It’s common for parents and caregivers to give safety advice, such as not talking to strangers or look both ways before crossing the street. We now live in a world where technology is part of our daily lives. Parents and caregivers now need to educate their children on the safety of using online platforms and raise awareness of the threats that lurk online. Adopting good cyber-security practices also can lead to a career in cyber industry.
Here are some things to think about and share:
- Watch out for scams and phishing attacks.
- Cyber criminals have become very deceiving in their approaches to lure people in and get you to click on or download links and attachments.
- Create complex passwords.
- Cyber criminals can crack common phrases with ease. Complex passwords are encouraged to keep users safe, so use special characters, numbers, capital and lower-case letters when creating a password. Using two-factor authentication also is recommended.
- Practice safe shopping.
- When shopping online, only use sites you trust. There are many suspicious advertisements that attempt to lure you into their site because of a “great deal.” Trust your gut and avoid unfamiliar sites.
- Always be aware.
- Be aware of what you do when surfing the web and emails you receive. Use the same mindset as in practicing safe shopping — don’t trust sites or emails you are not familiar with. And if there’s any doubt, contact the IT Helps at 9-7700.
Take a minute to take this five-question quiz and test your knowledge of cyber security.