It's not that I'm a spy. It's that I want to protect myself digitally as much as possible, despite being forced to interface with the internet by large institutions.
We can go back and time and argue about the lack of security just four decades ago (George Hayduke[1] had a series of books on how to exfiltrate info in the 60's & 70's through social engineering). However, here we are: in a virtual world that is simultaneously more secure and less secure than ever. Compare: we have evolving security protocols that are being hardend every year by attacker's pushing on them, yet our entire lives are open like never before for the picking-off by one clever blackhat.
It is maddening, and I consider myself far more cognizant of the issues than a typical chain-letter sharing, 8-char all-text passwording, facebook user.
From whom? Understanding the threat model is incredibly important to understanding how and what to defend against. It sounds like you're just chucking "security ideas" over the fence in the hopes that one might protect you.
Protection against cyber criminals and other net denizens? You're probably overkill and also not helpful in some circumstances. Tor is generally for anonymizing internet traffic, but using a financial institution is the exact opposite of anonymity.
ISP? Maybe? Depends on what you're doing and why. With DPI and other tools it's not clear cut.
Nation state? Not much you can do. Very little can protect you if Russia decides you're a person of interest.
> It sounds like you're just chucking "security ideas" over the fence in the hopes that one might protect you.
Precisely my point!
You describe a situation where "buyer beware" means staying up to date with the latest netsec and tech rags. That is simply unfeasible for the vast majority of people, including me.
But you know what: I can't get simjacked anymore because I read about that. I have stronger passwords because of hard tokens, because I read about that.
What next 50 things do I need to read about to stay "safe", and what even IS "safe"?
This is nontrivial and our identities literally depend on it. The fall-off costs are astonishingly high.
We can go back and time and argue about the lack of security just four decades ago (George Hayduke[1] had a series of books on how to exfiltrate info in the 60's & 70's through social engineering). However, here we are: in a virtual world that is simultaneously more secure and less secure than ever. Compare: we have evolving security protocols that are being hardend every year by attacker's pushing on them, yet our entire lives are open like never before for the picking-off by one clever blackhat.
It is maddening, and I consider myself far more cognizant of the issues than a typical chain-letter sharing, 8-char all-text passwording, facebook user.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Screw-Unto-Others-Revenge-Occasions/d...