In the last 12 months, educational institutions have become a new target and easy prey for cyber thieves and ID theft criminals. The most recent examples include the Association of Texas Professional Educators, with 425,000 individuals affected, and the Association of California School Administrators, with 55,000 affected.
There’s no doubt that cyberattacks are becoming more prevalent and more sophisticated. No one is immune. That’s why the month of October is designated as Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
Beginning Oct. 1, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency announced the kickoff of the 21st Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Throughout October, CISA and the National Cybersecurity Alliance will remind the public how to stay safe online by taking four basic steps:
- Use strong passwords that are long, random, and unique to each account, and use a password manager to generate them and to save them.
- Turn on multifactor authentication on all accounts that offer it. We need more than a password on our most important accounts, like email, social media and financial accounts.
- Recognize and report phishing, or as we like to say, "Think before you click." Be cautious of unsolicited emails, texts or calls asking you for personal information, and don’t click on links or open attachments from unknown sources.
- Update software. In fact, enable automatic updates on software so the latest security patches keep devices that you are connected to continuously up to date.
For an added level of protection, MTA members have access to high-quality, identity theft protection plans at member-only rates through Securus ID. In fact, until Dec. 31, 2024, members can get a free basic level individual Securus account. As the holidays approach, when many of us will be making purchases, why not try free protection?
For more information, visit mtabenefits.securusid.com today.
Mark Pribish, Identity Theft Practice Leader, in conjunction with Securus ID, contributed to this article.
