Cybersecurity at LPL

Hello LPL, my name is Mike Terry, I work on the Information Security Team at LPL Financial and today I’m going to provide you with some helpful cybersecurity tips to remember.  As bad actors continue to evolve their tactics to increase the success of their cyber-attacks, we’re working hard to educate as many people as possible about cybersecurity to help identify these attacks and reduce their success.  Today I’m going to talk about being smart while traveling and protecting your devices.

So are you ready??  OK, let’s go!

Always value security over convenience.  You should never leave your belongings unattended in public places, and be aware of where your items are at all times.  Another tip is to avoid unsecure public Wi-Fi.  Unsecure public Wi-Fi are networks that won’t require a password or networks that have a password posted for anyone to use and join that network.  There are risks associated with using these networks.  If you must access unsecure Wi-Fi network, we recommend using a virtual private network (VPN) to allow for safe usage.

Also, as you travel, a good tip is to avoid public charging ports as there are risks associated with using these as well.  By carrying a portable charger with you it’s a great way to avoid using public charging ports all together.  You can simply plug your devices into the portable charger as you travel to keep the batteries on the devices fully charged.  The FBI also recently issued a warning about avoiding the public charging ports. 

The last tip for today is about securing mobile devices like cell phones and tablets.  It’s important to add passwords to these devices because if they are lost or stolen, the password adds a layer of protection to prevent unauthorized access to the apps and data on the devices.  Another thing to remember is to clean your devices of any old or unused apps.  It was recently reported that hackers have managed to compromise millions of android devices via malicious updates via apps.  Also, keep your software up to date.  Software repairs and changes are distributed in the form of software updates, also known as “patches.”  These patches are important because they repair known vulnerabilities that bad actors can exploit to compromise devices or commit fraud later down the line.

So we hope that you take this information we’ve given you today to implement in your personal life to stay a little safer and to reduce your risk.  I hope you have a great rest of the day and stay safe.