Cybersecurity matters to students

Technology is ingrained into every aspect of our lives. From the computers we do assignments on to taking a quick social media break on our phones, it’s nearly impossible to avoid coming in contact with a screen daily. We, as students, were born into the era of technology. As technology advances in complexity, it’s important that we keep up to date with cybersecurity in order to prevent leaks of personal information to unwanted hackers. 

With more and more social media platforms being created, it’s important to remember that what you post on your pages is never truly private. Posts that you have created are searchable on any platform. Employers can find your pages and posts and determine whether or not they would hire you. Before you post, make sure that the content is something you are proud of and wouldn’t tarnish your reputation of not only yourself, but others.

Passwords are crucial, if not the most essential, aspect of cybersecurity. It protects all of our information on websites we sign up for. Keeping different passwords for different websites makes it difficult for people to hack into your accounts. Never share, write down or reuse your passwords as it gives anyone access to your account or makes it easier to determine what your password could be. Passwords should be several characters long and a combination of symbols, numbers and letters to be the most secure.

While not everyone has a hotspot they can connect to in public, it’s good to be wary of public wifi that several businesses offer. It makes it easier to hack into someone’s device and steal their information or drop a virus onto their laptop or phone. Your data is easily accessible, putting you at risk. It’s safer to use up some data on your phone through LTE instead. Better yet, do work that doesn’t require internet access to keep your accounts and information safe. 

Educating yourself on phishing scams is also important to keeping your information safe. Whether it’s through your Instagram DM’s or emails, be suspicious of messages from senders you don’t know. Hover your mouse over the link and read it thoroughly as usually spam can be determined through the wording of the link. Never accept money from people offering it to you; hackers want to obtain your bank account information. In addition, don’t give information out to those online if you are unaware of who they are.

By staying educated on cybersecurity, it ensures that we as students can keep our information safe and secure, free from suspicious activity.