Cyber Safety Checklist

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When you want to make your home secure, you lock the door. When you want to prevent your bike from being stolen, you use a bike lock. When you want to protect your valuable possessions, you keep them in a safe. But what do you do to protect your identity online? We put together a comprehensive internet safety guide full of cybersecurity tips and best practices to help keep you safe online. Looking for information about a specific online safety topic? Use the links below to jump to the relevant section.

Modern life is fundamentally intertwined with the internet. Nearly every daily task now has opportunity for online integration, and most everyone owns multiple devices, including laptops, phones, tablets, smart watches, smart TVs and more. The more accounts and devices you have online, the greater the potential is for criminals to access your personal information and take advantage of you.

Parents, this section is for you. If you have children of any age, you need a strategy for how to keep your kids safe online. The internet can be a great tool for learning and entertainment, but children should only look at age-appropriate images, videos and information.

As kids grow up, they will use the internet without direct supervision. We encourage parents to continue having conversations about cybersecurity and online safety in order to ensure teenagers are creating healthy internet habits. Here are some quick internet safety tips for teens:

Teenagers and young adults may be more susceptible to certain types of online scams, like student loan forgiveness scams. Protecting kids online starts with teaching foundational internet safety tips at a young age.

A little bit of vigilance goes a long way when it comes to protecting your identity online. Adding an extra layer of security can be as simple as keeping an eye on your accounts, looking out for suspicious activity and shredding sensitive documents. Some data breaches are out of our control, like when retailers or other companies get hacked. We have to trust certain entities to hand personal data, but we encourage people to do all they can to protect their private information.

Keeping an eye on your credit is an important way to make sure no one is trying to mess with your personal financial information. If you want to see who is making inquiries about you credit, you can request a free credit report from any of the three national credit reporting companies:

If you want an extra layer of protection, a credit freeze is an effective line of defense against fraud and identity theft. As of September 2018, there is no cost, so learn how to freeze your credit for free.

Online romance scammers will manipulate their victims by forming an intimate personal connection and then using the relationship to try to gain access to personal and financial information. All ages are susceptible to online dating scams, but studies have shown that senior citizens are particularly vulnerable. Help protect seniors online by educating them about the dangers of online romance scammers.

Text message scams can be a combination of various other online scams, including phishing links, gossip clickbait and other misleading and malicious forms of fraud. Remember that banks, government entities and other legitimate companies will never ask for personal or financial information in a text message, so never send your private information in an unsecure text message thread. Only give personal information via legitimate and secure website portals.

A cyber security checklist helps assess and record the status of cyber security controls within the organization. It is used by IT professionals to secure the workplace and prevent any threats that may take place and hinder operations. A cyber security audit checklist is designed to guide IT teams to perform a cyber security risk assessment:

A cyber security checklist is used by IT teams to record the status of cyber security controls such as policies, standards, and procedures. It helps identify and detect malicious activities such as unauthorized access and device malfunctions to prevent IT incidents in the workplace. Failure to perform regular cyber security checks can result in revenue and integrity loss, regulatory fines, or worse, business closure.

As the organization progresses it becomes exposed to more threats, vulnerabilities, data breaches, and ransomware attacks that are often overlooked by employees. Non-compliance with regulatory cyber security checks often leads to costly expenses, data loss, penalties, and customer defection. Below are examples of cyber security risks that are easily spotted but often overlooked:

The operating systems and antivirus software must be up to date and performing to their highest capacity to avoid extensive damage. Software and system updates are usually scheduled and automated. A notification is sent to each device within the organization, but employees tend to delay the update which can cause a bigger problem.

Organizations should implement cyber security awareness training to keep employees up-to-date and knowledgeable on different forms of cyber security threats such as malware, phishing, cryptojacking, and more. Cyber attacks are designed to damage your computer systems and disrupt operations.

Establish best practices for account administration and control the items employees are allowed to access. Manage passwords by enforcing strict rules on creating, regularly changing, and recording them. Also ensure that when staff is entering their account credentials, it is not visible to other people.

Specify data that contains sensitive information and categorize them from non-sensitive ones. Encrypt the most sensitive data as a layer of protection and governance strategy. Create a standardized procedure for managing personal information and disposing of waste materials (especially confidential ones).

Design a set of procedures that aligns all people and stakeholders in cases of disasters, emergencies, or security breaches. These procedures can include items such as a business continuity plan, a communication plan, and assigned people for different tasks.

The use of cyber security templates can help IT professionals conduct thorough cyber security checks in the workplace. Address overlooked items and eliminate cyber security threats in the organization.

A cyber security audit checklist is used by IT supervisors to inspect the overall IT security of the organization including hardware, software, programs, people, and data. It is used to assess the organization from potential vulnerabilities caused by unauthorized digital access.

A cyber security threat assessment checklist helps to identify threats (natural, human, and environmental) that may occur within the information systems. It is used to identify the risk ratings (High, Medium, Low) which may affect the performance of the operating environment.

This cyber risk assessment checklist is used by IT professionals to perform security risk and vulnerability assessments in your business. It is used to assess the possible consequence and likelihood to identify the risk rating of the cyber security threat.

Whether teens are allowed to shop online is up to their parents. However, teens listening to this guidance is another story. Teach your teen how to recognize secure websites and shop safely online by:

With more than a billion websites worldwide, it's no secret that some have malicious intent. A malicious website is a site that attempts to install malware on your device, meaning anything that will disrupt computer operation, gather your personal information, or allow unauthorized access to your machine.

Privacy policies may not be private. With more websites and applications collecting information and using it for advertising and marketing purposes, make sure your family knows the value of online privacy.

Different apps and devices prioritize safety differently, which is why checking permissions settings is so important. Much like privacy policies, permissions settings can open you and your children up to a slew of security risks if not managed properly.

From camera doorbells to refrigerators and app-controlled thermostats, it can feel like almost everything in your home is online. The features and convenience these smart home devices provide are great, but your privacy and comfort could be at risk.

Monitoring your kids offline is stressful enough. Thankfully, there are cybersecurity tools to help you monitor their online activities. Install cybersecurity software with parental controls on your kids' devices to:

While the internet comes with risks, there are many valuable things online. Virtual learning opportunities, apps that simplify everyday tasks, and messaging platforms that keep us in touch with loved ones are just a few of the ways that lives can be enriched by the internet.

A cybersecurity solution like Norton Family can keep your kids safer by monitoring their activity, helping to protect their devices, and limiting screen time, distractions, and access to unsafe content.

The easiest way to monitor your children's online behavior is through a comprehensive cybersecurity suite with parental tools. Look for solutions that allow you to monitor everything from screen time to sites visited. These tools should also allow you to block certain activities and sites.

Editorial note: Our articles provide educational information for you. Our offerings may not cover or protect against every type of crime, fraud, or threat we write about. Our goal is to increase awareness about Cyber Safety. Please review complete Terms during enrollment or setup. Remember that no one can prevent all identity theft or cybercrime, and that LifeLock does not monitor all transactions at all businesses. The Norton and LifeLock brands are part of Gen Digital Inc.

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