CyberPatriot’s cyber tips #1

The Scripps Ranch High School Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps has a branch dedicated to cyber security. This group participates in a national cyber security program with competitions called CyberPatriot. Here are the group’s cyber tips for October:

Don’t respond to messages or pop-ups telling you that you won something for free or that your device had a virus unless you are absolutely sure of the sender’s legitimacy.
Refrain from using common words or phrases (ie. banana, password, qwerty), or personal information (ie. relatives’ names, your birthday, or address). If you must, spice things up by replacing letters with numbers (ie. “pop” becomes “p0p”), adding extra numbers, converting some characters to upper case and adding special characters (ie. “p0p” becomes “p0p$!”).
Keep your software up to date! This is important because developers fix bugs and increase security.
Check that websites have HTTPS enabled! This adds another layer of security to the website, especially when you give information.
In the world of cybersecurity, always install an ad blocker on browsers, as pop-up ads are prevalent on most websites.
Run a routine computer scan weekly, using antivirus programs such as CCleaner, Malwarebytes or avast. It is better to be safe than sorry!

Senior Nathan Min, commander; sophomore Veer Chopra, sergeant of SRHS CyberPatriot; and sophomore Delbert Tran, CyberPatriot NCO are leading the branch at SRHS AFJROTC.