5 Simple Cybersecurity Tips To Keep You Safe Online

Worried about scams, fraud, and online crime? You have more power to protect yourself than you think.

Happy Tuesday!

Here in the Digital Kleptos™ newsletter we’ve explored what can go wrong when businesses and individuals get caught up in hacking attacks. This problem is a fact of modern life, and the damage can be devastating.

So what can we do to avoid it?

There are lots of simple things you can do today to protect yourself online.

The Internet is beginning to feel like the Wild West, but you absolutely can achieve a meaningful level of online security. This doesn’t mean you’ve got to become a cybersecurity expert. It simply means choosing to be Brilliant At The Basics Of Cybersecurity.

— Anthony Collette
Founder, Loistava Information Security

The World has changed.

What kept us safe online 15, 10 or even 5 years ago — simply doesn’t work anymore.

But staying safe online doesn’t have to be hard or complicated. One by one, you can master The Basics, these fundamentals of cybersecurity:

✅ Create strong, unique, modern passwords for each online account.

Randomly generated, long passwords are very hard to guess or brute force. And if you use separate passwords for each account, one data breach won't take out your whole online life.

✅ Use a high-quality Password Manager to secure your online accounts.

Remembering long passwords is hard, but password managers like 1Password, BitWarden and Dashlane can securely store them for you so you don't have to memorize them.

✅ Use a DiceWare passphrase to lock your phone / laptop / tablet / workstation.

Passphrases are long passwords made of multiple words like "CorrectHorseBatteryStaple". They're easy to remember, but very hard to brute force or hack.

✅ Use a DiceWare passphrase to lock your Password Manager.

Same principle as the above point, but it's worth noting: you should only have to memorize a few passphrases—just to log into your devices and your password manager. That's it.

✅ Use Multi-factor Authentication for each online account that offers it.

If hackers get your password, but you have 2-factor turned on, they'll also need a code from your text messages or an authenticator app. And while that sometimes happens, it's a very tall order for your average cybercriminal.

We can thank The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for this great advice.

Over the next 4 weeks we’ll explore each of these topics in detail, and provide useful suggestions about how to implement all of The Basics.

We know it can feel overwhelming.

But let’s start small and build from there.

You have the power to keep yourself safer online!

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Weekly resources to help keep you safer online — protecting you from hackers, online scammers, and other Digital Kleptomaniacs™.

No spam. No selling your email. Just factual, actionable information once a week, from people who truly care about online security.  You can unsubscribe any time — but we hope you’ll want to stay with us on this journey.

Cybersecurity is a modern form of wealth, and you deserve to keep what you've earned.

Looking forward to connecting again next week.

— Anthony Collette

Digital Kleptos™

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