{"id":27809,"date":"2019-04-08T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2019-04-08T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/?p=27809"},"modified":"2024-01-02T08:40:42","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T15:40:42","slug":"four-tips-to-help-tidy-up-your-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/2019\/04\/08\/four-tips-to-help-tidy-up-your-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Tips to Help Tidy Up Your Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This spring, many of us will roll up our sleeves and get down to business decluttering our homes. Garage sales will be held, basement storage rooms will be re-organized, and donations will be made.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shouldn\u2019t the same thing happen in our digital lives? After all, the average American will spend&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/story\/people-are-spending-most-of-their-waking-hours-staring-at-screens-2018-08-01\">the bulk of their waking hours<\/a> parked in front of some sort of screen\u2014flipping , swiping, and clicking away. A little tidying up of data and online habits can go a long way toward enhancing your digital security&nbsp;<em>and<\/em>peace of mind.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So here are a few tips for tidying up your tech designed to make you ask not only:&nbsp;<em>\u201cDoes this bring me joy?\u201d but also, \u201cdoes this make me more secure?\u201d&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;If not, consider purging apps, connections, and permissions that could leave you more susceptible to a breach. If you answer yes, make sure you\u2019re taking the necessary steps to protect it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border-width:1px; border-style:solid; border-color:#e6e6e6;\" src=\"https:\/\/media.9news.com\/embeds\/video\/73-abb55bb5-8dde-446f-8ad3-93788dac4bfd\/iframe\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"true\" mozallowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>Turn off Bluetooth when it\u2019s not in use<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Since&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/armis.com\/blueborne\/\">the Blueborne family of vulnerabilities<\/a> was discovered in 2017, deactivating Bluetooth when not in use has become standard security advice. With the increasing adoption of home IoT devices, the consequences of ignoring that advice have only risen.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bluetooth connections are like a lonely person on a dating site; they\u2019re in constant search of a connection. When Bluetooth-enabled devices seek out the wrong sources\u2014that of a cybercriminal, say\u2014they are vulnerable to exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSmart speakers and other IoT devices may introduce convenience to our daily lives,\u201d says Webroot Security Analyst Tyler Moffitt. \u201cBut they\u2019re also a calculated risk, and even more so for knock-off devices whose manufacturers don\u2019t pay proper attention to security. Minimizing the time Bluetooth is on helps to manage that risk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or, as Webroot VP of engineering David Dufour&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/turn-off-bluetooth-security\/\">put it to Wired magazine<\/a> soon after the discovery of Blueborne, \u201cFor attackers, it\u2019s Candyland.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Use a VPN to cloak your digital footprint<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Shrouding your connection in a virtual private network (VPN) is especially important when accessing public or unsecured WiFi networks. Again,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.webroot.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/the-hidden-costs-of-free-wifi\/\">we make a trade-off<\/a> between convenience and security when logging on to these \u201cfree\u201d networks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Without additional protection, cybercriminals can spy on these unencrypted connections either by commandeering the router or by creating their own spoof of a legitimate WiFi hotspot, in a variation of a man-in-the-middle attack. From here, they\u2019re free to monitor the data flowing between your device and the network.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s more than just the privacy violation of being able to see what you\u2019re doing and where you\u2019re going online,\u201d Moffitt explains. \u201cCybercriminals can lift sensitive data like banking login credentials and drop ransomware or other malicious payloads like&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.webroot.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/05\/new-cryptojacking-tactic-may-stealing-cpu-power\/\">cryptojackers<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.webroot.com\/us\/en\/home\/products\/vpn-wifi-security\">A VPN<\/a> encrypts the traffic between your device and the router, ensuring your digital footprint is shielded from prying eyes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Keep apps updated with the latest software<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While some apps are&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bleepingcomputer.com\/news\/security\/adware-apps-in-google-play-simulate-uninstall-for-persistence\/\">inherently sketchy<\/a>, and users shouldn\u2019t expect the app creators behind them to prioritize security, others introduce vulnerabilities inadvertently. When responsibly run, app developers address these security gaps through software updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Take the cultural phenomenon Fortnite, for example. The game that drove its parent company, Epic Games, to an $8 billion valuation was found at the beginning of the year to contain&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/research.checkpoint.com\/hacking-fortnite\/\">multiple vulnerabilities<\/a> that would have allowed malicious actors to take over player accounts, make in-game purchases, and join conversations. Epic Games was quick to issue \u201ca responsibly deployed\u201d fix, but in this and similar instances, users are only protected after installing the suggested updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI always recommend users keep both their apps and their mobile operating systems up to date,\u201d says Moffit. \u201cThis is made easier by turning on automatic updates wherever possible and only downloading apps from reputable app stores, so you increase the chances that updates are timely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more tips on protecting your smartphone from mobile malware,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.webroot.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/15\/bad-apps-protect-your-smartphone-from-mobile-malware\/\">see our complete list of recommendations here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Set up automatic cloud backups<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Purging unused apps is a good principle for spring cybersecurity cleaning \u2013 like a box of old clothes you haven\u2019t worn in decades, unused apps represent digital data containers you no longer need. But what about all that data you\u2019d hate to lose\u2014the pictures, videos, documents, and other files you\u2019d be devastated to see disappear? Protecting that trove of data is another core tenant for tidying up your tech.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ransomware is one prime reason for keeping up-to-date backups of valuable data. It can strike anyone from&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.carbonite.com\/blog\/article\/2018\/08\/college-students-get-schooled-on-ransomwarethe-hard-way\/?_t_id=1B2M2Y8AsgTpgAmY7PhCfg%3d%3d&amp;_t_q=college+ransomware&amp;_t_tags=language:en,siteid:2b7ea699-6127-40c2-a137-36076a55ca93&amp;_t_ip=199.87.217.5&amp;_t_hit.id=Carbonite_UberCarb_Web_Models_PageTypes_BlogNews_BlogPostPage\/_c8f59192-171f-4a21-8acd-8066b4e4981d_en&amp;_t_hit.pos=1\">college students<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.infosecurity-magazine.com\/news\/city-of-del-rio-hit-by-ransomware\/\">cities<\/a>, and the list of those who\u2019ve been burned is long and distinguished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe combination of an antivirus and a cloud backup and recovery solution is an effective one-two punch against ransomware,\u201d Moffit says. \u201cOn the one hand, you make your device more difficult to infect. On the other, you become a less attractive target because you\u2019re unlikely to pay a ransom to recover data that\u2019s already backed up to the cloud and out of reach for ransomware.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.carbonite.com\/blog\/article\/2018\/09\/it-pays-to-have-backup-when-mother-nature-strikes\">Natural disasters<\/a> and device theft\u2014two contingencies even the tightest cybersecurity can\u2019t account for\u2014are prime reasons to make sure backups are in place sooner, rather than later. Cloud backup is more secure and affordable than ever, so it makes sense to back up anything you couldn\u2019t stand to lose, before it\u2019s too late.&nbsp;Want more tips for cybersecurity spring cleaning? <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/blog-en.webroot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/08103734\/Tidying-Up-Your-Tech-Checklist-FINAL_040219.pdf\">Download Webroot\u2019s full checklist for tidying up your tech.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This spring, many of us will roll up our sleeves and get down to business decluttering our homes. Garage sales will be held, basement storage rooms will be re-organized, and donations will be made.&nbsp; Shouldn\u2019t the same thing happen in our digital lives? After all, the average American will spend&nbsp;the bulk of their waking hours [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":27811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2985],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[5109,22703,4725,24201,3769,3615,3517,16963,23577,24197,6371,3937,3479,24205,19019,24203,24195,18733,24199,6517],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27809"}],"collection":[{"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27809"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27989,"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27809\/revisions\/27989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27809"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=27809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}