October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month

(KMAland) — KMAland residents are reminded of the ways to protect personal and financial information online.

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and the Iowa Department of Insurance and Financial Services reminds residents how to prevent cyber crimes, protect themselves and their financial information online, and the educational programs available. Heather Kriener is the financial literacy director with the Department of Insurance and Financial Services. Kriener says highlighting the risks and resources of cybersecurity continues to become more important as more information is moved online.

“It’s important all year round,” said Kriener. “This is really a time for us to remind people of how they can protect themselves, the resources that are available to find out more information, and trying to empower Iowans with the information that they need to make safe choices.”

Kriener says there are several ways to help ensure your financial and personal information is secure. One simple step, she says, is using different passwords for your various accounts.

“Sometimes it’s a lot easier to use the same password that’s easier for you to remember across all of the logins you have, so try to vary those especially if you have an email versus a bank account, where if one of them gets hacked then essentially the other one has been discovered as well,” she said. “What I recommend is to actually use a ‘pass-phrase’ and not something that would be easy to guess, but a combination of more random words that would be easy for you to remember.”

To read the rest of this article and listen to Heather’s interview, visit its original source at KMAland.