Work safer from home

By Katie Ritchie

Are you or a loved one working from home?

Covid-19 has moved many industries into unfamiliar territory — telecommuting.

This puts many businesses at risk for data breaches and cyberattacks.

How can you protect yourself and your job?

Follow these tips from the Identity Theft Resource Center. This nonprofit center broadens awareness of identity theft and supports victims.

Change your work account passwords. Do you use the same password for personal and work accounts? Big mistake! If your personal password has ever leaked, hackers may try it.

Secure your router and home devices. Don’t use easy to guess, default passwords on anything that connects to wifi or the wifi itself.

Remember hackers aren’t mulling it over and guessing. They probably don’t know anything about you aside from what they’ve stolen.

Hackers use software. The software can make billions of guesses per second. It usually starts with names, words, sequential numbers, letters, and common breached passwords.

How can you make secure passwords? Come up with a “system” for creating passwords. This will help you keep access to your accounts secure. It will also help you keep track of your logins if you can’t access your password manager.

Example: Pick a favorite book title, an important date or phone number, and the website name. Take 1 character from each thing, in order, and cut it off at 10 characters. The longer your password is, the more secure it is.

The Great Gatsby + 07041778 + Amazon = T0Ah7me0aG; The system for Paypal: T0Ph7ae0yG
This last tip comes from the FTC.

If you get an email from a colleague which asks you to reveal sensitive info or make changes, call them to verify.

Spear phishing is an attempt to steal information or resources. They work because the scammer pretends to be a reliable source.