Tuesday, January 16, 2018

While most consumers are well aware of the hazards of cyber security—with the Equifax breach alone exposing the sensitive data of as many as 143 million Americans—the majority still fail to take the necessary precautions to protect themselves. According to a survey conducted online by Harris Poll, on behalf of Tenable™,Inc., while 94 percent of Americans were aware of news stories about security breaches, few took critical steps to protect their data or change their online habits.

The study found that in the past 12 months, 44 percent of Americans did not use a password to protect their personal information on their computer, and 55 percent failed to use a PIN to protect their personal information on their mobile devices. When it comes to the industry recommended practice of two-factor authentication, 75 percent of respondents admitted not implementing this important practice, while only 32 percent reported reducing their use of public Wi-Fi or unknown hotspots.

On the plus side, 53 percent reported creating more complicated passwords and 15 percent have used a password management tool to protect their personal information in the past 12 months.

According to Tenable, a popular inroad for hackers to compromise devices and steal data is when apps have security vulnerabilities; however, few people pay much attention to patch requests. Fourteen percent of smartphone users waited more than a week to update apps on their smartphone after receiving a prompt—with 5 percent never getting around to it at all. Meanwhile, 13 percent of computer users wait more than a week to update the apps on their computer, and 5 percent never do.

To maintain a level of basic cyber safety, Tenable advises:

- Where applicable, enable two-factor authentication for all online services
- Update your apps and computers within 24 hours of receiving a notification
-  Assign strong passwords to your computer, mobile phone and tablet, and don't share them with others

Source: Tenable, Inc.

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