Thoughts on Guard.io as a service for lesser tech savvy family members?

Hi there, So just watched latest video of Jim Browning and in the video he had a sponsor I had not heard about before, Guard.io. So I went to check it out, and it seems like a fairly decent service (by that I mean, a service I would put on family members devices) for helping against possible phishing attempt and general safeguarding online activity etc… I currently have installed Ublock Origin in their browsers and pointed their DNS to base.dns.mullvad.net, but that’s about it.

So:

  • Anyone had any experience with this service?
  • What’s the general consensus around this service?
  • Is it necessary, compared to the measures I mentioned above?
  • Are there any other general measure I could implement on their devices? (they are on both apple and Android ecosystems)

Thanks for any suggestions 🌻

randombullet,

Just use NextDNS and PiHole/AdGuardHome and redirect all port 53 requests to your local DNS instance.

DoT and DoH will mitigate some phishing risks.

Social engineering is the biggest threat, especially through vishing.

Sunny,

I personally use nextDNS, and love it. However my setup is too strict for their use cases and blocks newspapers and stuff they read. I also don’t feel comfortable logging their devices. I guess I could spin up a few more nextDNS accounts for them on the free plan instead though, that’s probably what I should do.

randombullet,

You can put them in another bucket with custom rules.

Sunny,

Hold on, is that possible in nextDNS? Never seen that option before.

randombullet,

I pay for NextDNS. It’s under new profiles on the top left.

Sunny,

I alos pay, but have completely missed this feature hehe. Thanks for pointing this out, completely solves this issue for me 🙌

headroom,

Is it necessary, compared to the measures I mentioned above?

That product is trash but how is what you’re doing helping with phishing?

Sunny,

As another comment said, through DoT and DoH. Also newly registered links (30days) are blocked by default (at least with my nextDNS settings). I was however mixing up, thinking Mullvad would do the same… I should probably make a nextDNS profile for each member in family.

headroom,

Ye mullvad uses their blocklists but does not provide the features mostly listed in the security tab. I still don’t get how dot and doh are relevant with phishing.

Kissaki,

I wouldn’t use it.

Seems to me like free plan is what browsers natively support anyway. (Scam site blacklist. I highly suspect they use the same. They can’t compete with the one Google hosts and all major browsers integrate.)

And instead of paying 15 usd per month, Windows defender is a well funded, well established, well trusted solution.

There’s no practical gain in blockage before download. Windows defender scans upon and after download, before execution.

Sunny,

Fair enough, thanks 😊

Pantherina,

Until its known by people that actually know stuff, avoid it

catloaf,

Seems sketchy. You give them access to everything instead? How do we know they won’t be an avenue to compromise?

This bit from their FAQ does not inspire confidence either:

Is Guardio Legit?

Guardio is definitely 100% legitimate, and it’s also a great product.

If it was, they wouldn’t need to say stuff like that.

hddsx,

What do you mean? You prefer services that advertise that they are definitely 80% legit, it just depends on who your sales guy is?

umami_wasbi, (edited )

I guess what he mean the service must proof itself legit by actions, rather saying it out loud in a FAQ.

Still, that FAQ explicitly saying they are legit gives me the feel of “The lady doth protest too much, methinks,”.

hddsx,

Sorry, my sarcasm didn’t translate through text.

It does indeed have “I’m always wearing a condom” vibes, even if we’re at dinner

Sunny,

Hmm, I agree that it’s not the best advertising in the world. But also they are closed source, so I guess it can never truly be trusted. Question that really remains is: is it better to use them than to not use them, for lesser tech savvy peeps.

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