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What’s Your Excuse for Not Protecting Your Accounts?

October 13, 2022

This Cyber Security Awareness Month, our cyber security team brings you tips on securing your digital accounts.

An employee performing cyber security threat prevention

October sees us celebrating Cyber Security Awareness Month – the perfect time to take online security seriously and put security threats in the past. Keep reading and explore our checklist - and let us know if you tick all the boxes! 

 

Did you know that industry indicators show that organisations more prone to cyber-attacks are the ones where their teams lack understanding of how important they are to the security of the company? 

 

In the cyber security world, there is a longstanding misconception that cyber security should be the responsibility of professionals. 


And that’s entirely wrong. 


Everyone plays a significant role in cyber security threat prevention, detection, and remediation. According to IBM, 95% of breaches have human error as the leading cause. Time to twist those numbers as we’ll show you some killer moves to boost cyber security and secure your data and accounts! 

  


1) Say No to Phishing Scams 


80% of cyber security incidents rise from phishing attempts. And as if that wasn’t enough, phishing has become more sophisticated, so keep an eye out for typos, poor graphics, and other suspicious features that can give way that the content is potentially coming from a hacker. 


When in doubt, be sure not to fire away too readily on clicks, whether we are talking about a text message, fake ads, or emails.  

  


2) A Strong Password a Day Keeps the Hackers Away 


Password cracking is one of the go-to tactics that cyber criminals turn to access sensitive information. Having unique, long and complex passwords is one of the best ways to boost your cyber security immediately. If you are a ‘One Password to Rule Them All’ fan, note this: once a cybercriminal has hacked one of your accounts, they can easily do the same across all your other accounts. (If you’re tempted to leave this page and change all your passwords, hang in there as we’ll reveal more killer tips to keep your accounts safe). 


Also, we recommend you use a password manager to protect all your passwords. One brain can’t remember everything, right?  

 


3) Your New Best Friend: Multi-Factor Authentication 


Enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA) – which prompts a user to input a second set of verifying information such as a security code sent to a mobile device or to sign in via an authenticator app – is a hugely useful measure that anyone can use to drastically reduce the chances of a cyber security breach. 


Using an MFA system on all your social media, personal email accounts, and other platforms where you place valuable information is simply a great step to bolstering your protection. 

  


4) Activate Automatic Updates: The Ultimate Cyber Criminal Kryptonite 


Making sure your devices are always up to date with the most recent software is one of the easiest ways to protect yourself from cyber threats. Our devices have a ton of information about our online activities, personal data and even our banking and financial information! Keeping your device fully updated means you’re one step closer to securing your data. 


Instead of checking for updates occasionally, enable automatic update installations whenever possible.  


To wrap up, being cyber smart is everyone’s job. Be one step ahead of the bad guys by staying protected and spreading the word. 

 

For more than 20 years, Critical’s systems have helped to prevent cyber attacks. Explore our work in the cyber security world and some of the projects we’ve worked on so far.