Be cybersecurity aware

News & Announcements / 4 minutes of reading /

WORKING TOGETHER IS WHAT WE DO BEST.

For Nation­al Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty Aware­ness Month this Octo­ber, we’re here to encour­age mem­bers, cham­pi­on your safe­ty and empow­er you to stay safe online.

Be cyber­se­cu­ri­ty aware this month and every month with the fol­low­ing tips:

Stay safe online when using AI. While AI might offer valu­able capa­bil­i­ties, always remem­ber to stay proac­tive and edu­cat­ed about the risks. Be sure to mind your inputs and refrain from shar­ing any­thing you want to keep pri­vate. Remem­ber, what you share pub­licly online may be copied, in whole or in part, by AI tools since they scrape data from the web.

Kids need to learn, too. Be pos­i­tive­ly engaged by pay­ing atten­tion to the online envi­ron­ments your chil­dren use. Surf the web with them. Appre­ci­ate your children’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in their online com­mu­ni­ties and show inter­est in their friends. Be sure to review your pri­va­cy set­tings to pro­vide appro­pri­ate pro­tec­tion for them online.

Update soft­ware prompt­ly. When we see an update alert, many of us tend to hit “Remind me lat­er.” Think twice before delay­ing a soft­ware update. Keep­ing soft­ware up to date is an easy way to stay safer online. Remem­ber to turn on auto­mat­ic updates and watch for noti­fi­ca­tions so that your soft­ware can pro­tect you, fix bugs, improve per­for­mance and pro­vide you with the lat­est fea­tures.

Keep a clean machine. Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty starts with pro­tect­ing all house­hold com­put­ers with a secu­ri­ty suite, mean­ing antivirus, anti-spy­ware and fire­wall soft­ware. Soft­ware com­pa­nies often send updates that deal with the lat­est cyber­se­cu­ri­ty threats, so set your soft­ware to update auto­mat­i­cal­ly to stay wor­ry-free.

Remem­ber to fol­low the “Core 4.” As gen­er­a­tive AI increas­es in pop­u­lar­i­ty, adopt­ing the “Core 4” cyber­se­cu­ri­ty behav­iors is impor­tant for all of us. Use strong, unique pass­words, turn on mul­ti­fac­tor authen­ti­ca­tion for all accounts, keep soft­ware updat­ed and watch for phish­ing.

Banner for Cybersecurity Awareness Month with a secure-themed logo featuring an eagle and a globe against a purple gradient background.

Fol­low these top tips to stay safe online!

Two people celebrate in front of a birthday cake with lit candles. Bright, festive atmosphere with blue and pink accents.USE STRONG PASSWORDS…

Make your pass­words:

Long: At least 16 char­ac­ters

Ran­dom: Use upper and low­er­case let­ters, num­bers and sym­bols

Unique: Use a dif­fer­ent pass­word for each account

…AND A PASSWORD MANAGER

Pass­word man­agers can:

  • Store all your pass­words
  • Tell you when you have weak or reused pass­words
  • Gen­er­ate strong pass­words for you
  • Auto­mat­i­cal­ly fill logins into sites and apps

A computer screen displays a security alert symbol with a locked padlock, representing cybersecurity measures and data protection in a digital context.TURN ON MULTIFACTOR AUTHENTICATION

It pro­vides extra secu­ri­ty by con­firm­ing your iden­ti­ty when log­ging into accounts, like enter­ing a code texted to a phone or gen­er­at­ed by an authen­ti­ca­tor app.

An icon of an envelope with an exclamation point inside a triangular warning sign, indicating a message alert or email notification.

RECOGNIZE AND REPORT PHISHING

Com­mon signs of a phish include:

  • Urgent/alarming lan­guage
  • Requests for per­son­al or finan­cial info
  • Poor writ­ing or mis­spellings
  • Incor­rect email address­es or links

Spot a phish? Report it to your orga­ni­za­tion or email provider, then delete it.

Illustration of a gear with a wrench intersecting it, symbolizing settings or tools. The design features red and blue gradient colors.UPDATE YOUR SOFTWARE

Soft­ware updates ensure your devices are pro­tect­ed against the lat­est threats. Turn on the auto­mat­ic updates in your device’s or app’s secu­ri­ty set­tings!

Beware of Scams & Fraud Following Disastrous Weather Events

Red and white sign with an exclamation mark, displaying the text "Attention Please" in bold letters, indicating a warning or important notice.

Util­i­ty scams and fraud­u­lent schemes often arise after severe weath­er events. Scam­mers use phone calls, texts, emails, fake web­sites, and even door-to-door vis­its to try to steal from you.

First, please be aware of any­one pre­tend­ing to be a mem­ber ser­vices rep­re­sen­ta­tive from York Elec­tric who asks for your cred­it card infor­ma­tion, bank­ing details, or Social Secu­ri­ty num­ber via call, text, or email. Our strict pol­i­cy is to NEVER ask for per­son­al infor­ma­tion or pay­ment meth­ods over the phone or through texts or emails.

Here are the oth­er red flags that should tip you off to the “storm chas­er” scam:

Offers for quick repair ser­vices. Always ask for an ID or a busi­ness license. Con­tact your insur­ance com­pa­ny first to see what your pol­i­cy cov­ers. Get offers in writ­ing, but nev­er pay any­thing or sign any­thing – espe­cial­ly regard­ing the rights to your insur­ance mon­ey – with­out doing your due dili­gence and research­ing the com­pa­ny (the Bet­ter Busi­ness Bureau is a great place to start.) Most impor­tant­ly, do not suc­cumb to the num­ber one tool every scam­mer uses, pres­sure tac­tics.

Solic­i­ta­tion of dona­tions in the names of well-known char­i­ties or “new” char­i­ties that are seem­ing­ly relat­ed specif­i­cal­ly to this dis­as­ter, as they are often fake. Inves­ti­gate the legit­i­ma­cy of any char­i­ty before hand­ing over a pen­ny, nev­er respond to unso­licit­ed requests via phone, text, or email, and nev­er click a link in an unso­licit­ed email mes­sage.

Scam­mers are imper­son­at­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives from insur­ance providers or gov­ern­ment agen­cies, like FEMA, offer­ing relief in exchange for pay­ment or request­ing per­son­al infor­ma­tion to ini­ti­ate the process.

Price-goug­ing for goods and ser­vices.

Offers of goods and ser­vices, requests for dona­tions, pleas from seem­ing­ly legit­i­mate com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions, and more that come to your atten­tion through social media should always be viewed sus­pi­cious­ly and vet­ted thor­ough­ly before even a “like,” much less any engage­ment.

Final­ly, when you do pay for legit­i­mate ser­vices or dona­tions, nev­er use cash, wire trans­fers, or mobile pay­ment apps and ser­vices. Cred­it cards or checks are the safest, most trace­able options.

We encour­age mem­bers to report sus­pect­ed scams to your coop­er­a­tive, local author­i­ties, and the Nation­al Cen­ter for Dis­as­ter Fraud at (866) 720‑5721 or online at www.justice.gov/DisasterComplaintForm.

Be vig­i­lant and also rest assured we’re watch­ing out for you.

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