8 cybersecurity promises you should make to yourself for this year

We have constructed a list of promises that you should make to yourself this year to stay safe both online and offline.

To some extent, your connected PC or mobile device is a lone warrior lost in an unknown territory — and this situation repeats itself every time you are online. In many cases, your device is unable to detect who is on the other side of the connection: is it your best friend or a cybercriminal in disguise?

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Of course, there are lots of security solutions that are designed to keep you safe offline and online, but in any case they come second to us, the users. Thus, the final battle, which determines whether our data and banking credentials will be stolen or not, starts and ends in our own minds. We are the ones who click on suspicious links, download dangerous attachments and choose the ‘Ignore’ option when we see an alert message from our antivirus solution.

Furthermore, no antivirus can exist on our PC without our command. That is why we need to become at least a bit security competent… or just cut the Internet cable, throw away all flash memory cards and Wi-Fi hotspots and stay offline forever. If you do not like this solution, then you should make 8 simple promises regarding cybersecurity and abide by them during the next year.

  • I promise to learn what a strong password is and how I can quickly invent and remember many passwords. I will use a unique passcode for every website and a very unique one for my main e-mail account, because it’s safe and easy.

  • I will understand why is it so important to install all the system updates and I promise to do it as soon as possible every time a new one is introduced.
  • I promise to back up all of my important data so that I will not lose access to precious photos, medical files and the fruits of my labor. Moreover, I promise to check if my backups work properly. I will do it particularly because I don’t want to pay money to get important files back.
  • I promise to be very careful when connecting to public Wi-Fi. I’ll watch this video and understand why I should avoid using free WiFi as much as I can.
  • I’ll read about what phishing is and how to avoid it so that I will not fall victim to cybercriminals. I promise not to get fooled so easily: I will check the website links in all of my messages (on e-mail, Facebook and other platforms) and file extensions for all the webfiles I’m about to open.
  • I promise not to download any pirated content. I also promise to be careful when I use torrent networks.
  • I promise to be vigilant online and offline to protect my family and myself from any unpleasant surprises.

  • Last but not least, I promise to always pay attention to my antivirus‘ advice and stay protected throughout the year.

And as for us, the whole Kaspersky Lab team promises to work hard to protect you during the next year and after!

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