SAN FRANCISCO – After the year we’ve had, do you need any more convincing that your personal information is constantly being exposed to hackers?
It wasn’t just the Equifax hack, which leaked 145.5 million Social Security numbers, or the WannaCry ransomware attackthat locked up our computers and demanded a ransom paid in bitcoins.
Even the security software on millions of our computers became suspect when, for example, the US government banned the widely popular Kaspersky Lab software over concerns about connections to the Russian government. And experts made us question whether we can trust the invisible systems that connect our devices to the internet, like Wi-Fi.
But as scary as all this news is, I don’t recommend putting your fingers in your ears and chanting “fa la la la” until the next hack (though sometimes I’m tempted to do that myself).
The good news is that even as things get worse, you can still do a lot to protect yourself from many types of cyberattacks. In fact, it’s because these trends aren’t likely to turn around in 2018 that you should do all of the following:
- Start by backing up your photos, music and other important stuff. Also, update all your software. If you’re not doing these two things, the rest of this is useless.
- Next, learn how to adopt some of the increasingly easy-to-use tools for locking down your accounts, like authentication apps, Yubikeys and services like Google Now that come with an authentication tool built in.
- Finally, don’t give up on security software — you’ll still need it in 2018 with the way things are going.
Sound like too much work? You should really carve out some time for this stuff. If you’ll permit me to be Debbie Downer for a moment, our security situation is likely to get worse, not better in 2018. Here’s how.
To read the rest of this story, click on https://www.cnet.com/news/get-ready-for-more-hacks-in-2018/?ftag=CAD2e9d5b9&bhid=20102274281679224800074149012732
