The last thing any of us needs or wants is another reason to anxiously lie awake at night, so the fact that October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month… Well, dig up those sleeping pills.
How about instead of quoting scary stats we talk about the things we can be doing to make your team or small business the most secure it can be? I’m going to give you three things you should be doing today to be more secure.
- Get a password manager.
If you don’t already have a password manager get one today. Like now. Stop reading this and go get one. For personal and business passwords. - Stringently examine all requests to share account info.
The most common form of cyberattack is phishing, meaning attempts to collect your account credentials or personal information. Do not share this data with anyone unless you have a clear understanding of why they need it and who they are. - Share account info securely.
If you’re a client of mine you know that when I ask for a password I do so via a one-time-use secure share site. But even better than that is having a password manager, which can allow you to securely share your password with only specific people.
And remember that a hacker has to know your user ID in addition to your password. The username may seem more public, but you should rigorously protect both pieces of information.
Already doing these? Good job. Pat yourself on the back and then stay tuned for more tips during my #7daysofsecurity on LinkedIn.
I’ll also be offering a Security Fundamentals class later this month. If you can’t make it and would like an online instance of the class, please let me know!
Tips & Tools
Security Badger is a browser extension from the Electronic Frontier Foundation that blocks potential trackers on the websites you visit.
Not only is it a cute badger (are badgers cute?) but if you pin it in your browser bar you can have the joyous validation of seeing at a glance the number of trackers blocked on any given website.
Security FTW!
(Scary) Stat of the week
3.4 billion
The number of spam messages sent per day, much of them phishing emails, designed to get users to share private data or access.
In 2022, the average cost of breaches from stolen or compromised credentials came to $4.50 million. [1]
