This week's episode focuses on cybersecurity for seniors, and the importance of protecting your online safety.
We previously talked about getting help for tech-related challenges, in Episode 4, "Silver Screens: When Seniors and Smartphones Collide."
Today, we follow up on that subject with something crucially important: keeping yourself and your data safe. Safe from online trolls, phishing scams, false actors, fraudulent claims: you know, the bad guys.
And they're so sneaky these days that they often pretend to be the good guys, helping you out. Technology is getting better and better at replicating real voices and helping to set up plausible scenarios. It sounds scary and overwhelming, but there are ways to protect yourself without fully withdrawing from the online world.
Oliviah Street is a certified cybersecurity consultant here to give us some fundamental tips in keeping safe online. We cover creating strong passwords, the usefulness of password managers, the significance of two-factor authentication, and common cyber threats targeting seniors.
Oliviah provides practical advice on verifying suspicious contacts, setting up device security, and the dangers of sharing personal information on social media. And some smart, non-digital methods to verify someone's identity, for example: consider having a safe word or an insider question amongst your immediate family members which only they would know the answer to.
There are resources available to seek help when needed, and not just the young people in your life! Libraries and municipal or state-level services exist to help inform and protect citizens.
You have a lifetime of wisdom and experience. Use it to make smart judgements and recognize that if something sounds too good to be true, or too far-fetched to be taken at face value, then the most rational response is probably the correct one.
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