advice on internet and Mumsnet security please

[lightthelamp]

Long time lurker. I want to begin to contribute, safely. I know that FWR contributors have suffered at least one blatant and deliberate attempt at doxxing (by an intern who went on to gain a position of responsibility in the civil service) and therefore that I can't trust Mumsnet to protect me from data breaches. What can I do to protect myself? I saw someone on another thread recommend Proton Mail for its encryption, so I went and created an account there, so that I could then create this account. Of course it would be simpler if I could use my regular email account, you know, jane.smith at gmail, and receive alerts where I usually look for them. But then the next employee of ill intent would deduce that my name is Jane Smith (hint:it isn't really) and join up the dots of information I mention in my posts, and dox me to my Stonewall-approved employer.

I know that there are some very clever and experienced women on here, with expertise in cyber-security that goes way beyond not writing the password on a sticky note. Can you offer some guidance, either general or specific to Mumsnet? For example, if I open FWR in Chrome, will this "lightthelamp" account sync with my Android phone and tablet? Does that then inevitably tie it to my Google and Facebook accounts? Am I worrying too much, or not enough? Thank you for any advice.

[Oncewasblueandyellowtwo]

Hi Op,

Here is a thread from a few months ago about how it is possible to dox someone but there is some good advice in it on online security and anonymity online.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3816845-Anonymous-SM-accounts-any-dangers

[lightthelamp]

Thank you blueandyellow. There are some good ideas there, but they don't answer all my questions, so I'm bumping for more views. Anyone else with security tips?

[MoleSmokes]

If it is not already covered in the thread linked, you should be able to set your Protonmail account to automatically forward emails to your Gmail account so you don't have to remember to log in to your Protonmail account as well.

I haven't used Protonmail but automatic forwarding is a feature of every email I have set up under other systems.

A weakness of Forwarding is that if your Protonmail account gets hacked then the hacker would be able to see the Forwarding you have set up to your realname@gmail account.

[Thelnebriati]

Don't use Chrome web browser at all, or Google. Try Mozilla Firefox and Opera, and use DuckDuckGo as your search engine.

One advantage of Opera is it has a built in VPN, which conceals your IP address.

Its not foolproof but for an extra layer of security use a sandbox. If you right click on the Opera icon on your desktop you'll see 'Run Sandboxed' as a choice in the menu.
When you close the browser empty the sandbox and most of the changes made during that session will be deleted.

www.maketecheasier.com/best-sandbox-applications-windows10/