Following the month of September’s National Preparedness Month is October’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month for Businesses and Individuals.  Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting people, computer systems, networks, programs and sensitive data from digital attacks, theft, or damage.  Identity theft involves the unlawful acquisition and misuse of personal data such as Social Security numbers, bank accounts, and login credentials to commit financial fraud, impersonation, or other crimes.  Your family’s digital vulnerability is the gateway to scammers that make identity theft the number one reported consumer crime with incidents occurring every few seconds!

How do you know your identity is at risk?  You are at risk if you store personal information on a home or work computer or if you shop online.  Your data may have been compromised if you notice any of the following scenarios:

• You see unexpected withdrawals from your bank account.
• You do not receive your bills or other mail.
• You are billed for health services you did not use, or your health plan rejects a legitimate medical claim.
• Your credit report shows a new account you did not open.

To protect you and your family’s vulnerability to financial and personal data as well as identity theft, here are some simple free steps you can take to create cyber hygiene habits:

• Use strong passwords – make them long.  Aim for at least 12-16 characters and use a random string of mixed-case letters, numbers, and symbols.
• Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA).  MFA requires two or more verification factors to log into an account.  The second factor could be an authenticator app or an SMS code or a biometric scan such as a fingerprint, face scan, or voice recognition.
• Recognize and report phishing and swindles – multiple agencies provider tools are available to report a suspected phishing or identity theft scam.  The Federal Trade Commission and the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center are options.  Also email providers like Gmail provides an option to report a phishing scam.  Click the More icon (three dots) on your Gmail account and select ‘Report phishing.’
• Keep your software updated – software developers are always discovering vulnerabilities before hackers or malware can exploit them, so it is a great practice to update your software as soon as a developer introduces a new update.

If you choose to implement a more robust cyber security protection plan for your family there are plans you can purchase to monitor potential scams, identity theft, privacy threats and credit and financial scams.  One of the most popular tools is LifeLock by Norton.  LifeLock’s basic membership, called Core, costs $125 annually and is recommended for people with checking and credit accounts.  Their Advanced membership is recommended for people with multiple checking, savings, CDs and credit accounts and costs $200 annually.  Their Total membership is recommended for families with multiple accounts, a 401K plan, property or investments and costs $350 annually.

Other highly rated identity theft protection services are offered by Aura, Identity Guard, and Identity Defense.  Click on the links in the last sentence to learn more about these services.

Our website at https://family-preparedness.com has tools to help you protect your family from scams, identity and privacy theft, and financial and credit scams.  On our blog posts webpage, we have recommendations on how to protect your family from cyber criminals.  Here are some blog posts worth checking out:

• Decide to Make a Plan to Protect Your Digital Assets.  https://family-preparedness.com/decide-to-make-a-plan-to-protect-your-digital-assets/
• Best Practices to Keep Your Phone and Its Contents Safe:  https://family-preparedness.com/best-practices-to-keep-your-phone-and-its-contents-safe/
• Slam the Scam!  It is National Consumer Protection Week: https://family-preparedness.com/slam-the-scam-its-national-consumer-protection-week/

Another tool on our website is an easy-to-use tiny course called the Asset Protection Plan Tiny Course.  This inexpensive course ($27) provides a family with recommendations on how to protect a family’s assets and identities.  It describes four different methods families can use to document their assets and which assets a family should consider as primary assets to protect, and which assets should you consider as secondary assets to protect.  Digital anxiety is real and it is extremely common.  To prevent digital anxiety for your family, be proactive – invest a small amount of money to minimize your family’s digital anxiety.  We got you covered with the tools on our website.