The internet is a vast, crazy place. It’s full of wonders and horrors. It offers a wealth of knowledge, as well as an endless stream is lies, scams, and misinformation. You’ll wonderful, disturbing, beautiful, yet perverse place. You can meet all sorts of amazing people online, but you can also encounter some of the weirdest, creepiest individuals on the face of this planet.
The internet is remarkable, yet chaotic is what I’m saying. The same could be said for cars and highways. That’s why you wear seatbelts and make sure your side has airbags. That way, if something does go wrong, you have something in place that can save you.
In that same spirit, I’d like to offer an important bit of advice to anyone who uses a computer and regularly accesses the internet, which is increasing with each passing day mind you. It has to do with security, a topic that has become a lot more relevant in recent years.
It wasn’t that long ago that a single cyberattack shut down a critical pipeline that disrupted fuel supplies for the entire eastern United States. However, I feel like people have already forgotten about that incident and the lessons it had to offer.
There are a lot of things to be said about that attack and why it was successful. However, much of it came back to poor cyber security practices. That included little practices like not logging out of a secure network, using easily-guessed passwords, or using the same password for multiple logins. As more and more of our lives go online, these practices will become increasingly damaging.
I know this because I too have been guilty of doing this. Just recently, I had a few security scares for some email accounts that I still use. I didn’t make a big deal about it at first. Then, I realized just how much sensitive information I had in these accounts and I needed to be more careful.
That’s why I immediately activated two-factor authentication.
That’s also why you should activate it too.
No matter how small or large your presence is online, I cannot recommend utilizing this feature enough. Do it for your email accounts. Do it for your social media accounts. Do it for your online shopping accounts. You don’t have to do it for everything, but if you have the option, definitely take advantage of it.
It’s not that hard to utilize. If you have a cell phone that can receive texts, you can use it. Yes, it is an extra step to log in. You have to both enter a password and a code that’s sent to your cell phone. It’s a bit more tedious, but it assures that, even if someone steals your password, they still can’t log in without your phone. It’s not perfect security, but it makes a big difference.
The security at the Colonial Pipeline facility didn’t utilize it. A majority of companies don’t utilize it on a large scale. There are some legitimate reasons for that, but most people don’t use it because it’s inconvenient. It’s another step on top of having to remember a password. Some people just don’t like that.
I get it, but I also get the risks of being hacked or losing your data. If you have a choice between being slightly more inconvenienced or losing critical data, then the choice should be clear. Endure that little bit of inconvenience. It’ll protect you, your data, your money, your identity, and so much more.
I had a bit of a cyber scare recently and while I was able to fix it before anything happened, I made sure I was more proactive. Trust me. You don’t want to learn the hard way why you should utilize extra layers of security whenever you’re online.
I’ll say it again. If you can activate two-factor authentication for any or all your accounts, do it. You’ll spare yourself plenty of stress and frustration. The internet is still an amazing place, but it can be dangerous. Your password is just a seatbelt. Two-factor authentication is an airbag. Your odds of being safe are much better when you can rely on both.
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