I spent years running a cybersecurity company. I'm retired now — but the habits don't retire with you. Here's exactly what sits between my home network and the rest of the internet today, and what any average user could borrow from it.
Not sponsored, not affiliate picks — just what's genuinely running on my own network in retirement. Your setup should match your own comfort level, not mine.
Dashlane handles my everyday logins. Bitwarden plays a different role — it's my digital estate plan: a dead man's switch holding the documents and account access I want my next of kin or a designated survivor to inherit, kept separate from my own daily accounts.
A physical hardware key for logging into my most important accounts — a second lock that can't be phished away over email.
Blocks ads and trackers before they load, which also cuts off a lot of malicious ads before they ever reach a browser tab.
A small personal router I bring when traveling, so I'm never trusting a hotel or shared network directly.
Encrypts my traffic whenever I'm on a network I don't fully control — coffee shops, airports, hotels.
None of this matters without the boring stuff underneath it: updates, backups, and pausing before you click. Tools support habits — they don't replace them.
Every tool above has a simpler, often free equivalent that covers the same ground for a typical home user.
You don't need two for daily use — but a second one can serve a very different purpose.
A YubiKey is great, but it's not the only way to get a second lock.
AdGuard has a free tier, but your browser may already have you partly covered.
You don't need dedicated travel hardware to stay safe away from home.
Mainly worth it for one specific situation: networks you don't control.
None of the tools above outrank the basics covered elsewhere on this site.
Nothing on this page is sponsored, and there are no affiliate links. This is just a genuine account of what one retired security professional actually uses — treat it as one data point, not gospel.
Purrfectly Protected