Matt Davies Stockton Shares Expert Tips for The Average Joe
Introduction
According to Matt Davies Stockton, cybersecurity can be complicated. Even experts need to put in years of experience and training to be called cybersecurity experts and still may have some holes in their knowledge. Let’s check out a few expert tips for the average joe.
Tips & Tricks
- Figure out where you have been compromised – With so many data leaks in recent years, it’s highly likely that your information has been compromised at one or more data breaches. To figure out if your data has been compromised, go to ‘haveibeenpwned.com’ and enter your email address or phone number to check if your information has been leaked in one of those data breaches. While you may not get information on all the leaks, you’ll know where to begin.
- Two-factor authentication – Also known as MFA or 2FA, two-factor or multi-factor authentication is a cybersecurity practice where you use one or more additional layers of security along with your usual login credentials to sign-in to a service. Usually, this is a randomly generated key that is sent through an authentication app on your phone.
The key is generated every half a minute so that there’s no room for it to be compromised. Both Google and Microsoft have two-factor authentication apps for both Android and iOS. You may also enable two-factor authentication with a text message generated and sent to your phone when you enter your login details.
- Password managers – To be secure on the internet, your password for every service you use should be as unique and randomly generated as possible. Your passwords should be a combination of alphabets, numerals, and special characters. However, remembering such passwords for the hundreds of online services and websites you use is impossible.
That’s where a password manager comes in. Password managers like 1Password and LastPass require you to log in with a master password along with some form of 2FA on their service. After that, the password manager generates random and strong passwords for different services and websites you use and stores them in an encrypted form.
- Update your privacy settings – Social media is hot ground for getting your data compromised or getting your entire account hacked. That’s why you need to make sure that you use privacy-focused browsers like Mozilla Firefox and use browser extensions like Privacy Badger and uBlock Origin to make sure you’re not being tracked online.
Apart from that, you also need to snoop through the privacy settings of the social media platforms you use. Ask yourself if you’re comfortable sharing all kinds of data with these social media platforms that are mining it to oblivion without any regard for long-term consequences. Quit as many of such platforms as you can or change the privacy settings in your favor.
Conclusion
Matt Davies Stockton suggests that you use the above-mentioned tips to strengthen cybersecurity across the devices and services you use. Cybercriminals are always searching for loopholes and finding new ways to compromise your information. Being vigilant is the best defense.
