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Having remote access to work, learn and teach is great, but is your home cyber secure? You are a target to hackers and the risk is not if you’ll encounter an attack but rather when. Be sure to protect yourself and your family.

Here are some tips to cyber secure your home:

Home Network

  • Change the default WiFi password to something only you know.
  • Use the latest encryption, which is currently WPA2.
  • Know all the devices connected to your network from phones to baby monitors and smart speakers.

Devices

  • Use a strong PIN or passcode to lock down your devices.
  • Enable automatic updates on all of your devices.
  • Manage account privileges or consider having separate devices for parents and kids.
  • Install firewall and anti-virus software on personal devices.
  • Wipe devices before discarding to be sure they are free of your personal information.
    • Mobile devices have a setting option for a secure reset of the device.

Accounts

  • Use unique passphrases as passwords, such as “Blaz3Drag0nL1fe!”, for each account.
    • Don’t use the example password above or anything that would be easy to guess.
  • Store passwords in Keeper
  • Use 2-factor authentication everywhere possible, from your bank to social media accounts.
  • Post with care

Yourself

  • Use common sense and practice online safety.
  • Know about phishing and how hackers use messaging to try to trick you.
  • Be suspicious. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Hacked? It’s not a matter of if but rather when. Be prepared for when:

  • Keep back-ups of files. UAB offers cloud storage.
  • Change passwords for accounts when compromised.
  • Monitor your credit cards and financial statements. Contact your financial institutions for fraud issues.

Learn more about information security and more tips at uab.edu/infosec.