8 Secrets for Online Safety
How can you use the wealth of internet tools out there but still protect your personal information? While nothing will guarantee evil-doers can’t access your information, these tips will help.
- If you’re using AI for any parts of your job-search, including identifying target companies, optimizing your resume, practicing your interview skills, or anything else, be sure you’re not providing personally-identifiable information, or PII. PII includes things like your name, phone number, address (not necessary on a resume these days anyway), and even email address. So give the tools incorrect information about those things, and consider using a dedicated email for all aspects of your search. Bonus: that keeps things nice and clean, and you can happily stop checking that account once you’ve found a new job.
- Clean up your cookies. And when you have the option to do so, deny all but essential cookies on a website. In case you need a refresher, cookies are those tiny bits of data that websites store to learn things about you, like your preferred brands and if you’re looking to buy a menorah.
- Change your passwords more often. If you’re like most of us, you get to these changes when you think of it, or when you’re notified of some sort of security breach. But really, we should all be changing them more often, even though it’s a pain. Put reminders on your calendar or find a set schedule that works for you, like the first day of every odd-numbered month.
- Use secure wi-fi connections. Yes, it’s tempting, when we’re out in the world, to use whatever we can get into to get online, but unsecured networks can make you vulnerable to all kinds of internet badness. You can consider installing a VPN, as well. They usually cost money, but not very much.
- Be suspicious of unsolicited emails or unexpected emails that seem to come from someone you know but have attachments. This happened through my personal email recently: many of my friends and acquaintances got an email cloning my address, but they weren’t actually from me, and I suspect the attachment had malware or a virus embedded in it. (I have cybersecurity installed, so in this case, people simply got attachments that wouldn’t open.)
- Consider two-factor authentication (also called multi-factor authentication) for anything sensitive. Like changing your password more often, this is absolutely a pain in the butt. And it’s probably worth the inconvenience because it prevents people who have found your password, for instance, from logging into your accounts without the added protection of a PIN or a physical security key.
- Stay suspicious. I know that sounds bad, but a remote job posting that promises you’ll work 4 hours a week and get paid $100K is a scam. Any “recruiter” who asks for your bank info is a scammer. When we get desperate about finding a job, our usual good sense can fly out the window.
- And finally, be extremely suspicious of calls, texts, or emails that give you a sense of urgency. Your grandson is probably not in a Mexican jail cell, you almost certainly don’t have a heretofore-unknown speeding ticket, and the sudden urgent job opening is likely not real. The sense of urgency is there to override your normal caution, so instead, double down on that caution.
Things feel very uncertain now, and I know a lot of you are extremely anxious about your job prospects, but be sure to heed your ordinary good sense so you don’t get taken advantage of.
