By Alison Crane
~Peace of mind is vital to good mental and physical health.
~Worrying about someone accessing your personal information can create stress.
~Dealing with loss of income, reputation, or anger after someone hacks your identity creates even more stress.
~Stress interferes with our peace of mind…
Do you see where this is leading?
One does not have to search hard to find something to worry about, and it is proven that worrying is not good for our mental or physical health. If you watch any commercials, you will see that many are for health products or services. Many of them are selling something that could cost you lots of money and you will probably have painful side effects.
Why not do something for yourself that has multiple benefits and only costs you a little time? Protect your data privacy.
How to protect your personal data is something that everyone should learn how to do. In 2020, more than 37 billion records were compromised, so, the odds are in your favor that your personal information was also compromised.
Unfortunately, the odds are also that more security breaches will happen in 2022. Before you say, why bother, remember that you can still do things to protect your data and possibly prevent future breaches from affecting you or your family.
Remember, if you are going to prevent stress from taking over your peace of mind, one of the first steps is to do what you can to protect yourself. You cannot fix everything but there is peace of mind in knowing you have done what you could.
So, if you are ready to get started by managing your privacy data, here are a few steps to take that are recommended by the National Cybersecurity Alliance:
- Do your homework – research any new internet-connected device before purchasing to find out any security/privacy concerns and to understand what security features the device has.
- Keep a clean machine – to do this, keep your software on all of your internet connected devices up to date with automatic updates or notifications.
- Own your online presence – immediately configure your privacy and security settings when you turn on a new “smart” device and disable any features you do not need.
- Less is more – when setting up an account profile, only answer the required blanks and consider making up information if you cannot complete the process without filling in everything. If a company requires information, you are not comfortable providing, reconsider creating a profile with them.
- Make your passwords long and unique – a strong password is at least 12 characters long.
- Passwords are not enough – use 2-factor authentication or multi-factor authentication whenever offered.
By limiting what we put online and taking steps to protect our private information, we can know that we have done everything possible to prevent our personal data from being accessed. This peace of mind can be a valuable tool for good mental and physical health.
For more information about how to improve your cybersecurity or if you would like to participate in our Staying Safe in an Online World Workshop in February, contact the Garland County Extension Service for details at 501-623-6841 or email acrane@uada.edu.
Alison Crane is a Family and Consumer Sciences Agent with the Garland County Extension Service. The UofA System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs to all eligible persons without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
