How Experts Protect Themselves Online (Compared to Everyone Else)
If you ask the average person what is the best way to protect themselves online, they will give some correct answers, but they will most likely be different from the answers you get from a security researcher. This is the difference.
Google, in a paper they are presenting at the Symposium on Useful Privacy and Security this weekend, asked two groups – experts and non-experts – what they are doing to stay safe online. While non-experts gave some good answers (for example, about using anti-virus software), experts gave certain points a much higher priority, as shown in the above figure.
The experts have prioritized upgrading your software and using two-factor authentication , two things that weren’t on the layman’s list. Most importantly, however, the experts pointed out that strong passwords are not enough : you also need to use different passwords for each of your accounts, which means that you will probably also need a password manager to keep them in order.
If you like the second column more than the first, then well done! Be sure to share this with non-specialists you know. The more we can make these columns look similar, the better it will be for all of us.
New Study: Comparing How Security Experts and Non-Experts Stay Safe Online | Google Online Safety Blog