8 Techie Gifts for the Security Expert in Your Life - PCMag

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Every techies loves a gadget, and your information techie volition adore this web information gadget. A shiny caller Firewalla Purple volition springiness your idiosyncratic information maven a big of features to play with. They whitethorn person already chosen a favorite household router—that’s fine, Firewalla works alongside existing routers successful respective ways. It’s conscionable arsenic blessed to instrumentality connected the occupation of a router, but for its deficiency of a full-powered Wi-Fi hotspot. Hey, you tin put for a communal person to acquisition them a almighty standalone hotspot.

From the associated mobile app, you tin spot and negociate each instrumentality connected the web and get notifications erstwhile a caller instrumentality connects. If your neighbor starts mooching Wi-Fi, you tin chopped them off, and bam! You tin adjacent fine-tune controls, say, to crook disconnected gaming connected your child’s devices during homework hour. Firewalla tracks show stats for your devices and your full network. You tin acceptable it to artifact unsafe sites, suppress ads, enactment arsenic a parental control contented filter, and more.

Your techie person volition get a footwear retired of Firewalla’s precocious abilities. It tin relation arsenic a VPN client, moving postulation for immoderate oregon each of your devices done a protected VPN server. More impressively, it tin relation arsenic a VPN server, letting you passageway backmost to your location web from wherever you are. When it blocks postulation from a unsafe site, it tin show a representation of wherever the onslaught came from. It’s a fantastic techie toy.

These days conscionable astir immoderate unafraid tract you sojourn wants you to alteration multi-factor authentication (MFA), and that’s a bully thing. Without MFA, a breach that exposes your password gives hackers afloat entree to your account. With MFA connected the job, logging successful besides requires an authentication codification oregon device, truthful illicit entree attempts deed a wall.

It’s apt your security-centric pal has already told you that MFA based connected text messages isn’t precise secure. Using an authenticator app that generates a time-sensitive codification connected request is better. But authentication utilizing a carnal security key is the astir secure. When that cardinal is successful your pocket, you’re the lone 1 who tin log in.

Yubico’s YubiKey was the archetypal fashionable merchandise successful this realm, and the institution keeps extending its reach. The earliest YubiKeys lone plugged into a modular USB port, meaning they were of nary usage with mobile devices. The latest YubiKey combines a carnal USB transportation with mobile-friendly NFC (near-field communication) technology. It’s a spot much costly than astir specified keys, but that’s good for a gift, right?

Windows laptops are everywhere, though they often travel preloaded with bloatware, and Windows is the favourite people for those coding up malware attacks. Macs are better, acknowledgment to Apple baking successful information astatine the lowest levels. But information experts each look to onshore connected Linux. If you’re looking for a genuinely expansive gift, a caller Linux laptop is conscionable the thing.

All Linux computers aren't created alike, though. Purism’s Librem 14 stands retired from the battalion successful respective ways. First, it runs PureOS, a security-focused Linux distro created by Purism that powers laptops and cell phones. The information that it's open-source means experts tin comb done it and emblem immoderate flaws. It's besides (according to Purism) “designed chip-by-chip, line-by-line, to respect your rights to privacy, security, and freedom.”

Security leaks tin hardly hap if your instrumentality isn't connected. The Librem 14 offers a carnal power to easy disable wireless and Bluetooth erstwhile you're not utilizing them. Another power lets you foil snoops by turning disconnected the webcam and mic. The institution offers security-enhancing hardware and services specified arsenic the Librem Key USB instrumentality to clasp your encryption keys and an anti-interdiction work to verify that cipher tampered with your instrumentality successful transit. Just beryllium definite that the person you’re rewarding is simply a Linux-head and that they don’t already ain a sleek, security-centric Librem 14.

Just due to the fact that a idiosyncratic lives and breathes information doesn’t mean they can’t beryllium deed with individuality theft. Personal information vulnerability could beryllium wholly retired of their control. There are rather a fewer services that some monitor your individuality online and connection assistance if identity thieves drawback your data. These services tin beryllium expensive, truthful your buddy whitethorn person weighed the likelihood and decided to bash without that assistance.

You tin explicit your gratitude astatine respective levels. The basal Norton 360 With LifeLock Select level costs $149.99 annually, the Advantage level goes for $249.99, and the top-shelf Ultimate Plus level runs $349.99 a year. Each leap successful the level gets some much Norton information and much LifeLock individuality features. Consider whether you program to marque it an ongoing gift, however; a contiguous that becomes a large yearly disbursal for the recipient whitethorn not beryllium the best.

Of course, the chances are bully that anyone who’s information conscious already has a information suite that protects each their devices. If Norton wasn’t their choice, they astir apt won’t privation to switch. No problem—you tin acquisition LifeLock extortion separately. The basal LifeLock Select work runs $124.99 per year, portion Advantage and Ultimate Plus outgo $239.99 and $339.99, respectively. Yes, those past 2 are conscionable $10 little than the subscription that includes Norton 360 cross-platform information protection, but what tin you do?

Some information enthusiasts are blessed to acquisition preconfigured home information systems, video doorbells, and the like. Others consciousness a batch amended utilizing thing they’ve made themselves, with nary anticipation of a built-in backmost doorway oregon information hole. Raspberry Pi is the go-to for electronics and programming tinkerers of each kinds. It’s a full-fledged Linux machine that’s hardly bigger than a platform of cards. The champion portion is that a tinkerer tin ne'er person excessively many—there’s ever the adjacent project.

The scope of Raspberry Pi projects is astir limitless, and enthusiasts stock them freely online and successful videos. By connecting the close components, you tin springiness the instrumentality conscionable astir immoderate benignant of sensor and display. Build your astute doorbell, look designation lock, oregon network-level ad-blocker. Even invent thing that’s ne'er been seen before. It’s an perfect acquisition for a coding-skilled tinkerer.

Penetration testing, oregon pen-testing for short, is simply a lucrative, modern information career. Companies prosecute pen testers to interruption into their networks, uncovering the anemic spots earlier achromatic chapeau hackers oregon concern spies tin get in. The pen testers I’ve met each bask their enactment immensely. Breaking into networks without getting arrested is conscionable plain fun! The tiny, portable Flipper Zero gadget packs successful oodles of pen-testing tools and related components and assistance users debar accidentally breaking the law. Your security-leaning person volition emotion it.

The dolphin-themed instrumentality looks similar a crippled controller, with a five-position directional pad for input. A USB larboard lets you load it with much analyzable projects. It tin seizure and replay vigor signals controlling specified things arsenic store doorway openers, analyse swipe cards for gathering entry, work the infrared signals from distant controls, work your pet's microchip, plug into different devices for analysis, and more.

Flipper is an open-source project, truthful your techie bud tin corroborate that it doesn’t execute amerciable acts similar jamming power systems oregon utilizing brute unit attacks connected security. And if you travel successful scope of different Flipper, the devices tin interact, sharing accusation they’ve gathered.

Does your security-conscious compadre ever dabble successful the acheronian broadside of security? Maybe hack into networks, not for idiosyncratic summation but conscionable to amusement they person the skills? Then a Wi-Fi Pineapple whitethorn beryllium the cleanable gift. Yes, it tin wholly beryllium utilized by pen-testers for morganatic Wi-Fi auditing. But it’s besides ideally designed to relation arsenic a rogue entree point, capturing each postulation from adjacent devices.

Here’s the deal. Every Wi-Fi hotspot broadcasts an SSID (service acceptable identifier) that shows up successful the database of disposable connections connected mobile devices. When you take one, your mobile remembers it and reconnects if that SSID shows up again. In fact, your smartphone periodically sends a shoutout to each SSID it knows. “KoffeeKitchen, are you there?” The Wi-Fi Pineapple simply replies to all such requests successful the affirmative, thereby capturing the requesting device's Wi-Fi traffic.

It’s existent that astir web postulation is astatine slightest encrypted utilizing HTTPS these days, but the Pineapple’s proprietor tin inactive glean rather a spot of accusation by dipping into the compromised connections. Give this point to the close friend, and they could (dare I accidental it?) regularisation the world! Or astatine slightest get a top-of-the-world feeling.

Do affluent financiers travel location and play Monopoly with their families? Maybe not, but there’s a crippled for them if they want to play. Likewise, tech experts spending their days connected incidental effect tin travel location and play Backdoors & Breaches, the Incident Response Card Game.

The game’s multicolored cards athletics names similar Insider Threat, Web Server Compromise, and Credential Stuffing. An Incident Master (typically the astir seasoned information veteran) draws onslaught cards and weaves a communicative script astir them, overmuch similar the Dungeon Master successful D&D. Defenders play cards based connected information procedures, with a 20-sided dice determining the outcomes. The defenders triumph if they tin exposure each 4 onslaught cards successful 10 moves.

In truth, B&B isn’t apt to ever overtake D&D successful popularity. Colorful oregon not, the cards are much of a teaching instrumentality than entertainment. But the crippled is unusual, and it’s large for a price-limited oregon Secret Santa situation.

When the IBM PC was new, I served arsenic the president of the San Francisco PC User Group for 3 years. That’s however I met PCMag’s editorial team, who brought maine connected committee successful 1986. In the years since that fateful meeting, I’ve go PCMag’s adept connected security, privacy, and individuality protection, putting antivirus tools, information suites, and each kinds of information bundle done their paces.

Before my existent information gig, I supplied PCMag readers with tips and solutions connected utilizing fashionable applications, operating systems, and programming languages successful my "User to User" and "Ask Neil" columns, which began successful 1990 and ran for astir 20 years. Along the mode I wrote much than 40 inferior articles, arsenic good arsenic Delphi Programming for Dummies and six different books covering DOS, Windows, and programming. I besides reviewed thousands of products of each kinds, ranging from aboriginal Sierra Online escapade games to AOL’s precursor Q-Link.

In the aboriginal 2000s I turned my absorption to information and the increasing antivirus industry. After years moving with antivirus, I’m known passim the information manufacture arsenic an adept connected evaluating antivirus tools. I service arsenic an advisory committee subordinate for the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO), an planetary nonprofit radical dedicated to coordinating and improving investigating of anti-malware solutions.

Read Neil J.'s afloat bio