Security awareness - tips

General cyber safety tips

While our daily online activity continues to grow, so does our exposure to online threats. Multiply this by the sheer amount of devices through which we can access the Internet, and the risk of our personal information falling into the wrong hands increases exponentially.

Web Security

The Internet is a wonderful tool to read the news, stay connected with others, do banking, buy online, and more. The cybercriminal has many opportunities because people don’t think about security when they go onto the Internet.

Here are some practical things you can do immediately at the office and at home to have safer, online browsing.

If you do nothing else, get Qualys BrowserCheck
- An amazing, free tool which performs a security analysis of your browsers and plugins to find potential vulnerabilities and security holes, and helps you fix them.
- For each browser you have: Once the plugin is installed, make sure to select Advanced scan which in addition to checking your browser, will check your o/s and system vulnerabilities as well.
- Set Automatic Scan to on so that it scans automatically at predefined times.
- https://browsercheck.qualys.com/
Java, Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash are responsible for an astounding number of PC infections due to security exploits
- Update them as often as you can.
- Flash will prompt you automatically, but you can tell Java to search for updates daily, instead of bi-monthly.
- Register for automatic updates with Adobe Reader.
Update your operating system as soon as the updates are available (Windows or Mac)
- One way to do this is to set your windows updates to install automatically. This will reduce the number of vulnerabilities hackers can exploit.
Be smart when using a wireless network
- Don’t do banking or online shopping on a public wireless network or on unsecured Wi-Fi.
- Use public setting for your laptop to keep it much more secure; this means it will allow no file sharing, increase your firewall settings, etc.
- Always assume that public “hot spots” where you can access a wireless network, such as in an airport or café, are not secure. Never send sensitive or personal information over a wireless network. Make sure you use application-level security, such as HTTPS and SSL.
Ignore the prompt from your browser to save passwords
- There are utilities that can expose that hidden information and reveal passwords. If you are using the same password for more than one service/system, many systems or websites could be compromised.
Delete your browser history from the browser tools when completed to protect your privacy
- Use your browser’s privacy mode while browsing to prevent information from being stored such as which websites you visited; Internet Explorer calls it "InPrivate Browsing" and Google Chrome calls it a "New incognito window".
Review your Facebook privacy settings
- Otherwise, your personal information is available to all, which could be used by cybercriminals for malicious or financial gain.
- Err on the side of caution and don’t let "friends of friends" see your birthday, cell phone number, etc.
- Only friends should have access to the more personal layer of information we all have. Choose your friends wisely – "serial friending" could expose you.
Click with discretion
- It used to be that you could safely click on links and files from your family, friends and colleagues. This is no longer true. Hackers now impersonate loved ones and try to entice you to click on malicious links or attachments. Scammers often hack into personal email accounts to send malicious attachments to their contacts.
  Think before you click - every time. Hover your mouse over links and check that the link that appears is a reliable one.
  Be cautious. Check before you open a file. Is the file really an application? An easy way to tell if an attachment is safe is by checking the file extension. The safe ones are GIF, JPG or JPEG, TIF or TIFF, MPG or MPEG, MP3 and WAV. Unsafe attachments can be .bat, exe, .vbs, .js to name a few. Consider using a preview pane before opening an attachment. Microsoft users can use attachment previewers with Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Visio, images, and text files. Scan attachments with an anti-virus. BE SAFE!

Additional cyber security ressources

Cyber security best practice (PDF, 10,311 Kb)

Prevent cyber attacks tips (PDF, 817 Kb)

Email best practice (PDF, 312 Kb)

Tips & Best practices

General cyber safety tips

Cyber safety tips arrow_drop_down

Web Security

Web security tips arrow_drop_down

Additional cyber security ressources