Five Cybersecurity Tips for Everybody

A lot of individuals I know struggle with basic cybersecurity hygiene. They often end up with hijacked accounts, malware, fraud and more. I think a lot of this is avoidable, but it would require you to follow some basics practices outlined below.

1. Utilize a password manager to store all your passwords, whether physical or software. In addition, ensure they are unique to each website & at least 15 characters long with things like numbers, symbols, lower, and upper-case characters.
   • Several software password managers
     • KeePass
     • Bitwarden
     • 1Password
   • Physical Books
     • Password Keeper Book
2. Enable Multi-Factor-Authentication (MFA / 2FA) for at least your most important accounts, like Financial, Health, etc.
3. Setup backups with your computer with something like Time Machine for MacOS or File History for Windows.
4. Utilize an ad-blocker on your browser.
   • A lot of individuals end up downloading malware or getting directed to a phishing site because some search engines don’t get rid of malicious ads.
   • Here are some options that work well in my experience
     • AdGuard
     • AdBlock
5. Keep all your devices up-to-date. Automatic updates is something you can enabled on most devices such as iPhones, MacOS, Windows, Android, Linux, etc.
   • iOS
   • Android
   • MacOS
   • Windows
   • Linux
6. Bonus Tip: Utilize encrypted messaging applications like Signal instead of SMS/MMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.