Quote:
Originally Posted by Fiat_Lux
Back in the 1950's, that would have been the case.
Today, any self-respecting hacker worthy of the name, has a toolchain that is equal to what is available to any TLA.
Defining security threats, and threat models is more important than it has been in the past. However, the starting point should be that the resources that were once exclusive to TLAs with an extremely high budget, are now available to virtually anybody who has the forwithall to utilize them. That means that one needs to assume that the CIA is the least competent threat to one's security, not the most competent.
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Rephrasing.
If somebody wants to target you, they can get more data about you today, from commercial vendors, than the entire range of Five Eye Intelligence Agencies, plus the Chinese Intelligence Agencies, alongside their puppet states, plus the Russian Intelligence Agencies could have obtained about you, as recently as five years ago.
If your concern is drive-by attacks, the tools used today are from nation-state TLAs.
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The 50's were before my time, but ever since online started, the computer security issue is the same as every day security issues, useless someone has a strong reason to go after you, you just need enough security to discourage the casual thief. So, you hide your valuables and don't leave your car door unlocked, even though someone could break out your window, or pop the lock.
Unless someone has a reason to think that you have something worth stealing, as long as you have a good firewall at home and keep the firmware up to date, you don't have much to worry about. There is simply too much low hanging fruit with people who don't have firewalls or don't keep their firmware up to date. When you are using public WiFi, then VPN is a good idea.
Hackers either go after targets of opportunity (i.e. totally unprotected machines at the airport, Starbucks or some such thing), or machines that might yield significant value, such as a large corporation. It's like a co-worker once commented about someone who bragged about having a gun in every room in case of home invasion. If you have to worry that much, then you live in the wrong neighborhood. People who do that sort of thing usually do it because it makes them feel good, not because it's actually needed.
I've been online since the early 80's. In all that time, I've never been hacked and I've never had a virus. It's just a case of taking normal precautions and not doing something stupid. I've had firewalls since I built my own on a unix box back in the 90's (the firewall on the typical router is fine now) and I've used anti-virus since Norton was state of the art. I don't click on links in e-mails. Just simple stuff.