With spring in the air and temperatures rising, many of us feel compelled to declutter. While most of us focus on tidying up physical spaces, there’s one often-overlooked area that might also need some spring cleaning: your digital devices.
With phones and other devices being used to shop, scroll through social media, bank and work, it’s likely you will have a good amount of digital data clutter. With many employees now working remotely from home, focusing on cybersecurity and protecting sensitive information on all devices is more critical than ever to companies as well.
The National Cyber Security Alliance and your Better Business Bureau have teamed up to share tips on how to keep your private information safe, especially during April, which has been designated as “digital spring cleaning month.”
Taking simple, proactive steps will go a long way in safeguarding against potentially disruptive issues that could compromise your data — like identity theft, loss of funds or credit card fraud.
These precautionary measures regarding your smartphones, laptops and tablets can provide you with a greater peace of mind all year round:
Lock down your login: Security is critical to protecting accounts used for work and home. Ensure pass-phrases for each account are lengthy, unique and safely stored. Enable two-factor authentication on all accounts that offer it.
Update your system and software: Don’t procrastinate when it comes to allowing updates on your devices, especially to ensure that your antivirus software is up to date. Having the most current software, web browsers and operating systems provides some of the easiest and fastest ways to protect your most sensitive assets.
Back it up: Protect your personal and workplace data by making electronic backups of your most important files. Use the 3-2-1 rule to help guide you: three backup copies, two different media types and one offline in a separate location.
Clean up your online presence: When did you last use all the apps on your phone or tablet? If you have any unused apps, it’s best to delete them and check others to confirm they have the highest security settings possible.
Check the security settings on all of your social media accounts as well, and ensure you are using strong passwords. Control your accounts by ensuring you know who has administrative access to your accounts. Keep all of your passwords private.
Be careful what you share: Quizzes on social media are fun, and keeping in touch is necessary. However, questions on social media might give away too much information about you, your location, your family — possibly even answers to security questions on important accounts.
The National Cyber Security Alliance offers additional tips at stopthinkconnect.org.
In addition to following the above tips, small business owners should take time to establish, update and communicate policies and procedures around topics like record retention. It’s also extremely important to have a cybersecurity strategy in place that is understood and used by all employees. BBB offers tips on BBB.org/bizhq to help your team avoid online scams when working from home.
SECURE YOUR ID DAY
Protecting your identity is largely in your own hands, as many ID theft victims have found that theft of their information can be traced back to something stolen from their possession.
Your BBB has joined with several community partners for many years to offer biannual Shred Days. These events offer individuals and families free paper document shredding on site by BBB accredited business River City Shredding, and free hard drive destruction by BBB accredited business Resource 1 Tier 3 Data Security.
Our next Shred Day will be held 9 a.m. to noon April 5 in the Coca-Cola Bottling Co.’s parking lot at 2111 W. Shepherd Road in Chattanooga. (Exit 1A off of Highway 153).
We ask our event attendees to limit documents to three large trash bags per person. We prefer bags over boxes, as we don’t have the means to keep boxes for recycling. We also ask participants to limit hard drives to four per person.
Hamilton County Coalition will also have law enforcement officers on hand to accept unused prescription drugs for safe disposal. Taking advantage of all of these services is a great way to celebrate Earth Day, as we work to keep these items out of our landfills and waterways.
Resource 1 Tier 3 Data Security also accepts many other electronics for recycling. Computers and mobile phones aren’t the only devices that capture and store sensitive, personal data. External hard drives and USBs, tape drives, embedded flash memory, wearables, old cell phones, networking equipment and office tools like copiers, printers and fax machines all contain valuable personal information and stored images.
For more information on BBB’s Shred Day, please visit bbb.org/Chattanooga or call our team at 423-266-6144 or by email at tngabbb@chattanooga.bbb.org.
More information on ways that individuals and companies can safeguard data is available:
— BBB.org/Cybersecurity for consumers and businesses.
— BBB.org/BizHQ for resources for small businesses.
— StaySafeOnline.org for tips from the National Cyber Security Alliance
— IdentityTheft.gov offers a customized recovery plan to use if you have been the victim of identity theft.
Michele Mason is president of the Better Business Bureau in Chattanooga.
Staff photo / Chattanooga Better Business Bureau President Michele Mason