Personal Cybersecurity – What is it?

Our society is becoming more and more tech-driven, and we use accounts and devices every day that are susceptible to cyberattacks and a solid grounding in cybersecurity is needed to prevent issues coming up.

Computers, smartphones, tablets, and other internet-connected gadgets can be among your devices.
Online accounts can be used for social media, gaming, email, banking, shopping, and other purposes.
The ongoing precautions you can take to shield your devices and accounts from online dangers is known as personal cyber security.

Cyberthreats: What are they?

Scams and viruses are the primary cyberthreats that affect regular Australians.

A general word for malicious software intended to do harm is malware. This can involve ransomware, trojans, worms, malware, and viruses.
Malware is used by cybercriminals to take control of your devices and accounts, steal your money and personal information.

Cybercriminals send scam communications with the intention of tricking you into divulging private information or installing malware on your device.
Victims of these attacks may experience severe financial and personal consequences. Their frequency and sophistication are also increasing.

How can you protect yourself from Cyberthreats?

Turn on automatic updates.
What are the most recent updates?
An update is a better version of the operating systems, applications, and programs that you have installed on your mobile devices and computer.

By repairing software “bugs” (coding flaws or vulnerabilities), software upgrades contribute to the security of your devices. These “bugs” can be used by malware and cybercriminals to get access to your device and steal your identity, accounts, financial information, and personal data.

Cybercriminals are continuously discovering and taking advantage of new software “bugs.” Keeping the software on your gadgets up to date will help shield you from online threats.
How can automatic updates be configured?
The default, or “set and forget,” setting for automatic updates installs new updates as soon as they become available.

Put multi-factor authentication (MFA) into action.

MFA: What is it?
Your most essential accounts can be made more secure by using multi-factor authentication (MFA). Before allowing access to an account, MFA requires you to provide a combination of two or more authentication mechanisms.

Something you are aware of, like a passphrase, password, or PIN

Something you own, such as an email, SMS, smartcard, tangible token, or authenticator app

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) increases the difficulty of initial account access for cybercriminals by using something you are (e.g., a fingerprint, facial recognition, or iris scan). It requires more time, energy, and resources to crack since it adds more authentication stages.

The most popular kind of MFA, two-factor authentication (2FA), necessitates two distinct forms of authentication.