> Most places do NOT need your real personal details. Unless it's a financial or government service, consider using an alias.
Unfortunately I received some feedback when I started applying for jobs that I need a more professional email address (I used my online alias back then). What to do in this case? And is it a good idea to keep different aliases, say, one for general internet use, and one for gaming?
It's definitely trickier with job applications. Because you're usually going through a platform/service rather than to the employer directly, you'd want a level of anonymity given the service is much more likely to leak your data/be the target of a breach than the employer.
But like you said that's not always easy to do, so maybe you could instead have an email alias (through like anonaddy/fastmail/simplelogin etc) that looks generic but professional enough when applying through a service, but have your more personal email on your actual CV? Just an idea, though probably not an ideal solution. Thanks for pointing it out.
Hey HN. I've worked in tech for a few years, and have recently finished a masters in cyber security.
A big part of the motivation to do the masters and gradually shift over to the security and privacy space was seeing just how many people - friends, colleagues, friends-of-friends etc - had little to no awareness of the dangers inherent online. I liken it to what it must have been like in medieval or wild west times; you could casually get stabbed or shot and that was a standard affair.
I also recognise that our attention is much more dearly-won and stretched than ever before between the myriad of social, entertainment, and news media services.
And so I decided to put together an accessible and motivational one-page source of how to do the bare-minimum to protect yourself as a not-so-techy person online.
This seemed like the place to finally post/get feedback on/figure out whether this is just a waste of time. Hoping the page seems like something you could otherwise helpfully throw a friend or family member's way if they're looking to try and be safer online.
I m curious why you suggested KeePass instead of KeePassXC. It's been years since I compared them and ended on the latter.
Also KeePassDX for android (there's an Iphone version to read db files as well) is a good recommendation. You then sync the database in the cloud you use (optimally nextcloud but since the file is encrypted even GDrive etc can work). The ability to have the passwords synced is very useful.
P.S. With a setup like this there's you minimize the risk of getting hacked because you are not using a password service and someone would need to compromise your device to get to the passwords (which is a given if they own your device anyway).
It wasn't so much that I was suggesting one over the other - more that I figured anyone who might be interested and savvy enough would probably also know how to do the same sort of research you did to find that more optimal solution. My primary focus was on trying to help anyone who wouldn't even know what the acronym 'db' stands for, let alone that they can do a bunch of cool, more complex stuff like what you're suggesting.
Great shout though! Something I'll almost certainly look into for myself if nothing else.
Unfortunately I received some feedback when I started applying for jobs that I need a more professional email address (I used my online alias back then). What to do in this case? And is it a good idea to keep different aliases, say, one for general internet use, and one for gaming?