The Digital Student

Digital Safety

We all spend an increasing portion of our time online, whether this is part our employment, studies or personal life. We all need to take responsibiltiy for our own "Digital safety". It it important to recognise that our behaviour may leave us open to threats to our reputation, privacy, finances or general wellbeing. There are a number of simple things we can all do to protect ourselves while online. The following are our top six tips to ensure your digital safety.

Six ways to ensure your Digital Safety

1. Create strong passwords

Passwords are one of the most important lines of defense you have in protecting yourself online from hackers and fraudsters. Unfortunately many of us do not use strong passwords, we sacrifice our safety for the ease and convenience of something that is easy for us to remember, often using the same passwords for multiple applications and websites. 

2. Keep software (especially antivirus) up to date

Ensure that you have up to date antivirus software on your devices. For students with an iPad, regularly check that your are using the latest IOS

3. Regularly back up data

It is impossible to anticipate when a device might break or be lost or stolen so it is important for you to always keep a backup of any important documents. There are two main types of documents you need to backup, 

• Important/cherished documents such as photographs, certificates, product warrantees, important correspondents etc. These documents aren't going to change so they only need to to be backed up once. 
• Current working documents such as assignments and essays. These documents will be changing regularly and   so we also need to be backed up on a regular basis. 

4. Protect your mobile devices

Protecting your mobile or tablet device is essential as they do as much traveling around as you do and tend to house lots of your important personal data. Here are some important areas to be be aware of.

• Ensure the wireless network/wifi you are using is secure. Never log onto to a network you do not recognise as it may not be encrypted and could leave you open to hackers. While on campus use the Eduroam network. Set up information can be found here Connecting to eduroam
• Turn off bluetooth when you aren't using it to stop anyone nearby accessing your phone. Never pair devices with your phone/tablet in a public space.
• Never leave your device lying around with the screen visible.
• Each of your devices should be locked have a different passcode (or if your device is capable use fingerprint or facial recognition).
• Treat your device as it it were your wallet as it probably contains your debit/credit card details. 

5. Be vigilant for phishing emails

Phising is a term to describe a bogus email sent to you from a criminal that pretends to be from another organisation (usually banks, shops, government department etc.) in order to trick you into give them your personal details. These can be very sophisticated and convincing, often the use the same company logos and simliar email addresses. Here is our advice for spotting a phising email.

Can you spot when you're being phished? Identifying phishing can be harder than you think. This quiz takes you through things to be aware of regarding phishing scams.