This is the final post for Cybersecurity Awareness Month from Messiah University’s Information Security Director, Allen Snook. We appreciate him and the Cybersecurity interns lending their expertise this month for the #seeyourselfincyber campaign, giving us tips and resources for safeguarding our information online.
Internet scams are nothing new. Since the 1980’s, hackers have been attempting to gain illegal access to networks and systems in order to obtain sensitive information. They are after your identity, the contents of your email, and your financial data (they don’t need to know how much is in your bank account to want to gain access to it). Phishing emails are one way they attempt to steal this information from you.
If you’ve been following our other blog posts for Cybersecurity Awareness Month, you might recall some of the tips we’ve given for keeping your personal information safe, such as developing strong passwords, updating your apps, and avoiding oversharing on social media. In this post, we wanted to share further measures for safeguarding your information in order to thwart malicious hackers.
- Think before you click. More than 90% of successful cyber-attacks start with a phishing email. If you receive an email from a person or a company you are not familiar with, do not click any of the links or attachments (no matter what they’re promising in their message). Pay close attention to the details and verify the sources before you click on anything.
- Create and use strong passwords. See our previous post on this.
- Try not to connect to public Wi-Fi networks. Although they are convenient, they are often vulnerable to cyber criminals.
- Secure your devices. Be sure to update security software, operating system software, internet browsers and apps. You could also install an antivirus software to help combat viruses, malware, etc.
- Back up your data. Make extra copies of your files so that if something happens to one of the files, you still have your backups. One way to do this is by saving information in the cloud or to an external storage device.
All of this is to say: Be proactive. You can ensure that you and your organization are a secure place online by taking the initiative to safeguard your information. We hope these tips equip you to do that.
#seeyourselfincyber #messiahcyber
Image by Mikhail Fesenko, via Unsplash.com