What Exactly Is Cyber Security?
Cybersecurity is in essence the looking after and protecting of your online and digital assets at home and at work. It helps protect networks, devices, and data from unauthorized access or criminal use. Today, everything relies on smart devices and WiFi/Data.
Cybercriminals don’t discriminate they attack any and everyone!
Educating older relatives is just as important as educating the youth and everyone in between. Various scam methods are used to attack those who have trouble grasping new technology. Keeping it simple will help ease into technology for beginners. Teach unsuspecting users the big three methods of attack (email, text, phone). Users should be weary of clicking links and messages and should use a family code word to verify abnormal requests.
How Does Cyber Security Effect Australians?
Cyber Security breaches are an Australia wide problem
Australia is currently under a major cyber attack from many countries throughout the world and their number one targets are small to medium sized businesses and enterprises nation wide.
Hackers can & will try to hack your business applications
Brute force attacks, data breaches and email phishing is a daily occurrence happening all across the country. Many businesses don’t have two factor authentication or use easy passwords across all their applications.
Cyber breaches can cost you your business and thousands of dollars
Sadly we see and hear about these types of breaches and incidents all the time. Most of them involve some sort of demand for money or crypto currency to release your data but often cost even more in rebuilding your reputation and longer lasting damage.
The below tips have being put together to give and overview and scope of some of the practical measures you can take right now and apply to your business or personal life.
1. Cyberbullying Safety Tips for Parents
Cyberbullies are taking advantage of technology to harass our loved ones. As parents and mentors we can take steps to protect them. Teach our loved ones good online habits that they can carry with them for life.
- Always keep communication open
- Look for the warning signs.
- Document the activity if it is brought to your attention.
- Report it to the proper authorities.
2. Minimize the Access Others Have to Your Information
Make easy habits to adopt like creating strong passwords, using a password manager, enabling multi-factor authentication/2FA when available across all apps, and using security questions properly may dramatically reduce the chances, when used consistently that the information on your computer will be lost or accessed by hackers or breached locally.
3. Do’s and Don’ts of password creation
When coming up with a strong, easy to remember password it is tempting to reuse it– don’t! Do instead: use the longest password or passphrase permissible by each account, consider developing mnemonics to remember to remember complex passwords, use a password manager such as Keeper
Don’t however: Use passwords based on personal information, do not reuse passwords, do not share your password with anyone
4. Protect Personal Information
Always make sure to verify who you are sending personal information to and if you are submitting personal information to a website verify that they have a privacy policy in place. To protect your identity and prevent attackers from easily accessing information about you, be cautious providing your date of birth, Medicare, Address, Passport, or other personal information online.
5. Holiday Travel with Personal Internet Enabled Devices
Holidays are a time for relaxing and letting your hair down however with the Internet & Mobile data at our fingertips, you need to know how to protect yourself from risks:
- Don’t connect to public WiFi, use your cellular data or a personal hotspot
- Turn Bluetooth off when not in use.
- Be cautious when using charging stations or connecting your device to a USB port.
- Use a VPN such as ExpressVPN or NordVPN for that extra layer of security.
- Don’t access bank accounts using public WiFi.
6. Use Caution with Email attachments
Just because an email looks like it came from someone you know and trust that doesn’t mean it actually did, so be wary of unsolicited attachments, even from people you know. If an email or attachment seems suspicious, don’t let your curiosity put your computer at risk and if in a business environment alert the necessary people so they can mitigate.
7. Tips to avoid social engineering attacks
Social engineering attacks use human interaction to gain or compromise information about an organization or its computer systems. Being aware that scammers can pose as friends, family or employees will give you the confidence to be suspicious. Not everything sent to you online is a scam, remember to do your due diligence and verify the who is asking for your personal information.
8. Social Media Safety Tips
Social media is one of the most popular ways people get scammed or their accounts hacked.
- Remember to limit the personal information you post online
- The internet is a public resource, only post things that you are comfortable with others seeing.
- Be wary of strangers friending you online
- Take advantage of social media sites privacy settings
- Talk with your children about being safe online
- Enable 2fa
9. Proper Disposal of Electronic Devices
It is important to follow the best practices for personal device disposal. Laptops, tablets, and smartphones allow you to keep great deals of information. If they are not properly destroyed or sanitized your personal data could fall into the hands of cybercriminals.
10. Home Wi-Fi Security
Many users share two common misconceptions about the security of their home Wi-Fi networks. Their network is too small to be targeted in a cyberattack or their devices are “secure” out of the box. Remember to remain vigilant and understand the risks of being connected to the internet.
11. Think before you click
Links in mails in the form of docusign, password recovery emails, and bank statements are some of the most popular methods used by hackers to trick you and gain your personal data. These fake sites connected to the links are often too similar to the real one. Hackers will get you to provide your personal details and gain access to your account using the same. Always verify the URL before clicking on a link, you won’t regret it.
12. Anti-Virus & Anti-Malware Aren’t a Thing of the Past
While humans are the best (means or weapon) to combat cybercriminals, having a robust anti-virus/malware software is a must. While they are the some of the oldest security protections around, they still work! These programs significantly reduce your vulnerability to an attack.
13. Use Strong Authentication Tools
Strong authentication begins by using unique, complex passphrases for all accounts and devices. Pins should be unique to individual devises. Biometric authentication like fingerprints or facial ID are examples of additional authentication.
14. Backup Data Often and Use Remote Security Features
Remote lock and wipe options can protect personal and business data. Many devices provide encryption tools. Make sure to set up and enable in case of an emergency.
15. Keep your devices safe by staying up to date on OS and security feature updates.
Keeping your operating system, security software, and web browser updated will minimize threats to your network.
16. Use Privacy Controls on Personal on Business Social Media Accounts
This keeps personal identifiable information out of public view Specifically, location, full name, contact information, and close family or friend contacts. Cybercriminals can and will use this information to increase efficacy of attacks.