Electronic Security – Notes
Protecting various electronics from cars to phones to computers during an EMP is covered above. Day-to-day electronics security is also a good idea. This includes encrypting stored data on all devices (including computers, phones, tablets), backing up those devices with rotating drives (with some off site), and encrypting data that is sent and received by those devices. Most modern devices already encrypt stored data or have easy options to do so. This is a good article from UW-Madison on ways to improve privacy. This is a good general article on data sent and received, another on anonymity aimed at preventing traffice analysis (e.g., Tor), and a good overview article from Wired.
VPN is available for all devices to protect network data (e.g., see this review comparing options and another with information focusing more on anonymity; you can also set up your own private vpn) and a router-level vpn will protect any internet connection in your house. If you want to set up vpn at the level of your router so all house traffice goes through the vpn automatically, you will need a dd-wrt router than can behave as a client and your vpn should play nice with it.
However, your true privacy depends on whether the vpn knows who you are, how you pay for the service, and your data will only be as private as the vpn service’s policy on what they log, how long they keep those logs, and what they will do if authorities ask for those logs.
This article from PC Magazine covers Tor browsing but also private and anonymous email possibilities, such as ProtonMail. Here is a good article from Forbes on encyption generally and as applied to VOIP phone call safety. Encrypting cell data, however, is a separate issue and seems to have fewer friendly options, especially if you don’t want to have to communicate with others through a special and separate app (like, Signal or Whatsapp). This article covers some of this, as does this article (with focus on using phone as a hotspot) and also highlights silent circle, a service that will work with any caller or texter with the caveat that the data is only encrypted from paying user to server and not from server to non-paying-user.
Finally, here is a video describing Tor, the Deep Web, and the Dark Web.
Electronic money — cryptocurrency — has been around for a long time, including electronic transfers and credit cards. If you want to buy or sell in privacy, use cash. To do the equivalent online is more complicated, even using bitcoin (article).
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