HARRISONBURG, Va., Oct. 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Washington Post reported on Oct. 13 that cyberattacks continue to be a concern for election security and Tech Crunch reported that social engineering attacks are on the rise, giving hackers access to data and services at well-known and well-resourced organizations such as Mailchimp and Uber.

The common target of such attacks are people, says James Madison University cybersecurity expert Ahmad Salman.

"The biggest threat is imposed by the human factor where people may fall victim to phishing scams and e-mail spoofing to trick them into revealing sensitive information such as passwords to e-mail accounts, social media accounts and even bank accounts," said Salman, a professor of information technology who researches cryptography for secure communications in lightweight devices and also explores the security and privacy concerns in IoT devices and intelligent transportation systems.

In observance of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Salman offers the following tips.

• Use strong passwords that have at least 12 characters and includes a combination of uppercase characters, lowercase characters, numbers and special characters. Or choose four random words representing a place, a name, an object, and an animal (e.g. BostonJacksonTruckCow), which might make the password easy to remember and still long enough to be secure.
• Never use the same password for different devices and sites.
• Always use/enable two-factor authentication on accounts requiring logins. This is perhaps the most important defense mechanism that can prevent financial loss and other damages.
• Install the latest operating system updates and security patches released by developers and device manufacturers.
• Never click on web links or open attachments received in e-mails or text messages from untrusted sources.
• Never share passwords with anyone and do not share sensitive data with anyone unless you are absolutely sure of their identity, and whether or not they need to know that information. Cyber criminals always try to add a sense of urgency when attempting to lure a victim, to prevent them from applying rational thinking. It is important to take your time before reacting to suspicious messages such as those containing unusual money requests from colleagues or supervisors

More information about James Madison University, including rankings and recognitions can be found at jmu.edu/about.

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SOURCE James Madison University