrChips wrote:
| Thanks for your input.
|
| Did you put in a claim to the bank for your losses (your
| time sorting this out and quantifiable financial loss)?
| This would be a simple thing to do in the UK [1] as the
| bank was clearly at fault not you, no matter how
| convincing the fake ID was.
|
| [1] You can fill out this online government form in a few
| minutes to take them to small claims for a small fee
| (which you add to your claim) https://www.gov.uk/make-
| money-claim
| starwind wrote:
| I wish I could put in a claim but I'm in the US :|
|
| My identity theft didn't (directly) involve a bank. It
| was a major retailer where someone opened and maxed out a
| credit card in my name, a cell phone company where they
| opened up a new family plan and made off with 4 unlocked
| iphones, and (later) the Small Business Administration
| where someone applied for a covid relief loan that got
| approved for about $100k. Luckily, my credit monitoring
| instantly caught it and I was able to call and stop
| dispersal
|
| All-in-all I was out a few hours of my time and the cost
| to make copies and send faxes
| _huayra_ wrote:
| https://github.com/yaelwrites/Big-Ass-Data-Broker-Opt-Out-Li...
|
| It's a pain to do, but it really helps to opt out of data broker
| lists. I have a reminder to do this once per year, and only the
| "diff" of my life updates show up (e.g. address reappears because
| I moved, changed voter registration as a result, etc).
|
| There are also services you can pay to do this, but they are
| usually priced extremely high or are straight up scams (i.e.
| they'll take your PII and then scam you with it).
|
| It's better to just do it yourself so you know there's no
| middlemen to be forced to trust.
| jrhomie wrote:
| I tried this about a year ago but it was pretty futile. The
| issue is that data brokers repopulate your info every ~6-8
| weeks. It's designed to be nearly impossible to keep up with.
|
| This bothered me so much that I actually started a company to
| solve the problem of continuous opt-out from data brokers. I
| think we're priced pretty reasonably given how important this
| stuff is ($99/yr).
|
| As far as trust goes, we went through YC W21 (as RoundRobin)
| and I'm happy to answer any questions people have.
| www.crowdshield.com
| hash872 wrote:
| I remove myself from data broker websites as a hobby, and I
| don't find it futile at all. They haven't repopulated my data
| whatsoever, and they actually take GPDR/CCPA threats pretty
| seriously. (Sometimes you do need to email the executives
| directly- fun fact, you can just look them up on other data
| broker sites!) I've removed myself from every one, for free,
| with a minimal time commitment. You may just be plugging your
| company, no offense
| jdoss wrote:
| I am glad they posted. I'd rather spend my time not
| removing myself from these sites as I have other things I'd
| rather be doing.
| crispyambulance wrote:
| I was able to do it with a particularly annoying bottom-feeding
| data-broker, "mylife.com". Their latest scheme was to assign
| people a bullshit "reputation score". I found this really
| offensive and it made me angry enough to try to get my name out
| of their database. Some youtube video showed how to do it.
|
| It required a frustrating ~15 minute phone call (the number is
| somewhere on their website) to an Indian call center where they
| tried to upsell me a dozen times or so. But I was polite and
| persistent and asked to have my name removed over and over.
| That was almost 2 years ago. It seems to have worked. My name
| doesn't show up anymore if I search on mylife and no mylife
| pages appear on google searches for me.
|
| I still do get emails EVERY DAY from these MF'ers. It's just
| bullshit about how there's a "negative" item in my reputation
| and that "7 people are looking at my reputation". AFAIK, it's
| just automated junk, because my name doesn't come up any more
| on mylife.
| blibble wrote:
| 1) family have had it drummed into them to never click links in
| emails or open attachments unless it's something they explicitly
| requested moments before
|
| 2) no Windows
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