Best Practices for Cyber Security in 2024

Cybercrime is responsible for billions of dollars in reported losses each year in the U.S. alone — with an annual cost expected to reach $10.5 trillion worldwide by 2025. Adding to the fast-growing threat are advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, which are enabling fraudsters to get progressively better at deceiving victims into handing over their money and personal data.

 As SecurityWeek tells us, phishing scams were by far the most prevalent complaint reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2023, followed by personal data breaches, non- delivery or non-payment schemes, extortion, and rackets involving tech support. Protect your assets and sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands and minimize your risk of unauthorized intrusions into your personal life with these easy-to-implement measures for good digital hygiene:

Enable multifactor authentication on your accounts.

Sometimes referred to as two-step verification or 2SV, multifactor authentication is a critical line of defense in safeguarding your data online. Implementing it simply means that you require a user to present two forms of evidence to gain access to an account. According to the Department of Homeland Security, opting in to this basic step will significantly reduce the likelihood of being hacked. Often, you will be asked to verify your identity by first providing your password, and then responding to a one-time code texted to your phone. Biometrics may also be used as a second factor to authenticate your identity, such as a fingerprint or retina scan.

Perform the updates on your devices, applications, and operating systems.

There are good reasons for the updates provided for devices like your cell phone, lap top, and tablet, as well as their operating systems and applications. The latest versions of programs don’t just add capabilities and improve performance, they also contain security patches to prevent attackers from exploiting known vulnerabilities. To keep your devices secure and operating smoothly, run your software updates when they become available, or turn on any automatic updates.

Use strong passwords for your various accounts.

Cybercriminals use a wide variety of methods to gain access to passwords, from brute-force attacks that use trial and error or software to guess at passwords, to phishing attacks and data intercepts. Weak passwords can be cracked in seconds, and the risk to you is magnified if you recycle the same password across many accounts. 

Strong passwords are long (16+ characters), unique, and contain a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. In addition, they should exclude personal details from your life that are publicly available, such as the names of your children, pets, favorite sports teams, etc.  You should also avoid using consecutive numbers or letters as well as characters located sequentially on the standard keyboard (e.g., qwerty123 and 1q2w3e). 

Fortunately, you don’t have to go through the hassle of creating unique passwords for each of your accounts on your own. The best passwords tend to be randomly generated by a computer or password manager that can store them conveniently and securely using two-factor authentication and advanced encryption methods.

Don’t click on links or attachments in unsolicited texts, emails or online messages, even if they appear to be legitimate and authentic. 

If you receive an email or text that you aren’t expecting with a link or attachment, resist every urge you may have to click on or open it. Because there’s a very good chance it was sent to you by someone with malicious intent. This applies even if the message appears to come from an entity with which you conduct regular business, such as your financial institution or a retailer such as Amazon.

Fraudulent or misleading links are a common way for scammers to deceive you into sharing personal or financial information in what we often refer to as a phishing scam. In many cases, the goal is to get you to interact with a link or attachment that directs you to a fake webpage. From there, you may be prompted to provide information such a login credentials to one of your accounts. But a link or attachment from an attacker may also contain malware which can steal sensitive data, damage your system, or otherwise create harm.

With the explosive growth of AI and machine learning, it can be more difficult to detect fraud as criminals gain access to tools that allow them to create highly convincing communications. Even if you think you know the source of an unsolicited text or email, verify that it’s legitimate by contacting the sender at a phone number you know to be legitimate (not the one provided in the message). Never log on to your account from a prompt or link provided by a message you are not expecting. 

Don’t get rattled by an urgent request in an email or text — it’s probably a scam.

An unsolicited email or text that prompts you to take immediate action is a red flag of a phishing scam. Fraudulent emails and texts often convey a sense of urgency, such as a message that your account may have been compromised, or that it is about to be suspended, or possibly charged for something you didn’t purchase. 

Be aware that most businesses and financial institutions like your credit union will never contact you to request that you provide your login credentials (e.g., user IDS or passwords), a PIN, or a one-time passcode. If you’re concerned about suspicious activity on a financial account, reach out to your provider using the number on the back of your debit or credit card, or the phone number from the organization’s official website.

Ensure that you’re not oversharing on social media and online in general.

Those employed in law enforcement tend to intuitively understand the importance of guarding their privacy online, especially since the stakes are higher for individuals in this line of work. But given the impact of AI and the potential exposure to fraudsters and other bad actors on social networking sites and elsewhere online, it’s perhaps worthwhile to point out some important considerations. 

As many of us are aware, scammers use data found online to carry out highly personalized scams, and they may also extract information and photos from social media to create a fake identify. Although it’s virtually impossible to keep all your online data locked down, you can limit your exposure by enabling privacy settings and filtering social media posts according to what’s appropriate for your audience. Also refrain from responding to requests to join a network of someone you don’t know, avoid sharing your whereabouts including vacation plans, and think twice before complying with retailer’s requests for personal details (e.g., your birthday). 

Be aware that AI technology can be used to scour the web to compile a vast amount of public information and gain insights into a person’s behaviors, relationships, interests and more — all of which may be used to establish a sense of trust and familiarity that enables them to commit fraud. In general, it’s safest to assume that whatever you disclose online will be made public.

Finally, make sure you know who is texting or emailing you because it might not be who you think it is.

Security experts and news headlines have been cautioning us that fraudsters are integrating tools such as voice cloning and deepfake videos to carry out highly convincing imposter scams. But it’s also important to know that AI language models like ChatGPT and AI-powered automation enable attackers to create and rapidly deploy carefully-crafted email and texts that appear personalized and credible.  

Using highly specific data they have compiled and analyzed, an AI program can create plausible-seeming messages consistent with the communication dynamics and habits of a potential victim. In addition, the ability to create more polished communications with fewer grammatical errors means a lack of red flags that individuals and spam filters can detect and filter out. 

If you get an email or text from someone you know that doesn’t fit their usual behavior pattern, make sure to reach out to that person directly at their normal phone number before you comply with their request. All too often, scammers have been known to pretend to be someone you know in need of immediate funds to resolve an emergency. Be sure to verify that the person is who they say they are before parting with your credit card details, or your hard-earned cash!

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