The football may have ended up going to Rome rather than home (congratulations England anyway for getting to the final), but Lewis Hamilton did at least win at Silverstone and we have more summer sport to look forward to with the Tokyo Olympics and plenty of cricket. With holiday season here, many of you will be vacationing or staycationing but, wherever you are, don’t let your cyber security guard down, especially if you are away from home.
Has your email address been compromised?
In previous newsletters we have often talked about how to avoid hackers accessing your data by having good password hygiene and learning how to fend off most phishing attacks. However, what if it isn’t YOU who is hacked? Over the last decade there have been many high profile data breaches from very well-known companies as this Computer Weekly article summarises. What can you do about it? Forewarned is forearmed, so knowing if your email or phone number has been caught up in someone else’s problem is a good start. Check out your email, phone numbers and passwords for free at https://haveibeenpwned.com/ and, if you do find any issues, give us a call for some help.
Keeping your family cyber safe
If you are taking some holiday, you may well be spending more time with your family. If you have children, whilst they may be pretty competent at handling the technical aspects of their laptop/iPad/phone, it’s never too early to teach them about staying safe online. Whether it’s setting up parental controls or making sure they aren’t sharing too much personal information (most adults could benefit from this too!), why not use your newfound WFH security skills to help them stay safe? There are numerous websites you can access that provide helpful hints including UK Safer Internet but if you need technical help, don’t hesitate to give us a call.
Staying safe out and about
We recently discussed how using a VPN can help you securely access the internet whilst away from home and, wherever you might be heading on holiday, make sure you remember all the cyber security good practice tips such as password management. However, physical security is just as important so, if you are in an unfamiliar environment, make sure not only to always keep an eye on your devices but also make sure nobody is looking over your shoulder as you are typing. Lastly, if you accidentally spill a cocktail over your laptop or ruin your phone at the beach, there’s always Hypnocat to recycle your electricals when you get home – of course remembering to wipe your personal data if you do need to dispose of something.