How to stay safe on the internet in 2023?

2022 was a busy year for the IT professionals with the defense against the increased number of security threats. As the world has been hit by COVID-19, and many companies introduced a remote work scheme, the attack surface grew exponentially. Most companies stayed with the hybrid work model after the lockdowns, so the issue will remain with us, IT professionals to adapt to the new world.

Remote work and the “Bring Your Own Device” culture added a new level of complexity to the Cyber Defenses. More complex endpoint security and extended policies are necessary to keep up with the increased threats. Remote access and the outdated identity and access management bring huge problems into the mix.

Cyber Security starts on a personal level. It means that our professional lives are mixing our private ones, the border is blurry, not to mention that most people use their system with privileged access (as an Administrator).

Malicious actors try to get valuable information from employees of the companies even in their private life, and they try to use it later in their acts.

Here are some of my advice to stay safe(r) in 2023.

Use a Password Manager

In 2022 there is no excuse to do not use a reliable password manager. Even the most lightweight personal password manager tool is much better than using nothing. A password manager helps to maintain a healthy password policy, and to use a different passwords per site and per service. You don’t have to know or remember any password anymore, only the master password of the tool if you use it that way.

Some of these tools have browser plugins and mobile device support as well to make our lives easier. The passwords and changes are synchronized between all of our devices.

For a detailed information check out my Password Manager 101 post!

Enable and use a firewall and an antivirus software

I hope it is needless to say how important can be a running and updated antivirus software on our devices.

In the Windows ecosystem Windows Defender Firewall is installed by default, and it is ready to pick up the fight against cyber crime.

The Windows management console can be opened with hitting the Windows Key + I combination.

From the newly opened window on the left the Update & Security menu’s Windows Security menu point can be used to configure these settings.

In this menu at the Virus & threat protection we can run and schedule scanning. Also here is available the scan and threat history.

For those who want prefer to use a third party software for firewalling and antivirus there are many great products on the market.

Apply updates and patches regularly

Software updates does not bring us just new features of the software, but more importantly security patches and workarounds. Applying these patches is a necessary step in fighting against the malicious actors.

Third party software can be updated with the next version of their installer, or some applications can check & apply updates in the running app.

For the Windows operating system updates the Windows Key + I opens the management console from where the Windows Update is reachable on the top right corner. We can use the Check for updates button.

We must update our browser regularly too! This is our window to the internet, if it gets compromised all of our traffic can be visible for the attacker.

Browsing habits

There is no security solution that can save us from being a victim of cyber crime if our browsing and internet habits are careless. Downloading cracked software is not just illegal, but it is very dangerous, as it can contain trojans and other worms. We must be careful and we should follow some easy rules.

• Unknown links must be carefully checked
• Unknown downloads must be discarded
• Cracked software must never be used
• Images from unknown mail addresses must not be loaded
• Links from unknown mail addresses must never be visited
• Porn and warez sites must not be visited

VPN

VPN is the virtual private network. It gives us some anonymity and security on public internet access. In most cases VPN creates a secret tunnel between our device and the endpoint we are reaching out to. VPN masks (encrypts) our internet usage and habits from the ISP and other third parties. This technology makes it almost impossible to look into the secure, encrypted tunnel from the outside. There are a lot of great VPN provider out in the market already, we can choose the most suitable one for us.

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