As we all stay at home and retreat online for our social life it's a great time for cyber criminals to take advantage of your digital footprint. Here 10+ things you can do to improve your "digital hygiene" and protect yourself and your information online.
1. Rotate your passwords to unique & strong passwords.
When you think about a strong password take the following into consideration:
Dropping the crazy, complex mixture of upper case letters, symbols, and numbers. Instead, opt for something more user-friendly but with at least eight characters and a maximum length of 64 characters.
Don’t use the same password twice.
The password should contain at least one lowercase letter, one uppercase letter, one number, and four symbols but not the following &%#@_.
Choose something that is easy to remember and never leave a password hint out in the open or make it publicly available for hackers to see.
Reset your password when you forget it. But, change it once per year as a general refresh.
2. Turn on multi-factor authentication for accounts.
Multi-factor authentication should be used whenever possible because it immediately neutralizes the risks associated with compromised passwords by adding an additional layer of security to protect highly sensitive personal information. I highly recommend this for your e-mail, banking, and accounts with sensitive information. Many banking websites now require it.
3. Delete online accounts/profiles you no longer use.
Everyone has created an online account with a social media site or company and never looked back. Instead of just leaving the accounts inactive & unused with your personal information delete them. Additionally, think about taking inventory of your accounts that you do use. Having too many digital accounts raises your risk of data being misused, stolen, or included in a businesses's data breach.
4. Review/establish your backup & recovery plan for files and photos.
Nothing is worse than losing your files, contacts, or your precious photos with family and friends. Take time now to make sure you have the appropriate backups on your computer and mobile devices. Personally, I believe on simply keeping all my files in a variety of secure cloud options (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, etc.) and they all have their pros and cons. A quick google search will help you compare the options. I also encourage exploring options for backing up your files in a few places. For example, I back up my collection of photos both to iCloud & to Amazon Music. I even take it a step further and manually upload my favorite photos with family & friends to Facebook.
5. Review your digital presence for risk of social engineering.
Social engineering is the term used for a broad range of malicious activities using psychological manipulation to trick users into making security mistakes or giving away sensitive information. Here are some actions you can take to reduce your risk of social engineering:
Google search yourself and see what comes up. Question if you want that information out there and if you can remove it.
Review your social media posts for information that can be used to compromise your identity and remove it. Some common items are: Full date of birth (publicly displayed), Cell Phone Number, Mother’s Maiden Name, Mailing Address, Make & Model of your car (specifically 1st car), License plate number, Names of Pets, High School Name, School Mascot.
6. Remove your credit card on file with retailers and online merchants.
Every website & company has their own unique cybersecurity posture to protect their payment process. Whenever possible I choose to checkout via Amazon Pay or PayPal as they have an advanced cybersecurity and data protection program compared to the capabilities of most online retailers. I’d always rather re-enter my payment information than have it saved to be on file for easy checkout. If you want to protect your information further think about only paying for things online with a pre-paid card you get at the grocery store.
7. Organize your e-mail inbox and unsubscribe from junk emails.
This is a great time to finally tackle the mounting effort to manage your inbox. Unsubscribe from repetitive marketing e-mails and set up mailbox filter rules to streamline the number of e-mails that end up in your inbox.
8. Review your social media account privacy settings.
Make sure you know what you’ve shared with different groups of people. You should always be reevaluating and not including any information that might be sensitive or personal.
9. Invest in secure messaging with end to end encryption.
If you want to keep your messages private and away from possible prying eyes ensure your messaging apps offer end to end encryption. Some personal favorites are Signal and Telegram. You don’t need to be doing anything nefarious but rather want to speak openly with others.
10. Update software, browsers, and operating system.
Developers are continually tweaking software to stay ahead of hackers. If possible, set your devices to update automatically when new versions are available. Staying updated is one of your best lines of defense against viruses, malware, and other threats.
Bonus Item: Think about investing in a personal VPN to encrypt your complete digital experience. A VPN creates an encrypted tunnel between you and a remote server operated by a VPN service. All your internet traffic is routed through this tunnel, so your data is secure from prying eyes along the way. Because your traffic is exiting the VPN server, your computer appears to have the IP address of said server, masking your identity and location.
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