I think a lot about what digital footprints I leave on the Internet. A friend recently said to me “there is no longer any privacy in this world”, and in so many ways this comment should strike fear in all of us. Yes… it’s true that there are very basic and simple actions we can all take in various aspects of our lives to protect our privacy, but I don’t think we can ever make our castle secure enough to know for certain that the barbarian horde will NEVER be able to breach its walls.
Recently I stumbled across this article on cybersecurity and it shocked me. While reading through each of the 60 statistics I couldn’t help but wonder how many of these instances may have included some piece of information linked to me, my family, my business, my friends, or my clients. It has to be true that nearly every person and business that uses the Internet or participates in the digital economy (i.e. using credit and debit cards) has been impacted in some way by an attack. The barbarians are continuously looking for cracks in our walls and when they find a crack they don’t hesitate to use it to invade our world and steal something from us.
As our company tries to stay ahead of the continuous malicious attacks on me, our business, and our clients, we have found various tools and techniques that can help defend against the attack. Each of these tools are affordable and relatively simple to deploy and maintain:
- use random and difficult to guess passwords
- change passwords often
- don’t use the same password for more than one service
- use LastPass or 1password to keep usernames and passwords secure
- use anti-virus software
- use anti-malware software
- use a VPN tunnel when connecting to public wifi networks
- don’t respond to spam calls, emails, or text messages
- don’t share logins and passwords with others
- use multi-factor authentication on any system that makes it available
- scan daily bank account activity for any suspicious transactions
- reconcile your bank statement to your check register or bookkeeping system
- lock your doors so the boogey man can’t get in
These are just a few of the many ways that we can defend ourselves.
Please contact us if you would like more information or if you would simply like to have a conversation about this topic.
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