General Security Tips For Everyone
Everyone must learn about security. With the increased reliance on technology, protecting yourself and your family from cyberattacks is now more important than ever. Cyberattacks are becoming increasingly common and sophisticated, and they can devastate individuals, businesses, and organizations.
Never have words in your password.
Passwords should be as random as possible. If you have trouble remembering passwords try creating a random sentence. For example;
i like to create 20 Passwords every second!
Becomes
iltc20Pes!
Ensure you write it out to avoid accidentally having common words. You can also have your own algorithm. Instead of choosing the first letter in each word, you could choose the first, the second, and the first again, resulting in
iitr20Pvs!
Strong passwords
Have strong passwords with at least ten characters with at least one special character, number, and upper case. Most sites will enforce eight characters. This is not optimal. They are easier to guess and brute force attack.
Two Factor Authentication
Set two-factor authentication with any web application you would care if someone maliciously gained access to (especially your bank account and email address). You can usually do this in the settings area of the application.
High security on Email Accounts
Secure your email account. It is the linchpin in your accounts. People can use “forgot your password” to access almost anything you use unless you use two-factor authentication. You can use your phone number or get a security key; something like this Yubi Key is highly recommended.
Phone Security
Use a security passcode or thumbprint on your phone. Although annoying, if someone gained access to your phone, they could have access to your sensitive information. You can turn on location-based security, so if you are at home, you do not have to enter your code.
Be aware of phishing scams.
If someone sends you a link, look at the link, not the link text. Take a second to hover over the link. For example www.google.com. Note that it is going to www.baddsite.com!
Do not click if someone sends you a link out of the ordinary. Send them a message using another method asking them if they sent it.
Online scams are very common these days. I have a separate post about them that can be found here.
Social Engineering
Social engineering is “the use of deception to manipulate individuals into divulging confidential or personal information that may be used for fraudulent purposes.” Question people wanting to access anything on your property or at your work. You don’t want to be the person who lets the fake IT person in your place of work and puts fake stickers on the backs of your work phones so that when something goes wrong, you call the wrong IT department. Or you get an email that asks you to send x amount of money for the CEO right now (yes, both of them have happened).
Do not fill out those “what kind of x are you” on Facebook. They are most likely gathering information on you that could be used for security questions.
Click here to learn more about social engineering.
I hope you hovered over that link to make sure it was to a recognized domain 😉