Issue link: http://publications.winnipegfreepress.com/i/1456320
22 MATURE "Whenever a website or service offers this option, I highly recommend to take advantage of it, especially for banking and email." At the same time, Phillips suggests taking stock of your passwords. "Too many people reuse passwords. If hackers figure out your password, cyber criminals can try to use it with your email address and start applying it to other services like Facebook and Amazon and Google," he says. "My recommendation is to use a password manager to track your passwords and keep them complex." These days, phishing a acks and ransomware remain some of the biggest threats, he adds. "Phishing a acks are basically fake emails or a empts to get you to download something or give away your password," Phillips says. "For ransomware, cyber criminals might have an automated system to send out emails or infect websites to spread a virus. Once it gets in your computer, it steals your data silently in the background and sends it to a cyber criminal. Then it can encrypt your data and make it unusable." A pop-up screen might appear demanding you pay a ransom to recover your files. "I highly recommend that you don't pay the ransom," Phillips says. "Ideally, you have a proper disaster recovery or backup in place, but the problem is that your data has been stolen already. We need to be careful what we're storing and how we protect it." Another tip to stay a li le safer: don't publicize online when you're going on holidays. Not only could someone break into your home while you're away, cyber criminals could also impersonate you for email scams. While there's no need to live in fear of ge ing hacked, we also shouldn't bury our heads in the sand. "Too many people feel they're not a target or their data isn't important. They might also feel that it's all too technical for them," Phillips says. "It comes down to not being afraid of the technology. It's not hard to protect yourself using these basic steps." CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21 " These days, phishing attacks and ransomware remain some of the biggest threats. " - Eddie Phillips, instructor with CyberWave, Manitoba Institute for Trade and Technology's hub dedicated to addressing the current labour shortage in cyber security