Black October: making your home safer online
A rough week on the internet. Here is what it means for your family, and five things that make a real difference at home.
What happened, in a sentence or two
This week a run of serious security flaws came to light in software that runs a lot of the websites you use. Most big services fixed theirs quickly. For families, the bigger risks are the everyday ones: scam calls and messages that sound real, one leaked password opening several accounts, and old devices that no longer get fixes. None of this needs panic. A few changes at home go a long way.
Five things that make a real difference
Affiliate links. Items 4 and 5 link to NordVPN and NordPass. KIX Labs is an affiliate of both: if you buy through those links we earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
- Update everything. Phones, tablets, laptops, games consoles and the Wi-Fi router. Install updates from the device's own Settings, never from a pop-up or a link in a message. If a device no longer gets updates, it is time to plan a replacement.
- Put a filter on the whole house, with encrypted DNS. A filter such as AdGuard sits on your home Wi-Fi and blocks known scam, malware and tracking sites, and many adverts, for every device on your Wi-Fi at once, including the smart TV and the gadgets you can't install anything on. It can also keep adult content away from the children's devices. Set it to use encrypted DNS (the look-ups your devices make to find each website), so nobody along the way can read them or quietly send you to a fake site. It covers the home Wi-Fi, not phones out on mobile data, which need their own setting.
- Use a hardware key for the accounts that matter most. A small key on your keyring that you tap to sign in. A fake website cannot use it, even if you are fooled into visiting one. Start with your email (it can reset every other password), your Apple or Google account, and your password manager. Buy two and keep the spare somewhere safe. Few UK banks accept keys yet, so for banking use your bank's own app with your face or fingerprint, and if anyone calls claiming to be your bank, hang up and call 159, which puts you through to your real bank (most UK banks take part).
- Use a VPN, at home and when you're out. At home it stops your internet provider seeing which sites you visit, and hides your home connection from the sites themselves. It can run on the router, so every device in the house is covered. On café, hotel or station Wi-Fi, it stops other people on the same network seeing what you do. It will not stop a scam and it does not make you invisible. Choose a paid, well-known one: the VPN company can see what your provider no longer can, and free VPNs often pay for themselves with your data. We use NordVPN.
- A password manager and two-step sign-in for everything else. A different password for every account, remembered for you. Your iPhone or Android phone already has one built in. If the family uses a mix of iPhone, Android and Windows, one that works on all of them, such as NordPass, is easier.
That is a lot to set up, and it is fiddly the first time. Routers have menus nobody understands, keys have to be added account by account, and everyone at home needs to know how it all works. That is where we come in. We will set it up with you, explain it as we go, and never ask for your passwords.