Lesson 1 Some Basics
Our first lesson will start simple, and cover some basic topics. Most of these will be articles, with some videos. We can discuss these topics during our online videoconference (Zoom or Facetime calls).
Passwords
Many of the systems we use require that you login or authenticate by entering a password (along with a username in most cases). Coming up with a secure password can be challenging. Here's an article that may help:
Speaking of passwords, here's an article that will help you deal with the Deep Fake technologies, that threaten to undermine our society. Use your browser's Back button to return here:
Documenting your passwords
You're encouraged to use unique passwords for each system you access, but that could be a lot of passwords to remember. Fortunately, many systems remember your password and don't ask you to enter it every time. But eventually, you'll need to know them. It may be because you bought a new phone or computer and need to login again—or you need to reinstall software.
Although many security experts recommend against writing your passwords on a piece of paper or in a book, that tends to be no less secure (practically speaking) than storing them on your computer or phone. Your computer or phone can be hacked from a remote location, and those passwords discovered by the bad guys. They can't read that piece of paper in your desk drawer.
In the rare case that your house is burgled, and that piece of paper discovered, you need to have a way to better protect certain of your passwords. The passwords for your online bank accounts should be secured in your home safe. You have a safe, right?
Backing up your data
This is a subject that we'll cover more than once, and in some detail. For now, you should know that many people and companies do a poor job of ensuring their data is backed up and that they can restore it after a loss. There's a number of companies doing a good business recovering data from the failed hard disks and solid-state-drives of cutomers—and they charge a lot.
Here's a story of a company that did not do a good job of backing up their data—the Associated Press. The AP made very poor decisions in how they backed up their data and suffered an irrecoverable loss. After you read this article, use your browser's Back button to return here.
The good news is you'll do a better job of backing up your data than the AP did. If you use an Apple Mac and Time Machine, you already handle backups well. Still, you need to be concerned about what happens if the disk or storage device that Time Machine uses fails. We'll cover that in a future lesson.