We all sleep. No one works 24/7. Everybody rests. We turn off our lights when we go to sleep. How come we don’t turn off our tech? Why is it when you’ll turn your lights off at night, you’ll keep your devices running 24/7?
Record how frequently you’re using your wireless devices.
I’ll bet that most families will use their wireless (maybe) from 6-8am when they first wake up. Then parents go to work and kids go to school, so (maybe) they really use their devices again from 4-9pm. They’re basically using their devices for 6 hours, but will have it on 24 hours a day.
Why?
Why are we making it easier for the adversary?
Why are we creating a bigger exposure?
If we want to be protected in cyberspace, it’s simple… Reduce the attack surface and minimize the damage.
I have my wireless on the same plugs as my lights. So when I go to work and shut off my lights, the wireless shuts off. When I go home and turn the lights back on, the wireless comes back on.
We need to do a better job of minimizing and reducing our exposure.
The same is true with our cell phones. When I travel and stay at a hotel, do you know how many people are close to me that can intercept a wireless signal to pickup or gain access?
Why are we keeping our phone on 24/7?
Why not put your phone on airplane mode when you go to sleep?
Why not turn off the wireless or at least turn off the bluetooth?
We’re just not thinking about security. We’re not thinking about technology. We have all this technology on 24/7, but we’re only using it a small percent of the time.
Shut it off!
If you turn off your lights and shut down your own activities to go to sleep, you have to do the same for technology. If we just do the simple things… For example, if everyone had turned off their wireless at night before, the Russians wouldn’t have been able to break in. The problem was that the Russians broke into home access points, but people were able to fix it by rebooting. Do you realize there were people who didn’t reboot their wireless access point for 6 months? That’s crazy! If you do my trick, you’re rebooting it every night and not only minimizing the attack surface, but also making it that much harder for the adversary.
Cybersecurity is not hard. We just need to use better common sense. If you’re not using technology, shut it down, turn it off, and make it harder for the adversary.
For more tips on staying safe in cyberspace, keep checking out my blogs or follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Linked In. For your own company’s security assessment or any other questions or concerns, reach out to me at secure-anchor.com/contact.
