How cyber aware are you?

Growing up I was always told to double check that I turned off the gas stove and locked the doors before leaving the house. I was told that it was to make sure everything was “safe” and “protected”. The child in me understood that this was about the safety of our personal belongings.

Eventually, I got a phone and always made sure to have a password. While at that point, it was about hiding things from my parents as a typical teenager, I was never comfortable with someone going through my personal belongings without my permission. And as I grew up and kept up with the happenings in the world, I quickly learnt of a way that people can access my personal information and leverage that. That began my fascination of the cyber security world. However, being a psychology student, it took me some time to understand the basics of security. 

Today, being a security recruiter, I often catch myself wondering about the steps to take to ensure that I’m protected. That combined with the unique opportunity I have, to work with security professionals and executives made me curious to learn from them. During one of these conversations, I realized that one of the biggest problems within cybersecurity is the lack of awareness. People who are not in the field of cybersecurity or IT, often don’t know about the best practices which in turn makes them more susceptible to being hacked. And, being someone who does not have an IT background, I wanted to help them be safe as well.

So, I decided that in my conversations with security professionals going forward, I will ask all of them the same question, which I believe everybody can learn from:

“Being a security professional, what are some things you do to try and ensure your digital safety?”

If they are comfortable with it, I will be sharing the answers with you guys on a weekly basis. So, if you guys are in security and want to tell us one tip, please do reach out to me! I would love to have a conversation with you about security and learn from you.