Digital Self-Defense

Welcome to our session!

Please follow along with the slideshow to the right and scroll below for links that we will be using during this session.


Digital Self Defense: Threats, passwords, and securing your accounts

Do you want to ask a Question?

If you have any questions during the session, please post them to our Riseup Pad (EtherPad): pad.riseup.net/p/Vu1gwAnuhaDC

Why use Riseup Pad?

  • Questions can be posted anonymously.
  • Users may collaboratively edit the pad.
  • Pad disappears after 30days of inactive use.

Threat Modeling Activity

Download Handout

Answer the 5 questions of threat modeling. Write down your answers on the handout.

  1. What do you want to protect?
  2. Who do you want to protect it from?
  3. How likely is it that you will need to protect it?
  4. How bad are the consequences if you fail?
  5. How much trouble are you willing to go through in order to try to prevent those?


Password Generator

Password generators can create strong and unique passwords. Hard to impossible to remember, but very secure. We recommend that you store these types of passwords in a password manager.


Diceware Activity

Download Handout

Diceware is a method where users roll dice and reference a word list to create unique passphrases.

Note: This activity happens in a public setting. We advise you NOT to use you diceware passphrase from this session, but you roll your own diceware phrases in a private and secure environment.

Generate the numbers:

  1. Roll your die five times to create a 5-digit number
  2. Write down the 5-digit number on your handout
  3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 until you have a total of six, 5-digit numbers


Find the words:

  1. Go to https://www.eff.org/files/2016/07/18/eff_large_wordlist.txt
  2. Use [CMD/CTRL + F] to find your number in the list
  3. Write down that number’s corresponding word on your handout
  4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 for all of your numbers until you have 6 words
  5. Write down your 6-word passphrase


Obscure your phrase:

Do this if the login requires special characters.

  1. Add numbers, symbols, and spaces to your passphrase


You can also generate diceware passphrases in your browser

Note: For maximum security, save and run offline.