Cybersecurity: What to know in an ever-evolving digital landscape

We’re in an era where the vast majority of our finances are managed online, from bank accounts to credit cards. Our email addresses, passwords and credit card numbers are linked to streaming services for music and entertainment, and it is common to use services like Venmo and Zelle to transfer funds quickly. Technology makes life more convenient, but there are risks associated with having our financial information accessible to hackers on so many different platforms.
Fortunately, there are steps you can take that will protect your information, provide immediate notification of any potential cybersecurity breach and handle a hack or breach as swiftly as possible if it does happen to you.
Step one: Research financial institutions and businesses
Before providing your confidential information to a financial institution or any business, Justin Gordon, information security manager at 1st Security Bank, recommends starting off by doing some of your own research. Take the time to make sure they haven’t been involved in any breaches (easily checked online by searching: [X business] breach) and how they’ve responded if they have. Also, review the institution’s or business’s posted privacy or information security policy on their website to find out what confidential information they keep and how they secure and protect it.
Step two: Strengthen your passwords
Gordon explains that if you use the same password for all of your logins, you could be a prime target for a credential stuffing attack. In this attack, a hacker obtains your username and password from a file of stolen login credentials, generally from a previous breach, and uses your stolen credentials across hundreds of sites to attempt to gain access to other websites.
“It’s extremely important to create strong and unique passwords for each of your accounts,” he says. I recommend using a password manager to create complex passwords of eight characters or more. Think of a password manager as a secure vault for storing your various passwords. You only need to remember a single master password to open your password vault and access your other passwords.”  
In addition to using unique passwords for every account, Gordon recommends using a “pass phrase” rather than a password. “Instead of a word, ‘Example1729P’ use a sentence or a phrase ‘LizardsEat27Cabbages#.’ This makes it more difficult to hack your account because the more characters you have in your password, the harder it is for password cracking software to crack it.”
Step three: Monitor your financial accounts
Gordon says enrolling in instant account alerts via email, text or app notification is the most effective way to monitor your financial accounts. “You should receive instant alerts for any kind of bank account activity whether it’s transactional or account access-related. If you use peer-to-peer banking services like Venmo, CashApp or Zelle, they should also have transactional alerts enabled,” Gordon explains.
Where to go for reliable cybersecurity information
The unfortunate reality of today’s digital landscape is that new cybersecurity threats emerge on an almost daily basis. Fortunately, there are multiple free resources online to keep abreast of emerging threats and to stay safe online:
haveibeenpwned.com allows you to see if any of your confidential information and/or passwords have been compromised in a previous breach. Haveibeenpwned maintains a record of what data was stolen in every reported breach. You simply enter your email address or phone number on the website and it will tell you if your information was stolen in a breach.
Identitytheft.gov is a website that provides a playbook of steps to take if your information has been lost or stolen.
CISA’s National Cyber Awareness System is a resource for general cybersecurity tips. In addition to providing cybersecurity tips, the site also includes an up-to-date list of current scams to be aware of.
How to keep up in an ever-changing digital landscape
Although the threats to the digital landscape change continually, following cybersecurity basics can protect you from many of the threats on the internet:
Create strong and unique passphrases for all your online accounts.
Update your software and devices as promptly as possible. Software and device updates often include fixes for newly discovered security flaws. If an update is available, don’t put off installing it.
Turn on multifactor authentication whenever possible. MFA is a second layer of identification in addition to your username and password. You most commonly experience MFA as a one-time passcode texted to your phone, but there are other MFA methods (authenticator apps, Face ID, USB tokens, etc.)
At 1st Security Bank, we take a personal approach to our work. We live in the communities we serve, so our branches are tailored to their communities. We believe that relationships make the difference, and that sets 1st Security apart.

on our way to the event center. we can’t wait to see you! 17th – 25th- May. 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲’𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗕𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 (4). location at uyo akwa ibom State😁

IMPORTANT INFO TO EVERYONE 😇If you have Payload settings for any social bundle tweak, Free Browsing Tweak or Config whether unlimited or limited – working well on any VPN like HTTP Injector, HTTP Custom etc, and would like us to add it to EC Tunnel VPN PRO or LITE, then you can contact us through our Support Bot via @EntclasshelpbotRegardless of your Country or Network, we will add it for you.Interestingly, we can even compensate you for your efforts and taking out time to give us Payload settings for your country and network.

WHAT WE CAN ADD 👍

✅ Websocket HTTP Proxy payload
✅ Websocket SSL payload
✅ Websocket HTTP Proxy + SSL payload
✅ HTTP Proxy + Custom payload
✅ SSL SNI
✅ SSH DynaDNS
✅ SSH SlowDNS
✅ SSH Direct + Payload

Thank you for supporting Entclass Blog & EC Tunnel VPN.

K-12 Leaders Prioritize Cybersecurity but Underestimate RiskA survey by the Consortium for School Networking found many K-12 technologists regard cybersecurity as their top priority, yet they rate common threats as low- or medium-risk, and many don’t have specialized staff.April 28, 2022 by Alyson Klein, Education Week, Bethesda, Md.(TNS) — Cybersecurity remains the top priority for K-12 technology leaders, even though many continue to underestimate the risk attackers pose to their districts, concludes a survey by the Consortium for School Networking.Despite increases in the severity of attacks, most ed-tech leaders rate common threats as just low or medium risk, according to the annual survey by CoSN, which represents school district IT officials.What’s more, most districts don’t have the resources in place to dedicate a specific staff member to securing their networks. And that problem could worsen, given new stresses on district IT staff spurred by the pandemic, and a possible uptick in retirements of school district technology staff members, the report notes.”As cyber attacks become more sophisticated, greater expertise is needed to combat them, and the demand for those skills increases,” the report says. But it points out that school districts aren’t likely to be able to offer the higher salaries that would attract IT workers with cybersecurity expertise.In fact, just one in five school districts—21 percent—have a staff member dedicated to cybersecurity, according to the survey. Another 21 percent of districts outsource management of network security to private providers or public entities, a percentage that’s likely to grow, the report concluded.Only half of districts surveyed said they require cybersecurity training for teachers and all other staff. And nearly a third say they don’t have training requirements for any staff members—a finding that the report called “alarming,” given attackers’ tendency to “understand human behavior.”If employees aren’t trained to spot potential problems, they might miss clear signs of a potential phishing attempt, such as a typo or irregularity in the address line of an email purporting to be from a district superintendent.A slight majority of school districts—62 percent—reported they’ve purchased cybersecurity insurance, the survey found. But, interestingly, about one in six school district tech leaders said they didn’t know whether their district had such insurance.That’s potentially problematic because many policies require districts to have certain safeguards in place—such as multifactor authentication for logins and training for staff members—to purchase the coverage or access it in the event of an attack. If the insurance runs through another department—such as the finance office—it could be tough for tech leaders to make sure the district is following through on the technological aspects of those agreements.Meanwhile, staffing levels for district IT departments, always a challenge, are under new strains. District tech leaders across the country have been asked to take on more work as school systems have purchased more devices and are using technology more extensively in teaching and learning than ever before.More than half of the survey respondents— 52 percent—said that they lack adequate staffing to help teachers make the most out of the increasing availability of digital learning devices in the classroom. And a similar percentage—51 percent—said they don’t have enough staff to provide support to students and families using the devices at home.These pressures could soon be compounded as the tech leader workforce—mostly professionals who are ages 40 to 60—eyeing retirement, the report notes.Fifty-three percent of teachers are planning to retire earlier than they anticipated because of the stress brought on by the pandemic, according to a recent survey by the National Education Association, stoking fears about massive numbers of unfilled positions in some districts. A similar tidal wave of retirements appears less likely among K-12 tech leaders, but there may still be staffing challenges on the horizon, the CoSN report says.Twelve percent of tech leaders surveyed said they were planning to retire earlier than they initially planned, as a direct result of the pandemic. Another 3 percent said they were delaying retirement, also because of the pandemic. But the vast majority—85 percent —report that their retirement plans remain unchanged.More worrisome: More than half of respondents said they plan to retire sometime in the next ten years, though the actual target dates vary significantly. One in five respondents expect to retire in three to five years, while another 23 percent are shooting for within six to ten years. Just 11 percent expect to retire sometime in the next two years.In general, the timing of these planned retirements was closely linked to the respondents’ age, with older tech leaders expecting to retire sooner. One surprising finding: Nearly one in ten tech leaders who are ages 40-49 plan to retire in the next five years.The survey—which generated more than 1,500 responses—was administered from Jan. 11 to Feb. 28 of this year.

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started