PLEXUS BLOG

2019-04-15 Spring Fever

April 15, 2019

Spring is in the air. The birds are chirping. The air is fresh. Homes and gardens all around are getting spruced up and made over to look extra good for Easter, Mother’s Day, and the kick off of summer. Furniture is being moved, windows washed, and maybe even dabs of paint here and there to round it all off.

But…what about your digital life? Have you ever considered giving your electronic home a deep clean? Think of it this way…a long time ago…we used 35mm film. So we were careful to take only the pics we wanted because we paid for each one. Hard drives used to be very small so you only kept the bare essentials on your computer. Now digital film, massive hard drive, cloud storage, etc. cause us as consumers to be a little sloppy with cleaning up after ourselves.

The further removed we are from our digital footprints, the less we think about them and ensure they are secured. Just like a dark, dirty corner attracting bugs, mold, and rot…old digital data attracts cyber criminals. Take a moment to review some thoughts the Plexus team members have gleaned from the Cyber Awareness community and listed here. Or check out the BBB and Department of Homeland Cybersecurity to see more exhaustive cleaning lists.

  • Remove old apps from your phone, tablet, and/or laptop/desktop computer
  • Unsubscribe from all those junk emails or old subscriptions you never use or look at which you just delete the message
  • Text STOP (or the appropriate message) to marketing text subscriptions
  • Get rid of extra or old personal email accounts (ensure the account is deleted…not just abandoned and stale)
  • Delete old emails, documents, files, etc. – check applicable legal rules for the documents/emails in question and if the government doesn’t require retention; purge it
  • Find secure ways to shred and purge old paper records (bills, receipts, contracts, etc.)
  • Shred old ID cards, membership cards, loyalty tags, and even business cards