October is Cybersecurity awareness month.

According to the United States Government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure security agency, there are four simple ways to protect yourself online. The first is using a strong password for any account you may have online with unique characters and combinations of upper and lowercase letters. Second, is to turn on multi factor authentication or MFA to add extra protection. Third is to recognize and report suspicious or unsolicited messages, and lastly to always be sure your software is up to date.

Cybersecurity threats are something that affects nearly every single person at some point in their lifetime and Knoxville Community School District IT Director Barry Smith says it’s especially important for school-aged kids to be aware of these threats. Smith says there are also trends of scams that try to reach many people regardless of their age and if it looks suspicious, it probably is. 

“If it’s fishy, chances are it probably is. Call your banks or financial institutions and don’t respond to emails that are asking for personal information if you don’t know if it’s from a trustworthy source. That’s the biggest thing right now, we’re getting to the holiday season so don’t click on fictitious links that say you have a package from Amazon or FedEx. Don;t click on those links and provide your information because people are trying to get your information. That’s the biggest thing, don’t do some of the stuff that doesn’t look real.”

Smith says if you receive emails or texts from entities that look legitimate, to always look at the email address or phone number in which it’s coming from and you may realize that it looks off or like a scam. Hear more about Cybersecurity Awareness Month on an upcoming Let’s Talk Knoxville.