TIPS FOR A CYBER-SAFE HOLIDAY
THE school holidays are finally here, which means down time, and people are booking hotels and arranging travel, or settling in at the beach with the digital version of a good read.
For many families, the children are permanently wired into an array of connected devices. So, with the fun activities, you need to take precautions to ensure you and your family are cyber-safe this holiday.
Here are seven tips to keep you and your family safe online this holiday:
1. Practise safe wi-fi
As you travel to visit family you will want to stay connected, which means logging into public wi-fi access points. While many are perfectly safe, not all are. People looking to steal your data have a number of tricks. They can connect to a public access point and then broadcast themselves as that access point. This means you connect to them, they connect you to the internet and can intercept all data between you and your online shopping sites, bank, home security system, or wherever else you browse.
If you will be traveling internationally, you may want to turn off wi-fi when entering a new country.
2. Upgrade your passwords
One of the biggest mistakes people make is using the same password on all their online accounts because remembering a unique password for each site may be impossible to keep track of.
There are two approaches. The first is to use a password vault that stores the username and password for each account, so all you have to remember is the single password for that application and it takes care of the rest. The other is to create a tier of applications and then create more complex passwords to remember for each group.
3. Recognise scams in email and on the web
Don’t click on links in advertisements sent to your email or posted on websites unless you check them first. And never open an email or click on an attachment from someone you don’t know – especially when it includes an enticing subject line, such as a cash reward. Take a minute to look at emails from people you know, as well.
4. Protect yourself from viruses and malware
Install reputable anti-malware software, keep it updated and run it regularly. And, because no software is 100% effective, set up a schedule where you load and run a second or third security solution to scan your device or network. (Many solutions provide a free online version or let you run a free demo for a period.)
For more advanced users, consider maintaining a clean virtual machine on your device that you can switch to for your more security-sensitive browsing or to perform online transactions where security is paramount.
5. Keep your devices updated One of the most successful attack vectors hackers use is targeting vulnerabilities that are known, but are not being protected against.
The developers of your devices, as well as the apps you run on them, all issue regular security updates designed to protect you from known threats. Download and run these updates as soon as they become available.
6. Control your social media Hackers will use information about you to make it more likely you will click on a link. And the most common place for them to get that personal information is social media. Set up strict privacy controls that only allow pre-selected people to see your page.
7. Educate family and friends
Be a good net neighbour and share this information with your children.
We live in a digital world, and cybercrime is part of it. We lock our cars and deadbolt our doors. We need to develop the same cautions as we navigate our digital environment.
You and your children may be safe inside your home or hotel room, but you are never 100% safe online. Risk comes with the territory. But if we all just exercise a bit more caution, scrutinise the tools and applications we use more carefully and develop just a little more online common sense, the digital world we live in would become a whole lot safer.