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Ask HN: Hiring a white-hat hacker to validate the security of your personal life

I'm very anxious about my online security, and I lack the advanced skills to validate whether I'm truly safe.

I do all the usual things; I use a password manager, enable 2FA on critical accounts, never give my passwords or passcodes to anyone, even those I trust.

However I constantly stumble on the same question: if a hacker found a crack in my defenses, to what extent could they wreck my life? Today I nearly fell victim to a spearphishing attempt. I hung up before any damage was done, but the experience shook me up.

I've been considering hiring a white-hat hacker to essentially do a dry-run of what a malicious actor would do to me if I were their target. How far could they get? How much of my personal information could they glean? What accounts could they access by abusing that information?

My question is twofold: * Is this a good idea? Or is putting my security in the hands of a third-party equally dangerous? * If hiring someone is ill-advised, are there guides for securing myself to a point where I am safe from the majority of attacks?

2 points terabytest 2 years ago 1 comments

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