October officially marks the start of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and it is important to keep all your devices secure this upcoming season. NCSAM is a combined effort to make sure everyone has the resources they need to be safe and secure online. The theme for this month is to “Own IT. Secure IT. Protect IT.” Cybersecurity has become a pressing topic since the recent technological boom and cybersecurity is more important than ever before. Privacy is becoming scarce as hackers continue to find new ways of penetrating a network and stealing private information. This blog will cover three important cybersecurity tips in order to comply with the theme and spread the positive message of good cyberspace.
1. Secure It
Securing networks is all about covering your tracks and making it difficult for hackers to steal your private information. Following simple security procedures such as using strong passphrases instead of simple passwords can make it extremely difficult for any hacker to access your information. For example, passphrases that are 19 characters in length and do not have to be grammatically correct. Passphrases can also contain symbols making it even harder to decode, and it is also important to use different passphrases for different services. Having the same password or passphrase for all the services that you use is a huge risk because if one service gets hacked then all your services can be accessed. Using a password manager can be helpful in keeping track of different passwords across different services. Having a multifactor authentication process is also key to securing your digital profile, and multifactor authentication requires more than one method of authentication in order to verify the user’s identity. Examples of multifactor authentication can be a key fob, software tokens, or a biometric characteristic such as a fingerprint.
2. Own It
In order to truly protect your digital profile, you must understand how your digital footprint works and the different ways it can be accessed. The internet follows us everywhere we go and is used in our homes, offices, and schools. Having a good understanding of how your devices function and making sure that all your devices are always updated is key to maintaining digital privacy. Updates are often pushed out because a hacker has discovered a flaw or vulnerability within the software, but developers will patch the flaw with an update. Many devices, browsers, and the software will have an automatic update function which is important to make sure all your software and devices are running the latest firmware. Having a good understanding of how all the devices and services process and handle your private information is key to having digital privacy.
3. Protect It
Protecting your information from attackers is the most important step in maintaining digital privacy. Playing hard to get by understanding different hacking tactics and techniques will help you secure and protect your digital footprint. One of the most effective and common hacking methods is email phishing in which an attacker will try and duplicate a legitimate email; however, the email contains malware that will allow the hacker access to your network. If an email seems strange or suspicious it is a best practice to flag it as spam or junk so that the attacker no longer reaches your inbox. It is also very important to use a password protected WIFI networks and to avoid public WIFI as much as possible. In the event in which you have to connect to a public WIFI avoid online banking and shopping at all costs to prevent passwords or credit card information from being stolen.
SecureNinja is an award-winning training and certification school, and SecureNinja has a proven track record of assisting Fortune 100, Government, and Military organizations. For more information on how SecureNinja can benefit you or your organization fill out the form to the right of this post or visit secureninja.com/contact.