After you know what you need to span class="blue-word">protect and how to protect such items, you can determine the difference between what you need and what you currently have deployed in place.

When it comes to software/hardware and Cybersecurity, think about the following questions for each device:

• Are all the software packages(including the operating system itself) on your computer legally obtained?

• Were the software packages obtained from reliable sources that always provide legitimate versions?

• Are all the software packages supported by their respective vendors?

• Are all the software packages set to automatically update?

• Is security software on the device?

• Is the security software configured to auto-update?

• Does the security software include anti-malware technology - and is that capability fully enabled?

• Are virus scans configured to run after every update is applied?

• Does the software include firewall technology?

• Does the software include anti-spam technology?

• Was the hardware obtained from a trusted party- (If you bought an IP - based camera directly from China via some online retailer that you never heard of prior to making the purchase, for example, the answer to this question may not be yes)

• Is encryption enabled for at least all sensitive data stored on the device?

Think before you share, think before you post:

• Think!

• Think!

• Think!

I cannot emphasize the IMPORTANCE of sharing your information carefully.

People often willingly overshare information when asked for it.

Yes, you and me included.

Even if you don’t believe that a party asking about you for personal data would ever abuse the information that is collected about you, as the number of parties that have private information about you increases, and as the quantity and quality of that data grows, the odds rise that you will suffer a privacy violation due to a data breach occurring somewhere.

If you want to improve your privacy, the first thing to do is to consider what information you may be disclosing about yourself and your loved ones before you disclose it. If you do not need to provide private information, don’t. The less private information that is, “out there”, and the fewer places it resides, the lower the risk to you of a privacy compromise.

Consider the implications of any social media post before making it - there could be adverse consequences of many sorts.

For example, criminals can leverage shared information about a person’s family relationships, place of employment, and interests as part of identity theft and to social engineer their way into your accounts.

Keep in mind, oversharing is not limited to social- networks. Oversharing information via chat, email, group chats, and so on is a serious modern day problem as well.