In recognition of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we spoke with Emily Crose, a former U.S. Intelligence officer with over a decade of experience in cybersecurity. Here are the ten practical cybersecurity tips according to Emily we can all use in our day-to-day lives.
- Assess your own personal risk. If you aren't handling sensitive information that would be valuable to a government, or a corporate competitor, you're unlikely to be a high-priority target for intelligence collection. This means that the approach to your own personal security posture doesn't need to be as paranoid as a spy may have to be.
- Use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). Even if you aren't a high-priority target, always use MFA as a baseline for any service that requires logging in.
- Keep a backup of MFA keys. When using MFA, it will often prompt you to store a backup copy of keys you can use to regain access to your services if you lose access to one of your trusted devices. Keep these keys in a safe and secure location, such as an encrypted backup or a saved cloud service.
- Use password managers. Not only will a password manager make logins easier for you, but they will also make your passwords more secure in their formation. It is a better option than having to remember dozens of high-complexity passwords, or committing to the dreaded practice of password reuse.
- Never reuse passwords! Reusing passwords is a risky practice. A diversity of high complexity passwords ensures that any attacker who may be trying to gain access to your accounts won't have a 'master key' to all of them, which will make compromising your accounts much harder for them.
- Encrypted messages aren't just for spies anymore! Messaging apps offer a higher level of message transportation security are readily available and free for personal use. Make sure to use a message application that offers end-to-end encryption for the best privacy.
- Set up email sorting. Is sorting your email a security practice? It could be! Spear phishing is a targeted cyberattack where hackers craft convincing fake emails using detailed research. Using email is a popular and effective method attackers use to gain a foothold on their victims. By simply sorting your emails from internal and external senders, you reduce the risk of clicking on malicious links and improve your security awareness.
- Share a challenge and a response word with your family. As AI voice replication, and text generation improve the appearance of legitimacy that scammers use to trick their victims, it's a good idea to fall back on older methods of identity verification. Share a challenge and response word with your most trusted relatives that can be used to verify their identity if you are called in desperation by someone who "sounds" like a loved one.
- Maintain regular backups. Ransomware, a type of malware that encrypts a victim's files until a ransom is paid, continues to be a major issue facing individuals and companies worldwide. Maintaining regular backups should be considered standard practice for everyone.
- Regularly restart your mobile devices. Mobile device security has been a major topic in recent months, and will . It's a good idea for individuals who have an elevated risk profile to regularly restart their mobile devices as a measure to remove malicious software that may be running in the device's memory.
Check out Emily's latest book , which explores the relationship between hacker culture and U.S. government policies.
