The Three Habits That Stop Most Attacks
Before the details, here is the short list. Three habits prevent the large majority of real-world compromises.
Security advice can feel infinite, but the high-impact actions are surprisingly few. If you do only three things, do these.
One: use a unique password for every account, stored in a password manager. Reused passwords are the most common cause of account takeover. A password manager makes every password unique and remembers them for you, which removes the weakness entirely.
Two: turn on two-factor authentication, especially for email and money. A second factor means a stolen password alone is not enough to get in. It blocks the vast majority of automated attacks on its own.
Three: learn to pause before you click or act. Most successful attacks rely on rushing you into a mistake. The habit of slowing down and verifying before you enter a password, open an attachment, or send money defeats the manipulation at the heart of phishing and scams.
Everything else in this course supports these three. If you adopt nothing else, adopt these, and you will be safer than most people online. The remaining lessons explain how to do each one well and how to handle the situations where they are tested.
Keep going
Subscribe for new lessons and a printable security checklist.