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Hey there, listeners. It’s Brett Molina. Welcome back to Talking Tech. Security professionals are urging Americans to take immediate steps to protect themselves from what they describe as a higher risk of Russian cyber attacks following the invasion of the Ukraine. Some of these experts are noting that, with sanctions setting in, set by the US against Russia, it’s a matter of time until the US is targeted more directly.
Now, the odds of cyber attackers targeting Americans individually is unlikely. It is important to stay ahead of things and to be prepared. My colleague, Jessica Guynn, writes about this in a story that you can read on tech.usa today.com. She offers eight tips that you can take to help protect yourself. These are a lot of things you should be doing anyway, but if it’s something you’ve put off and you haven’t had a chance to do yet, now is the best time to do it.
Let’s break them all down here. The first one is: turn on multifactor authentication. What this is and what it does is, let’s say you log into your Gmail account. You log in on a computer, you put in your passcode. If you have the multifactor authentication on, it’ll ask you to apply a code to verify. In the case of Gmail, for example, if you already have it on your phone, you’ll go to your phone, and you’ll verify, say, “is this you logging in on this computer,” for example. There are other ways you can get those extra codes too. You can get them sent through text message or email.
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I personally use Authy, which is an authentication app. It works with a lot of different services. And I have several apps tied to that. And what it does is, anytime you log in, the website or service will ask for a code from your authentication app. I’ll go there, get the code, and type it in. It never goes through text or anything, so it’s right directly on your phone. Super safe, super secure way to protect your account. Also good too if, say, someone finds your password; you still have that extra layer of defense there.
The next step: update everything. Anything and everything: your phone, your computer. Check for updates, get it all up to speed. You want to have the latest update. A lot of hackers like to exploit those loopholes that then get patched. But it’s up to the user to make sure everything’s up to date and patched, so always double, triple check that. Anytime an alert for an update, make sure you’re updating.
Think before you click. This is an important one. Phishing emails, other stuff like that, they’re trying to appeal to your emotions or fear, whatever. Take your time. Don’t feel like you have to rush to click something. Take your time. Read it. One thing I do is if I get an email from a service, and I’m not sure why I’m getting it, I will go to the actual website and verify and see if this is something that is legitimate or not.
Use strong, unique passwords. If you are using 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or typing in “password,” please stop. It puts you in danger. Use really strong passwords. Password managers are really good because you basically only have to think of one password, and it will create and store unique ones for every account you have, so you don’t even have to think about it. You don’t have worry about memorizing 50 different passwords. This manager takes care of it for you.
This is something that I feel like in the early days of the internet, we really subscribe to, but not as much. And that’s: don’t believe everything online. Look at everything with a dose of skepticism. Just keep in mind, where’s it coming from? What’s the source of this information? A lot of times, again, there’s that appeal to your emotion. And I have done this too. I share something just out of instinct because I feel emotionally invested in what it is that I’m reading, and I share it without thinking it through. And it happens to everybody. So, just try to try to keep an even keel as you see this stuff, whether it’s popping up on social media, whether somebody emails it to you, whatever it is.
Back up your most important files. That is always good, just in case. You want to have multiple places where you can find stuff. So that way, if something happens to your computer, you have a backup. Use a VPN if you’re on public internet. VPN is a virtual private network. And it just protects you. If, say, you’re somewhere like Starbucks, use a VPN, so that way, it encrypts your data first off. And also, people can’t use that wifi to somehow get in and take a look at what you’re doing on your computer.
This one, security experts seem mixed on this. But stocking up on supplies: stuff like cash, having an emergency kit, making sure your car’s filled up. Things like that. Again, it’s kind of mixed reviews on this. I think it’s reasonable anyway, if say, maybe you live somewhere where there’s natural disasters. And one expert, Jessica talked to for a story, notes that “worry about cybersecurity, the way you do mother nature.” So, if you already are thinking about that anyway, with stuff like natural disasters, things like that, it never hurts just to have cash on hand and an emergency kit and just have that ready in case, no matter what it. In this case, it might apply to something related to cybersecurity; you never know. So, I think that’s good to have no matter what. But in this case, again, another reason to keep that handy.
You can get more details on what to do and how to protect yourself and read the latest in tech news and tech coverage on tech.usatoday.com. Listeners, let’s hear from you. Do you have any comments, questions, or show ideas? Any tech problems you want us to try to address? You could find me on Twitter @BrettMolina23.
Please don’t forget to subscribe and rate us or leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere you get your podcasts. You’ve been listening to Talking Tech. We’ll be back tomorrow with another quick hit from the world of tech.
