Tech resolutions for the new year
Use strong & unique passwords for all your accounts
Secure passwords are one of the most effective ways to stay cybersafe in the new year. Passwords should include a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. iPhone can even generate one for you. When you sign up for services on websites and apps, you can let iPhone create strong passwords for many of your accounts. iPhone stores the passwords in iCloud Keychain and fills them in for you automatically so you don’t have to memorize them. Android phones also have a built-in password manager. Google Password Manager lets you search for, view, and edit saved passwords in the Google Password manager menu, accessed in settings.
Declutter your inbox
Chances are you are receiving emails from companies’ mailing lists that you are no longer interested in. Unsubscribe from five unwanted mailing lists every day by scrolling to the bottom of an email and clicking the “unsubscribe” link. Unsubscribing from a handful of lists per day can significantly cut down on the unwanted inbox clutter.
Use two-factor authentication (2FA)
2FA is an extra layer of security used to make sure that people trying to gain access to an online account are who they say they are. First, a user will enter their username and a password. Instead of immediately gaining access, they will then be required to provide another piece of information. This could be a personal identification number (pin), password, or one-time passcode (OTP) via text or email. 2FA is essential to web security because it immediately neutralizes the risks associated with compromised passwords. If a password is hacked, guessed, or even phished, that’s no longer enough to give an intruder access: without approval at the second factor, a password alone is useless.
Stay on top of screen time
Breaks from screen time are essential when most of our day is spent working on the computer, watching TV, and browsing the Internet on our phones. Fortunately, there are tools to help you step away from the screen. See if your device has a built-in use tracker (Apple iPhones have the ScreenTime app). You can check it periodically to see where you spend the most time and what you want to cut down on. Upgrading to our Experience IQ package can also help create screen time boundaries by allowing you to set time limits and view network usage on connected devices.
