weBooks
Organize & Secure Your Cyber life!
IT Essence "weBooks" are designed to help real people, families, and home businesses survive in a complicated cyber-suffused world. eBooks that provide info on some IT topic are paired with Excel Workbooks - "wBooks" - to create "actionable" weBook packages. So the eBooks aren't just academic reading - you can immediately use companion wBooks to act on the content if you want.
We try to make these tools "as simple as possible, but not simpler". But "simplicity" is different for different people and situations. So we strive for Actionable, Situational, Simplicity in our weBooks, to help you act on just the content that's useful for your situation. And because the wBooks are just Excel workbooks, you can even modify them to further suit your situation if desired.
weBooks are packaged in a ZIP file containing a PDF eBook and an Excel wBook. It’s a pure Excel .xlsx file (no macros or other internal coding) so it can’t harbor “macro-malware” and it doesn’t need programming skills to modify it. You save it on your own systems but there's no new software from us to install, and you don’t need to register an account with us, worry about the security of online systems, or pay subscription or maintenance fees. You'll need a Mac or a PC and a copy of Microsoft Excel that's less than 10 years old.
Let us know if you want to be notified when new weBooks are available, or if you have suggestions for a new title, by completing our Contact form.
Available Now
Track all your Cyber Services and costs, from on-line streaming subscriptions to Internet & phone plans. Optionally analyze and summarize costs to help you put your cash where you want, and track renewal and legacy plans, payment methods and even account history for budgetary, management, and legacy purposes.
Making a list of all your Cyber stuff is also a key step in managing your cyber security. Use the list to help reduce your cost, your cyber "attack surface", and the amount of time you have to devote to managing cyber stuff.
Coming Soon
Track the costs, risks, and time wasted on all your in-home Cyber-stuff. Then do something about it with the help the Apps&Things weBook.
Cyber Security Dashboard
An actionable checklist of things to do to help help keep you and your family cyber-safe. A modifiable, extensible security status dashboard in a workbook that can also leverage our other weBooks.
How we identify ourselves on-line, and prove it, is getting complicated.
Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) is the current rage for good proof. How you approach MFA depends on you, the things you want to protect, and what protections are available at the on-line services you depend on. But MFA can be a pain, comes with gotchas for the unwary, and is hackable by the unscrupulous.
And there's a new kid on the block. Authentication is getting even more complex with the introduction of "Passkeys" - the new passwordless identity-proving trick being rolled out by the likes of Google.
No weBook (yet) but we've started capturing a few thoughts - and a recommendation - on our Identity primer for real people.