This is the third installment of a three-part series on cybersecurity advice. In part 1, I covered general awareness and protection of personal devices. In part 2, I covered ways to protect yourself in online interactions. In this third and final post, I will focus on ways to practice good digital hygiene such as backing up data, managing passwords, keeping data clean and managing your social media information.

This is the second portion of a three-part series on Cybersecurity advice. In Part 1, I covered general awareness and protection of personal devices. In this post, I will focus on online interactions and provide advice to help ensure you are safe, secure and private in the online world.

When I started my career over 20 years ago, I was issued a corporate laptop with a phone-line dial-up modem and a beeper. For years, the computer was the only device I connected to the corporate network. The computer was provisioned to me complete with corporate standard software and all of the necessary security controls built in. The software was kept up to date by my IT department and the only things I had to do were keep the device physically safe from thieves and avoid losing it. Fast forward to today and things look much different. With the emergence of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), more personal machines are connecting to the private networks of organizations without the oversight of IT. The presence of these devices increase the risk of exploitation from the outside. Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), who are responsible for securing enterprise networks, face challenges with this new paradigm. The days of relying on the IT department to handle everyone’s cybersecurity needs are gone. It has become imperative for all of us to take a more active role in maintaining the right cybersecurity measures for ourselves. By paying attention and doing work to set things up properly, you can keep yourself and your livelihood safe. After all, like a chain with several links, your corporate security is only as strong as its weakest link. Do you want to be the weak link?   

My Strategy for Defending Christmas against the Internet Titans.