Cyber criminals definitely do not choose their victims. This means that senior citizens or the elderly, especially the non-tech savvy ones, are super prone to online scams, fake news, online identity theft, romance scams and other cybersecurity attacks. In fact, I actually personally know a senior citizen who fell for a bad online scam. Sadly, the elderly are easy targets! This topic is also sensitive to me because my senior citizen Mama blogs and she dabbles in social media so I want to always help protect her from cyber crooks.
So how do we make sure that our beloved senior citizens are safe from cybersecurity threats?
First off, let’s help them with their passwords. They should have strong passwords ideally containing a mix of upper and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. The passwords should also not contain letters or words that can easily be “cracked” such as birthdate, nicknames or addresses.
Secondly, always remind them to never click links or URLs that look suspicious or those that come from people or sites that they are not familiar with. In the case of my Mama, she says she often receives links not only via SMS but also through her social media accounts and email address. I help her dissect whether or not the link is legit. I remind her that if she usually doesn’t access or open that website and she’s given a link towards it, it’s usually suspicious. I tell her all about phishing and the scary repercussions.
Thirdly, let’s help senior citizens update the software programs that they use. Regularly updating software strengthen them against security vulnerabilities. When software is updates, security patches are added and these help protect against cybersecurity risks.
Cyberattacks put our senior citizens at risk so let’s do everything we can to help them.
Meanwhile, all of us can learn about recent and relevant developments in the security industry, including emerging threats and vulnerabilities, deepfakes, fake news, scams and spam, IoT and critical infrastructures, and threat hunting and incident response. DECODE 2022 will be on November 28-29.
DECODE is the largest cybersecurity conference in the Philippines hosted by Trend Micro, a global leader in cybersecurity. Register now for free and be a part of DECODE 2022: Detect & Respond at www.decodeph.com
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Mindanaoan is a multi-awarded blogger, content creator, seasoned social media strategist and publicist with undeniably successful track record. 2012 International Visitor Leadership Program (for global leaders) alumnus and O visa grantee (for people with extraordinary skills and who have risen to the top of their field). Avid traveler and a proud relief operations volunteer. Regular resource person for social media, blogging and content creation. Available for work and travel – [email protected]
