From our social media accounts to our online bank accounts, we put a lot of information out there in the digital space. That’s why it’s important to learn data protection strategies, develop cyber threat awareness, and follow secure browsing practices. In Wealthquest’s webinar about digital life security, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Cyber Operations, Nick Parry, talks about identifying phishing, securing your online presence, protecting your digital assets, and more.
Foundations Of Information Security
The three fundamentals of information security are confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility. You don’t want someone unauthorized to read or alter your data and you want to get to your data when you need it.
Meanwhile, cyber attackers aim to disclose confidential information, alter data, and deny accessibility to data. Finances, reputation, and physical safety are usually at stake. According to CheckPoint Research, global cyber attacks increased by 38% in 2022. This indicates how serious cyber attacks are and how important cybersecurity awareness training and online fraud prevention are.
Digital Risk Management
The cybersecurity webinar covers ways to help manage digital risks, including adversarial thinking, cryptography, access control, and digital life security best practices.
Adversarial Thinking
Adversarial thinking is about understanding how an attacker thinks. For example, they understand how technology works. They also have unconventional perspectives. They always find ways to break something. Moreover, they reason strategically. They don’t mind sending 10,000 emails if they’re able to trick 10 people into opening them. It’s a numbers game!
Cryptography
Cryptography is about protecting information and securing communication through codes. It involves scrambling a message and making it computationally infeasible to unscramble without a key. Cryptography is beneficial in browsing secure websites, encrypted emails, and hard drive encryption. For example, the s in https ensures a secure and encrypted connection between your web browser and the site you are visiting.
Access Control
Access control is about proving you are who you say you are. This includes something you know, like login credentials and security questions, something you have, including two-factor authentication, and something you are, like fingerprints and face ID.
Best Practices
One of the highlights of this webinar on digital self-defense is applying the best practices for online privacy protection and safeguarding personal information.
The first one is phishing identification. Phishing happens when someone pretends to be someone they’re not to get sensitive information from you. This can be through calls, texts, or emails.
Scammers sound credible and use the names of well-known institutions, including banks and IT departments. There’s always a sense of urgency and a call to action. Do not provide your personal information to unsolicited requests, and do not open suspicious links.
Moreover, practice password hygiene for online identity theft prevention. Avoid using the same password for different sites. Rather, use long and complex passwords.
Another secure online behavior pointed out in the privacy and security webinar is maximizing two-factor authentication. The second form of authentication can be your phone or a separate physical dongle.
Final Thoughts
As the world becomes more digital, safeguarding personal data online also becomes more crucial. Through this webinar on online safety measures, we’ve learned the importance of adversarial thinking, cryptography, access control, and the best internet safety tips. To learn more about managing your wealth, check out our page.
