With all of the recent cyberattacks, continuously stolen customer data, the latest TikTok® revelations, Log4j, cyberthreats from Russia and China, and a host of other alarming issues, I felt it necessary to share some important information to at least try to keep you safer than if you simply did nothing to protect your identity. I also share this information because I recently had a couple of disturbing discussions with clients that left me baffled to say the least. The first discussion was with a CEO of a small business who didn’t know where her emails were hosted and had no idea how to login to the host account. The other discussion was with a client who didn’t know where the company's Domain was registered and the login credentials were nowhere to be found.
That said, I thought this would be the perfect time to share some things you can do to keep yourself, your family, and your business safer. Maybe start with just a couple and go from there....
1) COLLECT AND STORE YOUR INFORMATION
Collect and store all of your accounts, including account #’s, usernames, passwords, pins, and URL’s. Make an additional copy and store it on an external drive, like a thumb drive, and place it somewhere safe and secure. If you own a business or in a management or operations position, include the proper steps for retrieving or relinquishing important account information within your company Emergency Preparedness Checklist.
2) TAKE THE EXTRA STEP TO LOGIN
Enable 2-step authentications whenever available.
3) CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS
Change your passwords regularly. The rule-of-thumb for changing passwords is every 3 - 4 months. Be sure to pay attention to strength meters and use various character types. Also, do not to use the same password for every account. Don't forget to update and verify your contact information for successful retrieval of your usernames and passwords as well.
4) KEEP BROWSERS CLEAN
Clear your browser’s history often and do not “allow” your browser to save any of your passwords.
5) KEEP YOUR DEBIT CARD OFFLINE
Do not store debit card information and only use credit cards for online transactions. Also, be sure to sign out (log out) of an account once you’re done handling your business.
6) CONSIDER A VPN
If you frequent the internet, consider subscribing to and using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to make it more difficult to track your activities and steal your data.
7) UNDERSTAND COOKIES BEFORE YOU "ACCEPT" THEM
A cookie is a small piece of text (code) sent to your browser by the websites you visit and helps those sites remember information about you, what you viewed, clicked on, etc. Also, just an FYI, cookies do occupy space on your computer. If there are enough of them stored over a long period of time, they could slow down your speed.
8) DELETE TIKTOK®
Delete your TikTok® account. Period. While most marketing companies state the major trend in 2022 is that TikTok® will dominate Social Media, it’s because they’re capitalizing on another revenue stream. They really don't care about your data. If they did, they wouldn't push TikTok®. It amazes me how many Americans are fine with using an app from China and freely handing them all the data they want and need. TikTok® captures facial and voice patterns and it was recently released that there are 13 untrackable third-party connections to the app that are capturing and sharing your data.
References:
https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/tiktok-personal-data-study
9) STOP RESPONDING TO QUESTIONS
Stop answering those random questions you see posted on Social Media unless you personally know the individual. It's for the purpose of obtaining possible answers to those "secret questions" in order to gain access to accounts.
10) CONTROL YOUR CLICKS
Stop arbitrarily opening emails that seem suspicious. Just delete them and don't think twice about it. Remember, curiousity killed the cat and it could kill your data too.
If you have any questions or need any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our clients will tell you that we go "above and beyond the call" and we'll be more than happy to help you as well.
