We can increase our online safety through four simple actions, whether at home, work or school, these tips make us more secure when connected. Take time to discuss them with family, friends, employees, and your community so we can all become safer online!
Recognize & report phishing
Phishing scams are online messages designed to look like they’re from a trusted source. We may open what we thought was a safe email, attachment or image only to find ourselves exposed to malware or a scammer looking for our personal data. The good news is we can take precautions to protect our important data. Learn to recognize the signs and report phishing to protect devices and data.
Recognize the common signs:
- Urgent or emotionally appealing language
- Requests to send personal or financial information
- Unexpected attachments
- Email addresses that do not match the supposed sender
If the message is designed to resemble an organization you trust, report the message by alerting the organization using their contact information found on their webpage.
Delete the message. Don’t reply or click on any attachment or link, including any “unsubscribe” link. The unsubscribe button could also carry a link used for phishing. Just delete.
If a message looks suspicious, it’s probably phishing.
Use strong passwords
Simple passwords can be guessed. Make passwords at least 16 characters long, random and unique for each account. Use a password manager, a secure program that maintains and creates passwords. This easy-to-use program will store passwords and fill them in automatically on the web.
Turn on multifactor authentication (MFA)
Use MFA on any site that offers it. MFA provides an extra layer of security in addition to a password when logging into accounts and apps, like a face scan or a code sent by text. Using MFA will make you much less likely to get hacked.
Update software
When devices, apps or software programs (especially antivirus software) notify us that updates are available, we should install them as soon as possible. Updates close security code bugs to better protect our data. Turn on automatic updates to make it even easier.
Source: Secure our world | CISA. (n.d.). Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA. https://www.cisa.gov/secure-our-world