Three ways you can make your family cyber secure

Making your family cyber secure is simple.

All you need to do is follow these three steps.

Set up multi-factor authentication

Multi-factor authentication is the unsung hero of cybersecurity.

By enabling it, you allow yourself to:

• Quickly recover your account in the event that you forget your password
• Provide an added layer of protection should a cyber attack successfully get past your password

There are also lots of benefits for families.

For example: if you set up multi-factor for a child’s account that is linked to your phone, you can quickly recover access should it be compromised.

Filter out bad website traffic

Clicking on malicious links is one of the leading causes of cyber attacks.

The challenge?

These attacks can come from (almost) anywhere.

For example: malicious website attacks can be sent through email (known as phishing) or even text message (known as smishing).

Filtering out bad website traffic can help protect against malicious links—regardless of how they arrive.

There are a variety of tools available to help with this, both paid and unpaid.

CIRA’s tool that allows families in Canada to filter out malicious traffic, Canadian Shield, is a protective DNS-based solution.

Make your family members aware

The biggest advantage cyber attackers have is a lack of awareness from prospective victims.

That’s why they spend so much time trying to dress up their attacks as legitimate emails, text messages and voicemails; to prey on your inability to distinguish between a legitimate message and a fake one.

That’s why a big part of protecting your family revolves around education.

You don’t need to set up your own “Cybersecurity University” or anything.

Maybe it could be as simple as showing your children an example of a phishing email you received.

By showing them the signs that it’s not legitimate—such as misspelled words or a questionable email address—you can help equip them to recognize similar messages on their own.

Conclusion

Cybersecurity doesn’t need to be complicated.

These three steps won’t protect against every single cyber threat.

But they will go a long way towards combatting some major attacks that could cause you—and your family—major problems.