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Step 1:
Firefox

If you haven’t already, install Firefox as your browser. While many of the following tips will apply to other browsers as well, this guide will mainly focus on Firefox. DemingFactor recommends Firefox as a web browser, for it’s privacy focus, and the fact it works well with the uBlock Origin plugin.

You can download Firefox here.

Step 2:
Firefox Account

If you wish to be able to see your logins and passwords across your various devices, a Firefox account is a good thing to get set up. Firefox will prompt you when first loading the browser to set up an account. However, if you have already set up Firefox, but not a Firefox account, you can set one up by clicking the hamburger menu on the top-right of Firefox. Then click sign in, and follow the sign up flow. The form does require an email address. Before putting in a password, read on to the next section.

Step 3:
Making your Password

When it comes to making the password for your Firefox account, it is important that you make a good password. If you already use a password manager, you can use that to generate and store a strong password. Otherwise you can follow this strong password template:

  1. Choose a location, eg. Adelaide, The Beach, or Coles.
  2. Choose something you remember happened at that location, such as running late, finding a coin, or seeing a friend.
  3. Remember the year that the event occurred Now, we can put them all together to form a strong password.
    Example: AdelaideIFoundAGoldCoin2006

It is important that you write this password down, and store it somewhere secure. You need to be able to retrieve it if you forget it, but it mustn’t be out in the open for anyone to find. A filing cabinet, which you can lock, is usually an excellent place to store personal information. As well, work on committing the password to memory. Repeat it aloud, alone, twenty times, and whenever you feel yourself starting to forget, repeat it a couple more.

When you have created your account, make sure to check your email to verify it. After that, move on to the next step.

Step 4:
Setting up Firefox to be Private and Secure.

Now that you are signed in to Firefox, we can begin by setting up the important extensions.

From the same hamburger menu you used to sign in, you can also find the Add-ons button. Or you can click here to access the same Add-ons manager. You can now switch to the extensions tab, underneath the recommendations tab.

If you have been using some extensions already, this next section is for you. Otherwise, you can skip this part.

It is a good idea to clean up what extensions you have installed. Extensions can provide some security and privacy risks, and aren’t always the most trustworthy. Look through your extensions for any that you no longer use / aren’t doing anything useful, and prune them out. If in doubt, take it out. You can always reinstall it later if you need it.

Now you are ready to install some useful extensions. Each extension has a link to its own page, but can also be searched into the “Find more add-ons” box in the Add-ons area.

  1. uBlock Origin: This extension is the best ad blocker out there. It is very reliable, and actively maintained, plus it is trusted by many. It even goes so far as to be able to block YouTube ads, which not many ad blockers can do. It is essential for maintaining online privacy and quality of life.
  2. Multi-Account Containers: This extension, developed by Mozilla themselves, allows one to separate sites in to “Containers”. Once a site is in a container, all of the cookies it stores is kept in that container. It’s hard to explain, but once you get it you can see it is quite a useful feature, in fact, a killer feature of the Firefox browser. This video should help explain. In the future, we’ll make a blog about how to best use Multi-Account Containers, so stay tuned.
  3. Privacy Badger: This extension, developed by the EFF, is particularly tuned to protect your privacy online. It takes tracker blocking a step further by replacing potentially useful, but still tracking, elements with a click to unblock placeholder. It is recommended for keeping you privacy.

Once you have installed those three Add-ons, you can now configure your search engine. DemingFactor uses, and recommends, DuckDuckGo. You can change search engine by using the hamburger menu, clicking “Settings”, then clicking the “Search” tab, beneath “General” and “Home”. Under “Default Search Engines” there’s a dropdown, where you can select DuckDuckGo.

We recommend DuckDuckGo as they focus heavily on privacy, and as well come with some useful features. Searching “!w hello” will take you to Wikipedia, and search hello. “!yt hello” will search YouTube for hello. Search “!bangs” to learn more.

Step 5:
Managing Passwords

DemingFactor uses 1Password as our primary password manager. If you are willing to pay to manage your passwords, and are willing to set it all up, 1Password is an excellent option.

However, for this post, we are going to assume you will want to use the default Firefox password manager, Lockwise. Lockwise is easy because it comes by default with Firefox, and your Firefox account allows you to sync passwords with it across your various devices.

DemingFactor highly recommends using a generated strong password, over one you make up yourself, with the exception of the one we created earlier. When you sign up for a new account on a website, Lockwise should suggest a strong password to use on that site. When you use the strong password Lockwise generates, make sure to click save in the dialogue box that Firefox brings up, asking you if you want to save your password.

You can see passwords you save in Lockwise, by using the hamburger menu, and clicking “Passwords”.

You can also get the Lockwise app on your phone, from the Google Play Store, or the App Store. Both apps will allow you to sync your passwords to your phone, through your Firefox account.

Step 6:
Setting up Two Factor Authentication

For maximum security, your most important online accounts should be set up with two factor authentication. For this you can use an app like Authy, which can be installed on your phone. DemingFactor highly recommends setting up two factor authentication.

Setting up two factor authentication protects your account from malicious actors, as for someone to log in to an account with it enabled, that person needs both the password, and the special authentication code, making it far more secure.

Keep in mind, that to log in, you also need to be able to access your two factor authentication codes, which means you will need to have your phone around when you are logging in to your accounts.

Apps like Authy allow you to back your codes up to the cloud, so if you lose your phone you don’t lose your codes. This password will need to be another one that you remember, so follow the same instructions to create this password as we used to create the one for the Firefox account. See this page for instructions for backing up your codes in Authy.

For a given account, there should always be guides on how to use two factor authentication. Below are guides linked for some common accounts. (Search for guides here.)

  1. Firefox
  2. Google accounts and Gmail
  3. Facebook
  4. Amazon
  5. PayPal

Step 7:
Securing your Old Accounts

It is a good idea, now that you know how to secure an account, to go back over your old accounts, and change their passwords to use a secure one, and store it in Lockwise. We can’t provide details on how to change every password, but we can provide a web search template:

How do I change my password <app>
Replace with the app you want to change your password in.

Mozilla provide another handy tool that allows you to check if any accounts of yours have had their passwords breached, and thus are vulnerable to being hacked. Visit this website, and put in your email address, and instructions should be provided from there. You can even sign in with your Firefox account to receive notifications if any other breaches come out with your email addresses.

Conclusion:

We hope that you found this article helpful. Staying private and safe in the digital world is very important, and it is an area that many of our clients struggle with, hence this guide.

If you have any feedback / suggestions, feel free to reach out to [email protected]. We appreciate any and all feedback.