Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1510246
WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM October 25 - 31, 2023 UCW 17 Contributing Writers Wanted Join the Up & Coming team Use your creative talents to promote community events (people, concerts, theater, festivals, sports, etc.) Basic writing and interviewing skills needed Intern opportunities available for college students Contact editor@upandcomingweekly.com (910) 484-6200 FTCC promotes cyber security awareness, training by CHRISTOPHER THRASHER Everyone has online accounts they must pro- tect with some form of security. Whether it is an email, online payment, or social media account, everything today is protected with a password. e cyber threat landscape is vast, and many fall victim to these attacks more often than people may realize. According to the FBI, cyberattacks caused up to $10.2 billion in losses in 2022. Global cyber- attacks increased 38 % in 2022, according to Checkpoint Security, and 86% of organizations had at least one user try to connect to a phishing site. Living in a digital world can be dangerous, but people can help themselves and those they care for. Securing every device and account with a unique, strong password is recommended. Passwords should be at least 12 characters. Twelve-character, complex passwords can be challenging to remember, so using a password manager is worth considering. Individuals should not use dictionary words, birthdays, pet names, children's names or an- niversaries. ese can be a starting point for attackers looking to crack passwords. Passwords should be complex; this can be achieved by combining upper- and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols. Pair this with multi-factor authentication, or MFA, and set up MFA for every account that can do so. Individuals should think twice before clicking anything in an email or text message to avoid falling victim to a phishing attack. A phishing at- tack tricks a victim into providing sensitive infor- mation using a tactic called social engineering. Never trust a link, no matter who it's from or how tempting it may be. Check the sender's email address. Sometimes, a simple review of the sender's email address can tip people off to a phishing email. It is recommended to call the source directly or log in to the account in question by accessing it from the website to verify that the email was sent from that person or organization. Look for obvious warning signs. Was it unex- pected? Is it an entity the individual is associated with? Does it inspire a sense of urgency and ask the user to click a link? If so, it is probably a trap. e more people armed with the knowledge to defend against cyber threats, the harder it will be for bad actors to succeed in their mission. Many companies are hiring increasing num- bers of cybersecurity analysts to meet these threats. e entry-level salary for a Cybersecu- rity Analyst is $75,000 in the Raleigh-Durham area. Interested parties can contact Fayetteville Technical Community College today to see how they can begin their journey toward becoming a qualified cybersecurity professional. For more information about FTCC's cyber security programs of study, contact Rhiannon Holley, department chair of Systems Security and Analysis at FTCC's Cyber Defense Education Center. Holley can be reached via email at holleyr@ faytechcc.edu or by phone at 910-486-7309. EDUCATION CHRISTOPHER THRASHER, FTCC Social Science Instructor. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200 Precautions such as complex passwords and multi-factor au- thentication can help increase security of online accounts. (Photo courtesy of Pexels)