Working from home often means relying on your own technology which may not have the same security as the tech from your office. Luckily there are a few things you can do to keep hackers at bay. Buzz60’s Johana Restrepo has more.
Brave's built-in browser VPN for iPhone and iPad delivers a full encryption experience. (Illustration by Stephen Shankland/CNET/TNS)
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The Firefox Private Network add-on is a proxy service that can be used for a light layer of privacy while browsing on public Wi-Fi. (Mozilla/CNET/TNS)
In October of 2020, Google launched its own standalone VPN as part of its $100 annual bundle package for Google One subscribers with a 2TB account. (Angela Lang/CNET/TNS)
How to help family members embrace unfamiliar technology — at any age
Getting started
Do all your Zoom chats with Mom these days start with, “You’re on mute. The button’s lower left”?
If so, you’re part of an ever-growing group trying to help their less tech-savvy loved ones zip into Zoom, hop onto Hulu and master gadgets from a greater distance than usual thanks to the global pandemic.
Instill confidence
“Younger generations have been taught to fudge around (with technology) and hack,” says Lisa M. Cini, author of “Boom: The Baby Boomers Guide to Leveraging Technology, So That You Can Preserve Your Independent Lifestyle & Thrive.”
“This generation was not taught that at all. When you don’t comprehend it, you get scared you’ll break it,” she says.
Take it step by step
When it comes to helping the less tech-savvy set explore a new gadget or service, both Glazebrook and Cini liken it to learning a foreign language — both literally and figuratively.
“If you think of it as a language, once (you) start talking through things you’ll realize there are a lot of little things we take for granted as a common language that are not,” Cini says.
Make a manual
Cini says creating an easy-to-follow guide complete with photos, pointer arrows and clear, detailed instructions (even as basic as “press the enter button”) can go a long way toward flattening the learning curve and empowering people.
“If you can create a good set of step-by-step instructions, with visuals, and print it out and maybe even laminate it for them, they’ll be able to refer to it and not have to worry about remembering all the steps,” she says.
Outsource it
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many families are learning how to video chat to stay connected.
What if you lack the skills to be an IT department from afar?
That’s where organizations like OATS come in. Glazebrook says OATS’ national Senior Planet hotline is staffed with live bodies offering one-on-one technology help, completely free of charge, “whether you need to get on your first Zoom or download your Capital One banking app because you can’t go to the branch anymore and you need to deposit a check,” Glazebrook says.

