October brings awareness to cybersecurity, which is promoted both globally and at the European level. This is an opportunity to remember the importance of the human factor in the protection against cyber threats and risks. This way, entities and experts in this area have an essential role when it comes to informing and developing recommendations and tips that alert to good practices for accessing and sharing information in a secure way.
As this is a complex and difficult theme to grasp, here at INTEGRITY, we highlight a more intuitive approach to what we call SOUP-D:
S of Safeguard
| Keep in mind that someone can access your computer or device without permission. Personal and confidential information must be protected so that it cannot be deciphered without an additional key even if someone accesses it. Also, you should remember that it’s possible that you lose all the information on your device at some point, so save important information in backups that will allow you to recover it later. |
O of Origin
Always ask yourself about the origin of a particular contact, especially in digital media, where we are not face to face with others. Always bear in mind that person contacting you may not be who they say they are. It’s also possible that the source of a particular link is not exactly what it seems (typical of phishing attacks). When it comes to sensitive data or operations, confirm the origin of the entity or contact; explore more, detail the source, call back.
U of Update
Threat opportunities are real, and all systems are likely to have vulnerabilities that can be a gateway. Whenever the manufacturers of those systems become aware of the problems, they correct them in system updates, so it’s important to install these updates as well as the updates of your antivirus, as the risk of having vulnerabilities is therefore decreased.
P of Passwords
| How you define your passwords is very important as they have been the predominant access key in technologies. Do not use easy-to-deduce passwords, do not reuse the same password on all websites, use a password manager, do not share your passwords with anyone and consider using multi-factor authentication as a complement. |
D of Do not trust
In the digital world, do not trusting a contact is an important requirement to avoid being the victim of fraud. In the digital environment, where it’s possible for someone to present themselves with a phone number or e-mail address of another person, always be suspicious of approaches, in particular those involving sensitive data or operations, and always try to confirm, preferably in an independent way of the initial contact. And never run software from unknown sources, especially ignoring your equipment’s warnings that potentially malicious software is running.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the use of digital media and information sharing is something that is part of our daily life. This way, it’s essential that there are strategies in place to make the most of information technologies, but with adequate information and risk management. Be aware and get informed.
