October is National Cyber Security month to help bring awareness and ensure every American has the resources they need to stay safe and secure online against cyber threats. Ken Helms, Director of Information Technology, says one way to ensure safety online is to use a two-factor authentication, especially when using social media:
“What that is, is let’s say you were going to log on and type in your password. After you type in that password, it would send to your phone, for instance, a six or eight digit number. Then that is a challenge and an additional layer of security, which will cut down on 99% of the issues that people have with accounts being compromised,” shares Helms.
The two-factor authentication can be found on most means of social media, websites, and email in the Options under Privacy and Security.
It is human nature to use the same password for many different websites and social media accounts, but doing so can lead to large scale hacks. Helms reports it is especially important to have a different password for your email account:
“The reason that is recommended as a security precaution is because if you think about it, anytime you need to reset your password, it always sends your email a password link to reset that. If someone managed to get ahold of your Facebook password, and they knew what that was, then they can probably determine what the email address is and if that is the exact same password it is not just one account that has been compromised, it is every one that uses that,” Helms states.
Taking the steps now to ensure your safety online will help prevent your accounts from a cyber threat.
Ransomware is an ever-changing malware that threatens to publish data and block access to an individual’s computer until a ransom is paid. Helms says the most important item to prevent this is to maintain backups:
“When we say backups we always talk about a rule of three. We talk about a working copy that you are using, so that is what stays on your hard drive. Then you have another backup that you backup all the time. Then you have another backup that you may not get new files on it every day, but it at least gets it once a week or once every couple weeks and that is not plugged into the computer. You just keep that in a drawer or some other safe spot. For a business, we always recommend at safety deposit box or something like that because they are probably doing deposits every day. Somewhere stored off site so if something were to happen,” reports Helms.
An external hard drive for backups is recommended and to be stored away from the computer to remain safe from corruption.
