Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Since 2004, the President of the United States and Congress have declared October to be Cybersecurity Awareness Month, time dedicated for the public and private sectors to work together to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity.

Working together, we can create a more secure digital environment. By adopting five straightforward measures, we can enhance our online safety whether we're at home, in the office, or at school. These practices bolster our security while online. It's important to share and discuss these tips with family, friends, colleagues, and the wider community to improve our collective online safety.

#1 Use Strong Passwords:

Simple passwords, such as 12345, or common identifying information, like birthdays and pet names, are not safe for protecting important accounts holding personal information. Using an easy-to-guess password is like locking the door but leaving the key in the lock. Weak passwords can quickly be broken by computer hackers. But it’s impossible to remember a unique strong password for every account!

The good news is that creating and storing strong passwords with the help of a "password manager" is one of the easiest ways to protect ourselves from someone logging into our accounts and stealing sensitive information, data, money or even our identities.

#2 Turn On & Enable MFA:?

Multifactor Authentication (MFA) provides us with extra security by confirming our identities when logging in to our accounts,?like entering a code texted to a phone or one generated by an authenticator app.?MFA increases security—it can make us significantly safer online. Even if our passwords become compromised, unauthorized users will be unable to meet the second step requirement and will not be able to access our accounts.

#3 Recognize & Report Phishing:

Phishing occurs when criminals try to get us to open harmful links, emails or attachments that could request our personal information or infect our devices. Phishing messages or “bait” usually come in the form of an email, text, direct message on social media or phone call. These messages are often designed to look like they come from a trusted person or organization, to get us to respond.

Recognize: Look for these common signs:

• Urgent or emotionally appealing language, especially messages that claim dire consequences for not responding immediately
• Requests to send personal and financial information
• Untrusted shortened URLs
• Incorrect email addresses or links, like amazan.com

A common sign used to be poor grammar or misspellings although in the era of artificial intelligence (AI) some emails will now have perfect grammar and spelling, so look out for the other signs.

Resist

If you suspect phishing, resist the temptation to click on links or attachments that seem too good to be true and may be trying to access your personal information.?Instead, report the phish to protect yourself and others. Typically, you’ll find options to report near the person’s email address or username. You can also report via the “report spam” button in the toolbar or settings.

Delete

Delete the message. Don’t reply or click on any attachment or link, including any “unsubscribe” link. Just delete.

#4 Update Security Software:

Software updates are created to fix security risks, improve performance and add features to enhance our experience. Keeping software up to date is an easy way for us to stay safer online. To make updates convenient, turn on the automatic updates in the devices or application’s security settings!

Make sure to have up to date antivirus software installed on your computer!

Be cautious with the amount of personal information you share on social media and other platforms; the more details that are available, the easier it is for someone to steal your identity.

#5 Regularly Back-Up Important Data:

Regularly back-up important files, data, etc. to cloud storage or external drive; this will help you recover important information in case of ransomware attack of hardware failure.

By following these steps, you create multiple layers of defense and significantly reduce the risk of falling victim to cyber threats!