Kevin Mitnick, chapters one and two

I started a challenge to read The Art of Invisibility by Kevin Mitnick, and I have finished the first two chapters. Some thoughts.

Chapter one: passwords

The first chapter makes the point that a password can be cracked no matter how strong it looks. Cracking rigs with fast GPUs try billions of guesses, and a password that has turned up in an old leak falls almost at once, however complicated it is.

So turn on two-factor authentication (2FA). Then a stolen password is not enough on its own to get into your account.

If you want to check whether your email has shown up in a breach, use haveibeenpwned.com.

Chapter two: email and chat privacy

The second chapter is about how emails and chats can be read or monitored. Email is not used much here, but it is worth securing, especially for anything sensitive. Without end-to-end encryption, your provider (Google, or Apple if you use iCloud) can read your mail.

Chats on Instagram and Facebook sit on Meta's servers. WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted, but Meta still sees who you talk to and when. Telegram says it does not scan private chats, but ordinary Telegram chats are not end-to-end encrypted. Only Secret Chats are, so use one when it matters.

Strong passwords, 2FA and encrypted messaging are the baseline now, not extras.