Page 172 - Cyber Defense eMagazine September 2023

are myriad opportunities for cybercriminals to cash in on your inability to do anything to prevent a breach
and they enjoy the fact that you may not even know about the breach until you return. Try your best to
keep your personal details and whereabouts just that, personal. The more we give the criminals to work
with the more information they can use against us.

5. Don’t focus on just the technical aspects – Social engineering and physical theft is part of
the crime.

It is a fact that there are more personal property crimes including stolen wallets, passports, ID’s and cell
phones during the summer months and tourist attractions and highly visited locations are some key
hunting grounds. This makes both the time of year and the locations highly attractive to all kinds of
criminals and this is no exception for cybercriminals. Be extremely cautious and conscious of the security
you are using on your phones including locator services, biometric security and complex pins and
passwords as well as device lockout services and remote wipe capabilities. Having these activated and
configured properly can make you feel comfortable that, as frustrating as having your phone stolen would
be, the information on that phone is both backed up and secured from cybercriminals.

There is no guarantee that you will not experience a data breach or identify theft during the summer
months nor is it set in stone that you will. However, it is completely possible to drastically reduce that risk
of experiencing a breach by staying cyber vigilant as you travel the globe and enjoying what we are all
here to enjoy...our lives. Hopefully these 5 tips will help you as leaders to stay cyber-vigilant during the
summer months.

About the Author

Michael Nizich, PhD, CISSP is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Computer
Science and Cybersecurity at New York Institute of Technology and is the
author of the new book, The Cybersecurity Workforce of Tomorrow

Cyber Defense eMagazine – September 2023 Edition 172
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