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You can improve your digital safety with a handful of practical habits: secure the accounts that can unlock others, pause before acting on unexpected messages, install updates, protect your home network, and back up important files. These steps reduce common risks but cannot guarantee that an account or device will never be compromised. The guidance below draws on U.S. government consumer resources; readers elsewhere should use their own national reporting and consumer-protection channels.
How can you improve digital safety in everyday life?
Start with the accounts and devices that matter most, then work through the checklist below. CISA’s Secure Our World program groups its basic advice around recognizing and reporting phishing, using strong passwords, enabling multifactor authentication (MFA), and updating software.
- Give your email, financial, and account-recovery logins long, unique passwords, and turn on MFA wherever it is offered.
- Verify unexpected messages through a route you already trust instead of using the message’s links or contact details.
- Enable automatic updates for your operating system, browser, apps, and security software where available.
- Change your router’s default administrative credentials, secure its Wi-Fi, and check for updates to the router and connected devices.
- Back up important information regularly. Consider encryption after you have planned how to keep and recover the password or key.
How should you protect important accounts?
Use a different password for every account
Prioritize your email account, financial accounts, and any login that can reset other passwords. A long, unique password for each service limits the damage if one password is exposed. A password manager can help you create and keep track of distinct credentials; CISA includes password managers in its consumer resources.
Turn on multifactor authentication
MFA requires an additional proof of identity beyond a password. Use it on important accounts wherever the service offers it, and review the service’s recovery options so you know how to regain access if you lose a device or authentication method.
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A physical security key is an optional MFA method, not a universal requirement. Check that the account and device support the key before buying one. CISA’s Four Cybersecurity Essentials guidance, aimed at state, local, tribal and territorial governments, says its security-key recommendation “Provides the best protection against phishing and is easy to use.” That is CISA’s characterization of the method, not a consumer product test.
How can you spot and handle phishing?
Phishing messages may imitate a familiar organization and try to get you to disclose personal information, open a harmful attachment, or follow a link. Urgent language about a locked account or missed payment is a reason to slow down, not to click quickly.
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- Do not rely on a link, phone number, or reply address supplied in an unexpected message.
- Open the organization’s official website yourself or contact it using details you already trust.
- Use the organization’s or relevant authority’s reporting process for suspicious messages. The FTC explains how to report phishing email and text messages.
Which software should you update?
Turn on automatic updates for your operating system, web browser, applications, and security software when those controls are available. Updates often include critical patches and protections against security threats, according to the FTC. CISA’s Secure Our World guidance puts it simply: “Don’t delay software updates.”
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How do you secure home Wi-Fi and smart devices?
Protect the router
Use the router’s settings to change its default administrator credentials and network name, enable Wi-Fi encryption, and install router updates. CISA’s wireless network security guidance provides further advice. Menu names differ by model, so follow the router maker’s current instructions.
Check connected devices
Smart-home devices can have their own accounts, passwords, settings, and update processes. Change default settings and credentials where possible, and check whether the manufacturer provides hardware or software updates. CISA’s guidance on securing Internet of Things devices covers connected-device security.
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How should you back up and encrypt important files?
Make regular backups of information you would not want to lose from your computer and phone. CISA recommends using an external drive or a properly vetted cloud service. A backup is useful only if you can recover the files, so know where it is and how to restore data from it.
Encryption can add protection to information stored on a device. Before enabling it, back up your files and make a plan to keep the recovery key and password somewhere secure and accessible to you. CISA’s encryption guidance emphasizes backing up first and securing recovery information.
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