Safer Internet Day: 5 cybersecurity tips for your online safety

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

February 11th is Safer Internet Day 2020. A global initiative in which tech giants such as Microsoft, Google, and Facebook are collaborating, to create a safer internet together.

At Netpresenter, we too notice cybersecurity is becoming an increasingly important theme for our customers. We also believe in the power of repetition and continuous learning. Thus, we think spending just one day to try and make the internet safer is not enough. That’s why from now on, we will publish a free cybersecurity tip from our experts every Friday on LinkedIn. Just start following us to receive them weekly. To start improving your cybersecurity right away, we’ll start with these tips today:

• Think twice before clicking any links. For example, you shouldn’t click ‘unsubscribe’ in a newsletter you haven’t signed up for. Even if the link itself wouldn’t be harmful, the sender still knows that his email has reached a real person. That might lead to even more spam or targeted attacks.
• Log out or lock your PC when you’re not using it, even if you’re just going to grab some coffee. Many accounts are logged in by default. Just think of your email account in Outlook or Gmail. Access to your PC often means access to all kinds of private data as well. Locking your PC is easy. On Windows, press Windows + L. On a Mac, use Command + Control + Q.

• Update as soon as possible. These days, computers will run automatic updates on a lot of programs in the background. Therefore, your virus scanner, the operating system itself, and Office will be up to date most of the time. Sometimes however it’s still required to start an update manually. Annoying? Nope, necessary! It’s for your own benefit. After all, updates fix vulnerabilities. If you don’t update your devices, you put yourself (and your company) at unnecessary risk.
• Use different passwords. Often, it’s not you who’s hacked, but company databases containing login data. If you use the same password for each of your accounts, hackers can log in to all of them using the stolen data. Password managers like LastPass or 1Password simplify remembering and managing different passwords.
• We can’t repeat this simple advice enough: you should always use a strong password. Your pet’s name, of course, is easy to remember, but it’s not safe by any means.

Strengthen the weakest link

Don’t forget: a company’s cybersecurity is much like a chain – only as strong as its weakest link. Therefore, you shouldn’t only pay attention to your own digital security. You should share helpful cybersecurity tips with your immediate environment, such as your colleagues, as well. We can only truly make the internet safer when we’re all in this together. Download our free checklist on cybersecurity.