You need to make time!!

It’s that time of year – the time of year when everyone’s brains are scrambled and focusing on just one task takes every bit of willpower in your body. I have spent the past week racking my brain about what cybersecurity issues are relevant to this time of year that people would find interesting and, after hitting more than a page of notes, I realized that this is the time of the year when every cybersecurity issue is relevant. Everyone is shopping online for the holidays looking for the best deals, fighting to get in to any doctor they can to squeeze out those last bits of insurance benefits before they start over, and trying to wrap up tasks at work before the new year… Everyone is online and fighting time constraints, which means people are paying less attention to security and more attention to convenience. Part of me thought that would be a good rant for this month, taking on all those jerks online who prey on people’s mistakes, but while doom scrolling online I saw an article on The Hacker News (a top notch Cybersecurity News site!) about Automated Security tools and the famous fable, The Boy Who Cried Wolf. And, since my brain has already hit the point this year of being more scrambled than eggs in the trunk of a Dodge Challenger off-roading in Death Valley, this sent me down a two day long rabbit hole in to every fable written, Aesop’s life, and then Greek history itself in order to avoid thinking about my responsibilities, including this article. And then it hit me – that’s what people need this time of year. Not another article preaching about them about how they’re doing everything wrong with security, one that brings in a fairy tale to distract their minds for a bit so they don’t have to do any thinking.

And that brings me to one of the most famous fables of all time and one of the few I had heard about before my deep dive, The Tortoise and the Hare. You can find a copy online of every fable to read through the Library of Congress’s read.gov website, but for those of you who don’t have the attention span for that right now here’s a refresher – Hare makes fun of Tortoise, Tortoise challenges Hare to a race, Hare gets cocky and takes a nap, Tortoise wins. This story is frequently told to kids as a life lesson about how “slow and steady wins the race,” and while reading through this fable it hit me that that’s the exact issue surrounding the online world this time of year – patience and verification go out the window in favor of deadlines and taking the easy way. People turn into the Hare, letting their egos take over and becoming overconfident, rushing through things because they “don’t have time” and it would “never happen to them.” But that’s when disaster hits the hardest, when you’re unprepared and throw caution to the wind.

Take for example Phishing attacks, one of the most common and dangerous cybersecurity threats today. Phishing attacks can give cybercriminals some of your most sensitive information like passwords, login credentials, credit card numbers, etc., and though most people think of phishing as emails like the Nigerian Prince scam, they can come from legitimate appearing websites and phone calls. And the most dangerous part about phishing? They rely almost completely on human error. That seems to be the theme around this time of year, people being in a hurry and distracted, which leaves them more vulnerable to deception than they might have been earlier in the calendar year.

Now adding Phishing attacks into our fable, we see people turn into the overconfident Hare. They show rushing behaviors – speeding through emails, being overly trusting with online sales, failing to scrutinize links in emails – which makes them easy prey for cybercriminals who rely on a lack of vigilance from their victims. However, the Tortoise represents who everyone should strive to be when it comes to cybersecurity. They don’t rush, they use a cautious and steady approach to their online activities – verifying sources, checking for inconsistencies, approaching emails with skepticism and care – which helps ensure both short-term and long-term protection.

It’s so easy this time of year to see a sponsored ad pop up advertising a too good to be true sale or an email offering a rebate to help pay for your holiday shopping, and though it may seem like a waste of time now to not click on the link immediately and cross another name off your shopping list, it can sometimes mean the difference between a full or empty bank account. So while you’re reading a bedtime story to your kids or watching the latest movie remake, take a moment to think about the morals being included and how they can be fit in to your own life. A lot of these stories may seem far removed from Cybersecurity, but the lessons being taught are still strikingly relevant today. And remember to be cautious, patience, and diligent, as it’s the tortoises of the digital world who will ultimately come out ahead by avoiding online traps and keeping their personal information secure.