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Color us cynical, but we're a little leery of "information" coming from anyone whose opening statement is at best a misinterpretation and at worst a bald-faced lie. Never mind "political strategists" and "White House Strategic Communications" staffers, we're talking about freelancers more interested in income than accuracy. Today's example is WorkingMother.com blogger Natalie Bracco, who committed exactly that freelance sin in "Keeping Your Home Computer More Secure."

The opening line of Bracco's 2016 post to the site is, to be blunt, wrong:

"Did you know that roughly one half of all American adults have their computers hacked… every year?"

Natalie was kind enough to link to her source, a CNN report that doesn't say what she says it does. What it does say is, "Hackers have exposed the personal information of 110 million Americans -- roughly half of the nation's adults -- in the last 12 months alone." Natalie's apparent inability to differentiate between the theft of data from large corporations and the "hacking" of personal computers pretty much renders anything further she wants to share undependable. What's more troubling, however, is that – while Bracco did a fairly good job of rewording the list of suggestions she cribbed from somewhere else – she apparently chose a set of "solutions" that is out of date. Here's where she went wrong:

• "...your free antivirus software might not be up to the task of keeping [hackers] out" – Ummm, Natalie, the antivirus protection included in free versions of commercial software is the same as what's offered in their pay versions. The difference is in the add-ons.
• "...consider using a program which offers more than just one service. Programs which bundle multiple services, such as firewalls, anti-phishing programs, anti-ransomware, and other utilities are generally a better value..." – Do you want the best protection or the best value, Natalie? We run free versions of anti-malware and anti-virus software from different companies. No bundles at the Antisocial Network!
• "...have a firewall not just on your computer, but your router as well. Routers can often be hacked into even easier [sic] than computers, so make sure to protect yours." – Gee: maybe she should have mentioned changing the router's administrator password from its default, which is how most routers are hacked.
• "Whatever program or software you're running, take the time to update it often... Updates are a critical component of ensuring a cyber security engine is aware of the newest kinds of threats and problems. Also, run it regularly..." – Didn't you just say the same thing twice? and we're pretty sure that the crap about a "ensuring a cyber security engine is aware of the newest kinds of threats" is Natalie's way of admitting she has no idea what she's talking about.

Of course Bracco did get a few things right, although the results seem more like the old blind pig finding an acorn than any sort of expertise. For instance, she says to use "strong passwords with many characters." Perhaps if she'd mentioned upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols we would have a better idea of what "strong" means (we bet Natalie's is "password"!). Oh, yeah, and back up your data. We don't know how that last makes you "more secure," but it's always a good policy.
Bracco fell short in her advice in several ways, including (but not limited to) forgetting to suggest the following security measures to her readers:

• Use a VPN (virtual private network), especially if using public WiFi
• Use two-step authentication whenever possible
• Don't fall for phishing emails: read them for bad English, failure to use https security in the URL, phony website names
• Stay off questionable websites (some security suites include warning software)

Given her lack of understanding of both the problem and potential solutions, we think handing Bracco another Dumbass of the Day award is a definite no-brainer.

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