Happy October from your Arbor Family!
While this is the season of candy overload, scary movies, gourds and all things spooky lets try to keep the nightmares to the big screens.
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month and we’ve got all the tips and tricks you need to know to keep your information safe and out of a hackers hands.
A little Friday fun fact for you, a cyber attack happens every 39 seconds – that’s about how long it took you to open and read this blog post so far. The craziest part is 95% of those are due to human error!
Why is Cybersecurity Awareness Important?
Cybersecurity incidents can come with a hefty price tag and cybercriminals are constantly finding new ways to dodge the latest defensive tool and technologies and landing themselves into your inbox.
Email attacks almost always involve some sort of phishing. Phishing is when a hacker sends an email posed to look like a reliable source ( a company or business for example) in order to trick a person into giving up sensitive information such as credit card numbers, passwords or addresses.
Chances are you’ve probably seen phishing emails before! They could be warning you of a password suddenly expiring or letting you know that you’ve won a free TV. Thankfully your email spam folder will catch most of these but they can occasionally make it through your and into your box.
How can you protect yourself?
- Choose a strong password: We know its tempting to use words or dates that are important to you such as your birthdate, anniversary or favorite child’s name but try to think of something that wouldn’t be easy to guess. Maybe throw in some special characters, capitalization and number to make it more difficult.
- Use Multifactor Authentication: This adds an additional layer of protection making it harder for attackers to gain access to your devices and online accounts. Even if your password is hacked, that alone won’t be enough to pass the authentication check. The authentication email can also notify you that someone is trying to log into an account and potentially giving you enough time to change to a new password.
These two are great ways to start but you should also consider the following:
- Regularly backing up your data.
- Keeping software applications up to date.
- Locking devices when unattended.
- Avoid giving out your personal information.
- Be wary of emails from unknown senders and double clicking on links before looking
While these tips wont totally stop a cyber attack from happening to you they can make it a lot harder for hackers and will add layers of protection. Once you get into the routine and start implementing these tips consistency will be your new Brest friend.
