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Turn on automatic updates everywhere
Your phones, computers and router fix themselves, so known holes close without you thinking about it.
Why it matters: Updates close holes criminals already know how to use, and attackers now find and use new holes faster than before. Updates are also how your devices will quietly receive newer, quantum-resistant encryption over the next few years.
Do it
- Turn on automatic updates on each phone and computer, and for apps in the app store settings.
- Restart browsers when they ask; the update isn't finished until you do.
- Open the router's app or admin page and turn on automatic firmware updates.
- Make a list of anything that says it is no longer supported, and plan to replace it.
Say this: If a device asks to restart for an update, I let it restart tonight.
Check it worked: Phones, computers, browsers and the router update themselves, and nothing in the house runs software its maker has stopped fixing.
Simply put
Updates are like a locksmith coming round to fix a lock that thieves have learned to pick. Automatic updates bring the fix without you having to remember, so your door isn't the one still using the old lock.
In detail
The post-quantum transition will mostly reach households through ordinary updates to operating systems, browsers and messaging apps, several of which already ship hybrid quantum-resistant key exchange. A device that stops getting updates will be left on old cryptography, which is one more reason the end-of-support date matters when you buy.
If this is new to you: Worried about doing it wrong? On phones and computers it's a setting you turn on once. When your browser asks to restart, say yes: that finishes the update.
Points toward the Long View: devices that quietly pick up newer, quantum-resistant encryption through ordinary updates.