7 Tips to Help Protect Your Valuable Information During The Holidays and Beyond
During the holidays, situational awareness is often relaxed in the midst of holiday spirit. In order to help prevent any real life Grinches from stealing your holiday joy, please consider the following seven security tips for a safer holiday season:
1) If you shop with your debit card, running it as a credit card mitigates the need for you to key in your pin. Not using your pin when checking out makes it harder for someone to steal it by shoulder surfing your pin during checkout. Keep in mind pins are compromised by mobile device video as well as by someone standing nearby, so do your best to obscure your information.
2) When it comes to security, less information revealed equals more security. Employers and organizations that post emails, contacts, and specific information about internal technology on public facing networks are just making it easier for Grinches to target them with spear phishing emails. Such emails often contain links that load malware and other types of threats into a system. Know before you click by calling your contact and asking if they sent you a link or file before you click on it.
3) Trust, but verify. Do not accept anything at face value without verifying authenticity. Bernie Madoff’s software developers created reports that fooled regulators. Taking the extra time to check facts, figures and references is not just the right thing to do, but also demonstrative of proper due diligence and due care. Anyone can produce a third party audit report. It is up to you to verify it is accurate, as auditors have made costly mistakes in the past such as Enron and Bernie Madoff.
4) Never send anything electronically that you would not want others to see. Once data is out of your control, there is no telling what will happen to it or where it will reside. If you must send something sensitive, be sure to use additional mitigating controls such as encryption to help mitigate your risk.
5) When traveling for the holidays, keep your personal information, electronics, and mobile devices secured. Many are lost on airport shuttles in the rush and rigmarole of dealing with schedules and luggage so be aware and vigilant.
6) Use strong and complex passwords that are memorable and meaningful by using numbers and symbols that look like letters. For example, PASSWORD123 can also be P@S$W0RDl23. This method of communicating is called LEET speak and it is helpful in formulating memorable, and complex passwords.
7) In dealing with paper-based records containing personally identifiable information, be sure to keep the information secure from prying eyes and to use a crosscut shredder or incinerator when the information is no longer useful. Something as simple as a customer list in the wrong hands can translate to a significant loss of trust.
If you found these tips valuable so far and would like to continue receiving this type of information, please subscribe to our community athttp://www.russellnomer.comand we will continue sending you free tips and reports that will help to keep you and your loved ones safe.
In the meantime, on behalf of everyone at Russell Nomer Consulting, we wish you a wonderful holiday season and a happy, safe, and healthy new year.
Sincerely,
Russell D. Nomer, CEO & President
1) If you shop with your debit card, running it as a credit card mitigates the need for you to key in your pin. Not using your pin when checking out makes it harder for someone to steal it by shoulder surfing your pin during checkout. Keep in mind pins are compromised by mobile device video as well as by someone standing nearby, so do your best to obscure your information.
2) When it comes to security, less information revealed equals more security. Employers and organizations that post emails, contacts, and specific information about internal technology on public facing networks are just making it easier for Grinches to target them with spear phishing emails. Such emails often contain links that load malware and other types of threats into a system. Know before you click by calling your contact and asking if they sent you a link or file before you click on it.
3) Trust, but verify. Do not accept anything at face value without verifying authenticity. Bernie Madoff’s software developers created reports that fooled regulators. Taking the extra time to check facts, figures and references is not just the right thing to do, but also demonstrative of proper due diligence and due care. Anyone can produce a third party audit report. It is up to you to verify it is accurate, as auditors have made costly mistakes in the past such as Enron and Bernie Madoff.
4) Never send anything electronically that you would not want others to see. Once data is out of your control, there is no telling what will happen to it or where it will reside. If you must send something sensitive, be sure to use additional mitigating controls such as encryption to help mitigate your risk.
5) When traveling for the holidays, keep your personal information, electronics, and mobile devices secured. Many are lost on airport shuttles in the rush and rigmarole of dealing with schedules and luggage so be aware and vigilant.
6) Use strong and complex passwords that are memorable and meaningful by using numbers and symbols that look like letters. For example, PASSWORD123 can also be P@S$W0RDl23. This method of communicating is called LEET speak and it is helpful in formulating memorable, and complex passwords.
7) In dealing with paper-based records containing personally identifiable information, be sure to keep the information secure from prying eyes and to use a crosscut shredder or incinerator when the information is no longer useful. Something as simple as a customer list in the wrong hands can translate to a significant loss of trust.
If you found these tips valuable so far and would like to continue receiving this type of information, please subscribe to our community athttp://www.russellnomer.comand we will continue sending you free tips and reports that will help to keep you and your loved ones safe.
In the meantime, on behalf of everyone at Russell Nomer Consulting, we wish you a wonderful holiday season and a happy, safe, and healthy new year.
Sincerely,
Russell D. Nomer, CEO & President
P.S. If you are open to exploring solutions for securing your most precious asset your health, please email me with the best contact number and time for us to talk about a program that is radically transforming people’s lives for the better by freeing them from physical, emotional, and financial pain.
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