Cybersecurity Practices to Live By

1. Keep Personal Information Professional and Limited
2. Keep Your Privacy Settings On
3. Practice Safe Browsing
4. Use a Secure VPN Connection, try ProtonVPN from the same people who brought you ProtonMail a secure mail service provider
5. Be Careful What You Download and Where You Download It From
6. Choose Strong Passwords(12 characters and more) and use a password manager e.g.Bitwarden(our personal favorite) or 1Password
7. Enable 2 Factor Authentication and use a service like Authy by Twilio
8. Make Online Purchases From Trusted Sites
9. Always check that the website you are using uses HTTPS eg https://google.com.Tip: check for a padlock at the end of the search bar/URL
10. Be Careful What You Post as it can be used against you
11. Be Careful Who You Meet Online as there are some with malicious intent
12. Keep Your Operating System and Software Up To Date, you can use a website like Ninite
13. Learn how to spot scams and frauds
14. Always check the link of anything you have been sent be it through email or by a friend. If the domain name is suspicious don’t click it e.g. http://safaricomfreeairtime.net or http://saffreeoffer.com or http://freegiftcards.winurl.site/?c=carrefour and others.
15. Don’t share your password and other sensitive information even if it’s Google asking for it.
16. Make sure your computer has a firewall and that it’s on.
17. Make sure you have a reputable antivirus. Window’s Antivirus has become really good. Try adding Malwarebytes.
18. Encrypt your Hard Drive, Mobile Phone and any other data storage. All modern OS have an encryption feature.
19. Back up your data. They say no matter what you do, you can never have bullet proof security. Backing up your data will prevent misfortunes such as ransomware and others.
20. Avoid oversharing!
21. Bookmark this article for future reference. Press CTRL + D simultaneously.

Additional Resources

• How The Noesis Magazine Was Built Part 1