My husband and I have both been working from home since March 2020. Between making dinner every night and trying to keep my two kids busy (which is a full-time job on its own), and I’m physically and emotionally exhausted. But there’s something else that’s been making me feel anxious lately. Last week, my husband sent me an article about the FBI reporting a 300% rise in cyber-attacks, including phishing and malware, since the start of the pandemic.
Source: Gurad.io
As a writer for Fresh Edits, who is on the internet day in-day out, this statistic left me feeling uneasy. Knowing that my computer could be the target for an attack made me realize that I’m not invincible, and I need to protect myself.
To be honest, I never really put that much thought into protecting myself on the Internet at all. I hand out my email address to almost every company who asks for it and even receive my bank statements electronically. My social media accounts, medical files, and work portfolio are all linked to my Gmail account. Up until now, I thought of my computer as a safe place to keep my personal information. But the world is changing.