By Roger Spears, Schneider Downs
Whenever the new year rolls around, resolutions—to achieve a goal, improve a behavior or continue good practices—abound. And, while many resolutions center personal goals such as fitness or financial goals, the increased sophistication of cyber-crime in 2024 provides a good reason to put online safety on your list this year.
So, if you are looking to switch up your resolution this year but aren’t sure where to start, you can borrow from the cybersecurity experts. To help kickstart 2024, the Schneider Downs cyber team shared some tips on how to protect yourself online:
- Use a Password Manager – Password managers offer a convenient and secure method to access your accounts by allowing you to create, store and use strong passwords in a centralized manner. They also allow you to keep track of a variety of passwords for individual accounts, as you should never use the same password for more than one account in case of a breach.
- Uninstall Unused Apps – One of the simplest ways to keep your information secure is to uninstall unused apps from your smart devices. Even if apps are legitimate, many of them have default privacy settings that access your data and could potentially put you at risk if the app’s company is part of a breach. Be sure to take advantage of your smart device’s settings that may allow you to set up automatic app cleanup.
- Don’t Trust Unsolicited Phone Calls – Fraudulent phone calls, known as vishing, are still a popular phishing method of threat actors. If you receive an unsolicited phone call asking for private or financial information, simply hang up. If you think the call is legitimate you should hang up and call back a verified number. While these attacks still happen, the good news is many smartphones have technology dedicated to outing potential scams before your phone rings at all.
- Stop Blindly Scanning QR Codes – One of the odd trends of the pandemic was the resurgence of QR codes as conveniently contactless methods of viewing information such as restaurant menus. Unfortunately, phishing attacks via QR codes (known as quishing) are on the rise, to the tune of 587% between August and September of 2023. QR codes are useful but be cautious and verify the domain associated with a QR code before you scan it. Remember, anybody can make a QR code, especially those with malicious intent.
- Regularly Check if Your Information is Part of a Breach – Chances are your information has been part of a breach in recent years. If so, you may have received an email or letter with a vague explanation of the breach and an offer for free credit monitoring, but we recommend being proactive by using verified resources, such as https://haveibeenpwned.com, to find out if your information is exposed. If your data is out there, be sure to check your credit report, change passwords and check the breached party’s website for additional resources.
Those are our cybersecurity resolutions for the new year, what are yours?
About the Author
Mr. Spears has over 18 years of experience within the IT and Cybersecurity disciplines. He has spent his career leading dynamic teams on both small- and enterprise-level projects. He has previously served as Chief Technology Officer, Cyber Security Training Coordinator and in other related positions for employers in the higher education sector and, most recently, for the U.S. Navy. He will serve a broad array of Schneider Downs’ cybersecurity clients in similar capacities.
Mr. Spears received his Bachelor of Science in Technology from Bowling Green State University and his Masters of Science in Information Assurance and Security from Capella University
