CyberMe
The Internet of Us
This is about the IOUs of the IoU. About the Internet of Us and the debt that we're all building as we cavort in Cyberspace.
Some of us don't like to waste money, and some of us don't have money to waste. And some of us have money to waste, and do, and don't care much.
But most of us don't have a lot of time to waste.
And non of us want online crooks to steal what we do have - especially the care-less money wasters, who probably have more worth stealing and can make juicy targets for that Cyber Scum.
As we spend more and more time online we're building a triple IOU with the Internet. We owe more and more:
Money: to pay for online subscriptions, apps, and the tech to use them
Time: that we have to spend in the care and feeding of all that CyberStuff
Security Risk: that we increase every time we get new on-line accounts, subscriptions, apps, and tech.
This site is about some of the things that the Internet of Us can do to help tame that other IOU.
The Program
We consumers are struggling with the triple threat of our CyberStuff: Costs, Security, and Wasted Time. And we urgently need solutions. The CyberMe Program is an evolving, actionable solution for families and home businesses that can start to make a difference.
The three components of the program are:
The Model: We're developing a model of family Internet tech that will evolve to show its vulnerabilities and their potential mitigations - the things we can do to save time and money, and to reduce risk.
The Tools: We make specific product recommendations. for third party products and our own "weBooks". Yes, we do receive "affiliate" commissions for some of the products but they don't cost you anything extra, and they don't influence our selections. These are all products that we use ourselves and we make sure they work together. We only recommend one in each category so you can avoid the Internet research rabbit holes that we've already been down.
The weBooks: These are Excel workBooks coupled with companion eBooks. The wBooks provide personal dashboards and checklists for your threat reduction journey and the eBooks tie everything together. WeBooks are geared to real people and families with busy lives to lead. Each weBook is designed with a "progressive", "just-in-time" approach - consume and use as much or as little as you need and avoid being overwhelmed. See more about weBooks.
The Tools
Sophos Home Premium: Antivirus and ransomware protection
1Password: Password & Identity protection:
VPN: Coming soon
Hardware Firewall: Coming soon
Synology: Network & cloud backup protection
The weBooks
Available now
Cyber Services. Manage your on-line Cyberstuff
Coming Soon ...
Apps & Things: Tame your in-home Cyberstuff
Identity: Take control of the on-line you
Behind the Scenes ...click here ...
Behind the scenes we are developing a "Simple Cyber Security Framework" - our SCSF. This identifies some of the cyber threats to home-based cyber tech that we describe in our evolving model, and some ways to mitigate those threats. Because this SCSF is based on an integrated "reference" architecture that we implement ourselves, we can ensure the threat mitigation products work well together and we can suggest how to deal with the inevitable overlap in their functionality. And unlike government publications, we make a specific, "best-of-breed" product recommendation for each mitigation where appropriate.
The framework isn't just the rambling of some random IT person - it has some rigor behind it. The ITE SCSF is based on key concepts from best practices such as the US NIST CyberSecurity Framework for critical infrastructure, CyberSecure Canada, the Canadian Get CyberSafe program, and the UK National Cyber Security Centre recommendations for small businesses and individuals. Behind the scenes we map our recommendations to these frameworks and to the MITRE ATT&CK knowledgebase. And it's re-cast for individuals, families, and small businesses in a home setting, rather than IT staff managing critical infrastructure and corporate assets.
Examples: Cyber Services and Apps&Things weBooks ... click here...
The Cyber Services and Apps & Things weBooks cover an important early step of any Cyber security plan - make a list of all your Cyber stuff ...
... so you know the "attack surface" that the bad guys are targeting.
And in these busy, inflationary times they also provide tools to capture your costs and effort. Then, you can figure out if they are worth the money, risk, and time it takes to look after them. Then get rid of the stuff that doesn't make the cut.
We've made a start, but stay tuned for more model documentation, product recommendations, and weBooks as the CyberMe program evolves.
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