National Cyber Security Awareness Month
National Cyber Security Awareness Month
Every October National Cyber Security Awareness Month takes place. In 2004, the government began, to raise public awareness, about internet safety. Each October they educate on cyberspace security and draw attention to online threats. As the world continues to grow digitally, so does the vulnerability to cyber attacks. We are constantly facing new online threats. Online threats happen on a large and small scale. For example the large amount of credit card breaches taking place, and exploits like Heartbleed and Shellshock.
Ways To Protect Yourself Online
Start taking some simple steps to reduce your chances of becoming a cyber-crime victim.
Set a strong password
Use a randomly generated string of characters including a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers, special characters with a minimum length of at least six letters.
Bulletproof security questions
Do not use easily guessed security questions.
Unique passwords for every account
Avoid using the same password for all social, email and banking site accounts.
Take caution with unknown sites and unsolicited emails
Download from unknown sites with discretion. Do not open attachments, unsubscribe or click on URLs in unsolicited emails. These are only some of the ways spyware, malware, botnets and viruses can be transmitted and allow cyber criminals access to your computer and accounts.
Setup a firewall
Use a firewall to screen out hackers and viruses that have the potential of reaching your computer.
Stay up to date with a clean machine
Keep your hardware, operating system, software and web browser current by installing software updates and enabling automated security patch revisions.
Back it up
Remove the risk of losing your files to a computer crash, human error, theft, disaster or virus by backing up your data regularly.
Protect your valuable information
Take time to ensure your confidential data stays private with high end-to-end file encryption. Data can be vulnerable during transit and while at rest to hackers who want to misuse it.
Look for web addresses using https
When giving sensitive information online for banking or shopping needs make sure the site is equipped with an SSL certificate. This means the website is encrypting the session with a digital certificate, further securing your data.
As National Cyber Security Awareness Month ends, now is a great time to start better protecting against cyber crimes. A great way to do this is by using an anti-spam service.
