Another “Your Lunch Break” episode has graced the inter-web and today’s theme was quite scary: cybersecurity. Talk about itch-inducing! My guest today was my sister, Lisa Trujillo, who works in the field of cybersecurity, privacy, and data protection. We heard horror stories, as well pro-tips on how to make sure our personal shit is protected. Here are three important takeaways that I got from the interview:
- Never use the same password for multiple accounts!
It’s in your best interest to pick a different, difficult, and unique password for each account that you have. It may be annoying to try to remember them all, but it makes hacking each account’s security measure that much harder. This is particularly true for your most used and important accounts, i.e. Email/Bank/Socials
2. Think before you click!
Does that email look funky? It probably is!! Don’t react emotionally to posts/emails/texts with links. A lot of hackers design these posts to get you to react fast and without putting much thought into what you’re doing. If you receive a suspicious message from someone, check the sources and think before you click.
3. Make sure websites are real!
Your credit card information is everywhere. And that’s just how it is for all of us. Have no fear though, many of the highly reputable websites we use (Amazon, Spotify, Ebay) are secure, it is just up to us to use our common sense before placing that order. One way to check a site’s authenticity is by making sure there is a ‘lock’ next to the URL. Here is an example:
Another tip is to use payment sights such as PayPal instead of using your own credit card details.
If you’re interested in diving deeper into this topic, here are a few websites that you can check out to learn more:
BitWarden – Open Source Password Manager
The internet is a beautiful place filled with amazing resources, we just need to know how to use it to the best of our ability and not succumb to the malicious attempts of the lurking hackers out there. Be safe and happy surfing 🙂
The “Your Lunch Break” playlist has been updated and filled with the (mostly 80s) songs from today’s show. Listen, like and follow here: