this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2024
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[–] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Don't download shady exes, run ublock origin, force https, use a vpn, and reroute your DNS lookups. It's super easy to not download viruses and malware.

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I agreed with you up to the "use a vpn" part. That's just wasting money and adding extra steps for the sake of paranoia.

If you're using SSL/TLS and not blindly bypassing invalid certificate warnings, you're not going to have your device or accounts compromised by the hacker boogeyman.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

My VPN saves me 100s of dollars a year I would otherwise be spending on subscription services.

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

You have a good reason to use a VPN: bypassing region restrictions (or piracy). The people subscribed to a VPN service for security reasons usually don't*.

* Excluding those living under a censorship heavy government.

[–] Chriswild@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Some VPNs advertise they stop malware so I get why they say that but you're right.

[–] psud@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They hide your browsing from your ISP (and probably your government)

They hide your origin and substitute another for web sites.

I'd say a VPN is only useful to people engaging in crime, or things that look like crime and those buying services that are priced differently around the world

That provide no protection against things you might click on

[–] Chriswild@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There are far more uses for a VPN. For instance if I want to access my NAS while outside my home.

[–] psud@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Sure, but that's not generally a thing the commercial VPNs offer, and I thought we were talking about commercial VPNs

[–] Chriswild@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

But some VPNs do provide you a little protection on things you might click on. Ublock and not being a dummy will get you around most of that use but for general users it is more safe.

[–] psud@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Sure, but that's not VPN action, it's routing or filtering

[–] Chriswild@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Sure but when I'm not on my network a VPN doing that is good.