I was at the gym yesterday and noticed that every one of the lockers in use were locked. According to various surveys, somewhere between 75% to 80% of Americans lock their homes. Similar numbers for safeguarding our cars. So, it makes sense that according to the National Cybersecurity Alliance 2023 Oh Behave! Report, 84% of people consider online safety a priority.
But wait. The same report reveals that only 38% of us use unique passwords for all of our accounts. That can’t be right. But it is.
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has embraced the theme, “Secure Our World.” Secure Our World empowers everyone to understand simple ways to protect yourself, your family and your business from online threats. Simple. I like that.
First let’s put that in perspective. And let’s be honest. A small percentage of us go to the gym. And not everyone owns a home or a car. Yet, from increasingly younger ages through late in life, more of us than ever before are connected through the internet and a plethora of digital tools. More important than that, more of our sensitive information is online. My 13-year-old daughter has a bank account. She connects that to another online payment source. I do the same, across many platforms. In the gym, I could lose my watch and my water bottle. If my passwords got in the wrong hands, the results would be far more devastating.
It makes one wonder, is it too difficult to secure our online presence, or are we just not well enough informed? Secure Our World solves both of these challenges.
Four Easy Ways to Stay Safe Online
Recognize & Report Phishing. Keeping it simple, all we need to do is Recognize, Resist, and Delete. That’s no harder than Stop, Drop, and Roll. There are common signs to recognize, like urgent appeals from unknown sources, requests for personal or financial information, untrusted URLs, and incorrect email addresses or links. You don’t want to buy your next pair of sneakers from amazan.com, for example. Once you recognize one of these opportunities that seems suspicious or too good to be true, just resist. Then, report it. Tell family and friends. Look in the toolbar for a “report spam” button. Finally, delete. Delete the message. Don’t reply or click on any attachment or link, including any “unsubscribe” link. Just delete.
Use Strong Passwords. Make them Long, Random, and Unique. Do you notice this simple recurring theme? CISA recommends at least 16 characters, since longer is stronger! As far as random, we have all seen examples like Yuc8$RikA34%ZoPPao98t. And that certainly works well. But if you are like me, you may find that impossible to remember and dangerous to record elsewhere. Instead, you can use a password manager that generates strong passwords for you and remembers them. There are many great ones on the market and your phone has them too. CISA also offers an alternative password example, as well:
- Good: HorsePurpleHatRun
- Great: HorsePurpleHatRunBay
- Amazing: Horse Purple Hat Run Bay Lifting
We can all come up with a silly, random non-sensical phrase that we can remember.
Turn on Multifactor Authentication (MFA). Don’t tell me, only three steps again? Settings, Turn on MFA, and Confirm. You may find the settings under various headings, Account Settings, Settings & Privacy, or other similar titles. You may even be prompted by your financial institution to set one up. Whether it is called MFA or two-factor authentication, two-step authentication, select it. Lastly, just confirm the type you want, which could be receiving a code by text or email, or my favorite using facial recognition or fingerprints to confirm our identities.
Update Software. Yep. Three steps. And this is the least complicated. Watch, Install, and Automate. Our devices work to keep us safe. Whether a web browser update or antivirus software, taking a second (not even a minute) to click on them, can prevent a future disaster. If that is too much trouble, save future seconds and simply automate the updates.
Secure Our World Resources
I am pretty realistic about this column. My daughters don’t read it. Many of my friends don’t read. But you are reading it. And either you, or people you know in homeland security and emergency management, have platforms to help countless others. Thanks to CISA there are several resources to help you help them.
- Even if this is the only one you use, it includes a massive amount of essential material that you can repurpose for your audiences.
- Secure Our World – The full campaign and website.
- Even an Anagram Puzzle!
There is so much more in the toolkit. October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. But we can, and should, work year-round to help ourselves and others Secure Our World. Just please don’t use the password, Horse Purple Hat Run Bay Lifting. That one is already taken.
Dan Stoneking is the Owner and Principal of Stoneking Strategic Communications , the Author of Cultivate Your Garden: Crisis Communications from 30,000 Feet to Three Feet , the Founder and Vice President of the Emergency Management External Affairs Association , and an Adjunct Professor in the Communications Department at West Chester University.