Generic security advice is good, but tailored advice is much better. Everyone’s situation is a little different. What are you trying to protect? Who or what are you trying to protect it from? What are the consequences of failure? This is called threat modeling. And thankfully, the wonderful folks at Consumer Reports have a free, easy-to-use Security Planner tool that will help anyone do this assessment and provide custom solutions. My guest today is Yael Grauer, who will help us understand how to think about our security and how the CR tool can help you protect your data and devices.

Interview Notes

• Consumer Reports Security Planner tool: https://securityplanner.consumerreports.org/ 
• Yael’s website: https://yaelwrites.com/ 
• Big Ass Data Broker Opt Out List (BADBOOL): https://github.com/yaelwrites/Big-Ass-Data-Broker-Opt-Out-List 
• Consumer Reports advocacy: https://advocacy.consumerreports.org/ 
• CR’s Digital Standard: https://thedigitalstandard.org/ 
• CR’s Consumer Readiness Report 2024 (PDF): https://innovation.consumerreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/2024-Consumer-Cyber-Readiness-Report.pdf 
• How to choose a PIN code: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/how-to-choose-a-pin/ 

Further Info

• Send me your questions! https://fdsd.me/qna 
• Check out my book, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: https://fdsd.me/book 
• Subscribe to the newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter 
• Become a patron! https://www.patreon.com/FirewallsDontStopDragons 
• Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch 
• Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons 
• Support our mission! https://fdsd.me/support 
• Generate secure passphrases! https://d20key.com/#/ 

Table of Contents

Use these timestamps to jump to a particular section of the show.

• 0:00:07: Intro
• 0:01:07: Interview setup
• 0:02:35: Yael introduction
• 0:04:19: What questions should we answer to get useful security advice?
• 0:06:41: How does Security Planner work?
• 0:08:03: How does Security Planner tailor its suggestions?
• 0:10:58: How do you decide what the most important factors are for security?
• 0:15:11: What might trigger me to re-run this tool and get a fresh report?
• 0:17:18: How does Consumer Reports research its recommendations?
• 0:19:59: How does CR vet the products and services that it recommends?
• 0:23:18: How do you weight things like convenience and ease of use?
• 0:27:34: Is it okay to make people pay for basic security features?
• 0:35:08: What role should government play in pushing for better security?
• 0:36:55: How important is transparency for driving better security?
• 0:39:15: What did the CR Cyber Readiness survey reveal?
• 0:43:22: Why do we choose bad passwords?
• 0:45:55: Why don’t companies provider better support for security problems?
• 0:51:39: What’s next for you and CR? How do we get updates?
• 0:53:43: Interview wrap-up
• 0:56:20: Patron bonus content preview
• 0:57:06: Looking ahead