How Cyber Smart are you?

The Team from Citizens Advice Christchurch Area

Things you can do to keep your data safe

Below are a few things you can do to protect your data:

Change your password – yes, we know it’s easier to have one password for everything and keep it for years and years. But this also makes it easier for someone else to guess your password too.

Make your passwords long and strong, avoid basing them on obvious information such as family names or birthdays, and have a unique password for each online account. You could also use a password manager, which means that you only have to remember one (really good) password.

Also, keep your passwords to yourself.

Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA) – 2FA is an extra layer of protection on top of your password (for example you have to enter both a password and a code in order to access your account). With 2FA in place, if an attacker knows your password - they still can’t get into your account.

You can use 2FA for extra security on most of your accounts, from email to social media, online banking and shopping. You can also use it to access your laptops, tablets, smartphones and some game consoles. Everyone does 2FA slightly differently. To set it up, start by looking under your account settings.

Update your operating system – because this is your main line of defence against hackers and scammers. Just keeping it up to date will protect you against most of the latest bugs and viruses. You can set your system preferences to update automatically – how easy is that?

Check your privacy settings – so that you know exactly who can see what you post on social media. Think before you share personal information, as hackers can use this information to access your personal accounts or steal your identity.

The CertNZ website has loads of resources to help you with these.

www.cert.govt.nz...