Threat Model Your Apartment Like You Threat Model Your Laptop
Your threat model has a hole shaped like your house. You run endpoint protection on your Mac. You have 2FA, passkeys, hardened browser, DNS filtering. You would never install random software from a forum. Then you walk into your living room that has 14 always-on microphones, 6 cameras, 3 devices that map your floor plan, and a router you have never audited, all running firmware you have never read. We need to talk. In cybersec we threat model laptops. We never threat model apartments. That is backwards. Your laptop leaves your house. Your house never leaves. If your home is compromised, every device you bring into it is compromised by proximity. Here is how I started threat modeling my apartment the same way I threat model my infra. It takes an afternoon and it will make your home actually sovereign. Step 1: Draw Trust Zones, Not Floor Plans Stop thinking in rooms. Start thinking in trust zones, exactly like network segmentation. I use 3 zones: Zone 0: The Dead Room. One room where no device can listen, watch, or transmit. No smart anything. No WiFi. No Bluetooth. This is where you think, talk for real, and store sensitive hardware. My bedroom is Zone 0. Nothing with a mic crosses the door. It has a mechanical door sweep and a faraday pouch for phones. Zone 1: The Clean Network. Your own network that you control. Your router, your Pi-hole, your own hotspot. Devices you have audited. This is where your work laptop lives. It never touches landlord WiFi, coffee shop WiFi, or that free "Apartment_5G" that is actually a $30 camera streaming 24/7. Zone 2: The Dirty Periphery. Everything else. Landlord's smart lock, smart thermostat, package room cameras, your smart TV, robot vacuum, Alexa, LED strips with mics, that random air freshener that is plugged in at waist height. Assume Zone 2 is hostile and logs everything. Most people live entirely in Zone 2 and call it cozy. That is why they get doxxed by their own house. If you want the full build for a Zone 0 room, what to r