Back to School Means Back to Cyber Safety

Back-to-school season comes with a long checklist.

School supplies? Check.

New shoes? Check.

Lunches planned? Check.

Schedules organized? Check.

But there may be one thing missing from your family's back-to-school list: a quick cybersecurity checkup.

As kids head back to school, families start relying even more on laptops, tablets, phones, school portals, email accounts, apps, and online learning tools. With more accounts and devices being used every day, it's a great time to make sure your family's digital life is protected too.

Start With Your Passwords

Between school portals, email, shopping accounts, streaming services, banking, and social media, the average family has a lot of passwords to keep track of.

Using the same password everywhere might be convenient, but it also means that if one account is compromised, others could be at risk.

This back-to-school season, take a few minutes to:

• Use different passwords for important accounts

• Make passwords long and difficult to guess

• Consider using a reputable password manager

• Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA) whenever it's available

Quick parent tip: Start with your email account. Because email is often used to reset passwords for other services, protecting it with a strong, unique password and MFA is especially important.

Give the Kids a Quick Scam Lesson

You don't need to give your kids an hour-long cybersecurity lecture.

Instead, teach them one simple rule:

Stop before you click.

Unexpected messages can appear to come from friends, schools, games, social media platforms, or familiar companies.

Teach kids to be cautious when a message asks them to click a link, download something, provide a password, or act urgently.

When they're unsure, encourage them to ask you before clicking.

That small habit can go a long way.

Update the Devices Going Back to School

That laptop or tablet sitting untouched for part of the summer may have updates waiting for it.

Before the school year begins, take a few minutes to update the devices your family relies on every day. 

Updates aren't just about getting new features. They frequently include important security fixes.

Think of it as another piece of back-to-school maintenance, right alongside replacing worn-out backpacks and finding out whether last year's sneakers still fit.

Back Up the Stuff You Can't Replace

Backups aren't only for businesses.

Family photos, important documents, school projects, financial records, and other personal files can disappear because of:

•  A Lost Device

• Hardware Failure

• Accidental Deletion

• Or A Cyber Incident

Make sure the information that matters most to your family is backed up somewhere other than the device itself.

Cloud storage can be one option, and an external drive can provide another copy of important files.

The important part is simple:

If your laptop disappeared tomorrow, would the things you care about disappear with it?

If the answer is yes, it's time to think about a backup.

Make Cyber Safety Part of the Family Routine

Back-to-school season is really about getting everyone back into good routines.

Cybersecurity must be one of them.

You don't need to turn your home into an IT department. A few small habits can make a meaningful difference:

• Keep devices updated

• Use strong, unique passwords

• Turn on MFA

• Think before clicking links

• Back up important files

• Talk to your kids about scams and suspicious messages

It doesn't have to be complicated.

So while you're checking backpacks, calendars, lunchboxes, and school supplies, take a few extra minutes for a family cyber checkup.

Because you've already got enough to deal with during back-to-school season.

Cyber trouble doesn't need to be one more thing on the list.