Month December 2017

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 24

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: watch this video series This is it, you’ve reached the final tip. Today’s tip is a pretty passive one and won’t require much effort on your part. I’m sharing a video series with you. Varonis, a…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 23

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: monitor your accounts Even with all the settings we’ve tweaked, browser plug-ins we’ve installed, and common sense in the world, you still might get hacked or there might be a breach in some service in which you…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 22

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: report any issues We can agree that no amount of security will keep you perfectly safe, right? That is to say, except completely staying off the internet and not using anybody with online connectivity … but…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 21

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: use common sense We’ve spent a majority of the past few weeks reviewing technological tools to help keep you secure. But there’s a saying that goes “built something more idiot proof and they’ll build a better idiot.”…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 20

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: use HTTPS everywhere I’ve already touched on encryption in this series, so you’re aware of the importance of scrambling your data. I’ve also briefly touched on encryption of your data in transit using HTTPS. So today’s…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 19

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: manage your privacy while browsing I’m sure it comes as no surprise that your browsing habits are tracked regularly by multiple sites. If you look at your cookies in your browser of choice right now, there are…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 18

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: use ad-blockers First and foremost, I use a lot of free services on the internet. And I know many of those services rely on advertising revenue to remain in business. However, as somebody who assesses risk for…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 17

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: review your connected accounts Many websites allow you to sign in using your credentials from another service (like Google, Facebook, or Twitter). While this is convenient, depending on what you agreed to when you connected the…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 16

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: be careful what you post It seems obvious to say you don’t want to give away personal information online, but it’s surprising the information you can find about people with a simple search. When you think…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 15

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: be careful in email In reality, you should be careful and pay attention to all the information you post or share, links you click, or attachments you open online; not just in emails. But most people use…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 14

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: protect your lockscreen I don’t even need to mention how important protecting your mobile device is … this is the third day of tips dedicated to them. And while it’s convenient to have notifications displayed on…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 13

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: enable “find my phone” features This will be quick and to the point. As I mentioned yesterday, we pretty much carry our lives on our mobile devices. If you’ve never lost a phone, or even just…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 12

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: lock your mobile device Most of us carry (or have access to) everything in our phones: bank account, personal contacts, social media, and more. You’re basically walking around with a mobile computer, and should treat it…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 11

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: use a VPN I’ve already posted about the importance of encryption, but that focused on your “data at rest” – your hard drives and mobile device. Today’s tip is about Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) which encrypts your…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 10

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: be careful with public wifi and hotspots Of course we’re all wary of public wifi, aren’t we? We never just join a hotspot at a cafe because it happens to have the same name as the cafe, right?…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 09

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: secure your home wifi/router If you don’t have high-speed internet at home, today’s tip probably won’t be for you. Also, how do you survive? Anyway, here are some things you can do to shore up your home wifi…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 08

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: change your passwords Ideally you’ve chosen and setup a password manager. If not, this part will not be as easy … but still necessary. Changing your passwords will also be a time consuming process but one that should be…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 07

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: use a password manager For a long time, you probably heard that your password should be a mix of upper, lower, special characters, and numbers and that you needed to change it every two or three months.…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 06

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: enable multifactor authentication (MFA) or two-factor authentication (2FA) You’re already familiar with authentication, which is proving you are who you say you are. The most popular way to authenticate to a service or system online is…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 05

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: encrypt everything Encryption seems like a scary topic to a lot of people; and if you get into the weeds of the algorithms used and salts and hashes … it certainly can be. But for most people…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 04

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: backup your devices If you’ve never experienced a hard drive crash on your computer or your mobile phone completely dying and you lose everything on your device … consider yourself lucky. We put a lot of information,…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 03

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: review your computer’s privacy settings It’s no secret that companies gather information about their customers. The problem is when we don’t pay attention and let them gather everything about us and our habits. While their service…

Cybersecurity Advent – Day 02

Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: use anti-virus and anti-malware Adding another layer of security is installing an anti-virus AND an anti-malware program on your computer AND your phone. Macs, Windows, iPhones, Androids … all of them are potentially vulnerable. Also, no single anti-virus…