CyberSecurity Awareness Month
The campaign focuses on the top four ways to stay safe online:
- Use strong passwords and a password manager
- Turn on multifactor authentication
- Recognize and report phishing
- Update software
Strong passwords include non-dictionary words or common names, full phrases, letters, numbers, and symbols, capital letters and lowercase. For instance, instead of using a loved one’s or a pet’s name with your Zip Code (we see you out there,) maybe choose a favorite phrase? “I loved skiing Mount Everest” could become “LuvSki3ver3st!95” (95 being the year you last hit that particular slope, or the age of your great grandma who was watching from home, maybe!)
Make it your own and unique, then make sure you have multifactor authentication enabled for accounts that support it. This means that even if they crack your password, they still need physical access to your phone in order to gain access to your account. A bit of a personal story from Sarah, our Marketing Specialist, is that she was at a trade show when she got an email that one of her accounts had been used to purchase an online currency for a website while she was out of town. It took weeks to recover the account and her funds, but having Multifactor Authentication enabled would have stopped it. When they try to log in, if their device or computer isn’t recognized, it will send a code to your phone or email that can be used to confirm your identity which you should NEVER share with anyone over the phone unprompted.
Phishing is the attempt of scammers to gain access to your personal information either from a phone call or Email or fraudulent advertisement. We could go on for hours about the various and particular methods fraudsters use to “social engineer” their way to your accounts, but the basics are this: They wish to entice you either by promising you something you’ve dreamed about but is so far away from you at the moment OR they may try and make you scared, either from true fear or fear of missing out. They will be in a hurry to complete the call or transaction. Stop and think: did I enter a sweepstakes? Is there a way for me to verify my grandchild/child is in jail? Why would someone choose to give a million dollars to someone for no reason? If it sounds too good to be true, it is likely phishing. Hang up. If you have the phone number that reached out to you, report it to the FTC.
Updating your software, specifically your Operating Systems (Windows, iOS, Android, etc.) will help to keep your security up to date as well. Hackers are always looking at the latest version of the operating system to look for security gaps, exploits, and weaknesses. When the developers plug these gaps or patch issues, they send out the latest updates to all users so that everyone can benefit from their repairs and prevent them from falling victim. Using old operating systems that are no longer supported actively leaves you open to exploits because there’s no developers actively working to repair the things hackers can exploit, and if you continue to use older operating systems, they cannot guarantee your data’s safety any longer. Updates can drop at the worst times but keeping them up to date can be worth the hassle. You can usually set up updates to automatically install when you think you will be away from the computer or device as well, so it is less likely to interrupt something important.
Using all these tools and knowledge can help us all be a bit more aware when it comes to our digital security. Building your Cyberawareness toolkit will hopefully keep you, your data, your finances, and safer in the long run.
