editione1.0.0
Updated October 9, 2023How I manage my devices might feel closer to your reality than how I protect my email and password managers:
For my phone, I used a PIN that is over 12 numbers long. I also use biometrics as the main form of unlocking; however, my phone will always fall back to my PIN when I restart my device or if my phone thinks someone is trying to bypass their way in. For my laptop, I use a long passphrase and biometrics, and it has the same fallback.
When my family or friends need to borrow a device, I give them an old tablet or laptop that doesn’t have any of my accounts logged in. Sorry nieces, no you can’t play games on my phone. (I am not very popular at family gatherings for this reason.)
I have a spare phone I use for downloading apps that I wouldn’t trust on my main phone that is used for both business and personal use. As an avid MMORPG fan, I want to be able to enjoy these without having to do a full security audit each time there is an update.
I have a laptop that dual-boots Windows and Linux that I use for both personal and business. I have two Chrome profiles, again for personal and business use. I use all built-in operating system security features, and don’t download additional security software. I store my backups in my cloud account.
I have my hard disk encrypted (a setting provided in most operating systems) so that if the physical disk is stolen, the data stored on it can’t be accessed.
The only downloaded security software I have is my VPN. I pay for a VPN service through NordVPN, but I usually opt for a hotspot on my phone and use my mobile data rather than going through the terribly unfun process of getting kicked off cafe wifi for exceeding bandwidth.