Ken Griffey Jr. was known for his smooth swing and raw power. And as a Major League Baseball player, Griffey certainly knew the importance of making adjustments in order to achieve success against opposing pitchers.
The final blog post for my MCO 425 class is about security and privacy online. When I first signed on with America Online in 1994, there were no concerns (that I can recall, at least) of people stealing credit card numbers or other sensitive information. My biggest concern was whether or not I would sign on at full 56000 baud, or be stuck at 9600 speed!
Much has changed online since then, and we as consumers have needed to make adjustments in order to succeed against digital threats.
By sticking to websites that are familiar to me, not clicking on random hyperlinks, and being very suspicious of emails at work that originate from outside of our organization, I have practiced Defensive Privacy. This has helped fight off phishers and identity thieves.
Early on I learned a lesson about email address books, when I started seeing emails from friends with links and text saying “hey, check this out!” Those emails didn’t seem like they came from my friends, so I ignored them. Then I would hear about others getting viruses on their computers, and someone would realize that their email was hacked. So I made it a point not to use address books, so my friends would not fall victim if my email was ever compromised.
I do not save my passwords on web browsers. Instead, I log in each time I visit a secure website. I do not use the same password for multiple sites. I keep a cheat sheet in my wallet which has enough info on it to remind me of the unique password combination for each site, but not enough that a stranger would crack the code if I ever lost my wallet. In addition, I do not use Google or Facebook as a gateway to log into sites that have that option. Again, if one of those accounts is hacked, I feel that more damage can be done.
It seemed that many of my friends rushed to get Alexa, Siri and similar smart devices for their homes when they were introduced to the market. I have never added that feature on my phone or purchased a unit for my home, because I have concerns about the constant surveillance and recording that goes with it. I have nothing to hide, but I consider it a total privacy issue.
After expanding my digital awareness in MCO 425, what adjustments will I make going forward?
A number of my financial accounts already feature two-factor authentication, but I will look into that possibility with all of my log-ins. We read about the importance of using encryption on our laptops, so I plan to look into that upgrade. And finally, although I have been fairly good about allowing updates to take place on my computers, I will be more proactive about making sure that I have the latest versions of software and applications installed.
