Securing Your Electronic Life

We read about how many great firms and government departments suffer security breaches because they have failed to provide adequate cypersecurity for their data and computer systems. We all struggle to maintain a list of passwords for our own personal equipment and online services.

If you have ever wondered how vulnerable you really are, and what you need to do to secure your personal systems, on November 21st, 2019, Dwayne Matthews described the best and most up-to-date methods you should be using to defend your electronic systems.

He left us with lots of valuable resources for us to solve our problems and set up appropriate protection and procedures.

Dwayne’s Recommendations

Below are the links to the videos and the New York Times do it yourself article I was recommending:

Videos I recommend:

• Cyber Crime Isn’t About Computers: It’s About Behavior | Adam Anderson | TEDxGreenville https://youtu.be/c_2Ja-OTmGc
• Cyber Insecurity: Why YOU Are the Vulnerability: https://youtu.be/CWCKlAcxESA
• Cyber Self-Defense | Paul Carugati | TEDxSpokane https://youtu.be/knLDY7hRm5I
• 19 million Canadians have had their data breached in eight months  https://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1769426&jwsource=cl

Have I Been PWNED?

• try entering your email address, or a password, at: Have I Been Pwned? https://haveibeenpwned.com/

SECURE YOUR ELECTRONIC LIFE

• Do it yourself…   Try this New York Times article Protect Your Digital Self in a Few Minutes a Day https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/well/protect-your-digital-self-in-a-few-minutes-a-day.html
• Or hire a PRO to get you going!  (1st appointment 1 to 2 hours plus homework)

Managing Passwords, everyone’s struggling with them

• Document your accounts  – ALL of them!
• A “good”, complex password?
• Change  minimum YEARLY
• COMPLEX:  > 8  characters…  Combination of a phrase or root word, UPPER & lower case, numbers ,  & where possible a special character (& ! # @ $ etc)
• Password managers?  Maybe….  Best are LastPass, DashLane, 1Password, Keeper Security,  & Bitwarden… (Digital Trends.com review 2019), Norton ok

Multi-factor authentication (2-step verification)

• Emailed or Texted codes,
• Authenticator apps  (Microsoft, Google, …)
• Dongles…

What sites  support 2-step verification?

• https://twofactorauth.org/

Multi-factor authentication – How do I set it up?

• Google/Gmail account: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185839?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en
• Microsoft Account: https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/12408/microsoft-account-how-to-use-two-step-verification
• Apple/iCloud: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204915

Antivirus & Security suites

• Windows Defender
• Norton Security
• Sophos
• Malware Bytes
• BitDefender 

Cheers!

Dwayne Matthews