IT security tip: Going beyond the basics

Most of us know the essential IT security practices: creating good passwords, using a password manager so we don’t reuse passwords, and enabling two-factor authentication or multifactor authentication on any website that allows it, such as banks and other sites that contain your personal information. Good antivirus and encryption software are also essential.

These days, threat actors want personal credentials and information more than anything. While the basics above will help you protect your data, you can take additional steps to make a data breach or cyberattack more difficult for criminals, and if needed, incident response easier for you.

Back up data: Regularly back up important data and files to a secure location, such as an external hard drive or cloud storage service. This can help ensure that your data is not lost in the event of an IT security breach or system failure.

Perform regular IT security audits: Conduct regular IT security audits and assessments to identify vulnerabilities and gaps in security measures and take steps to address them. For example, ensure that you recognize and approve of every device connected to your home network.

Plan for incidents: Develop a plan for responding to personal IT security incidents, such as a data breach or cyberattack. This can minimize the impact of an incident and speed up the recovery process.

If you’re not sure where to start, try typing “develop a plan for responding to personal IT security incidents” into any artificial intelligence chatbot (e.g., ChatGPT). It will create a personal response plan (e.g., disconnecting your device from the internet, changing your passwords, or temporarily shutting down your device) that you can edit for your use. Remember to regularly review and update your plan so it’s ready to use when needed. (Hopefully, never.)

 

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