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In this episode, I’m interviewing David Henry. David is a finance industry technology consultant, a certified information systems security professional, was a full-time RVer for 8 years and is also the father of Kelsey Henry — our very good friend and podcast editor.
I wanted to have David on the podcast today to talk about how to protect your identity and business on the road, specifically in situations such as keeping your financials safe, handling personal information, and preventing hackers from getting into your website.
David will be hosting a meetup about cybersecurity at our RV Entrepreneur Summit, which is next week! If you haven’t already signed up for the live stream for the event, sign up here. We have a fantastic line up of speakers that you won’t want to miss!
In today’s episode, we talk about:
- Why RVing makes you more hirable as an employee
- How hackers get your information and what they do with it
- Cyber resiliency and how to protect your identity online
- Why you need to back up your information (and then back it up again!)
David’s tips to protect your identity:
Always turn off the “sharing” preferences on your Mac when you aren’t using them. If you leave it on, other users can access your files (and sometimes your entire computer). You can find these settings at System Preferences > Sharing.
If you are working in a public place like a coffee shop and you don’t need wifi, turn your wifi off. Public wifi is easily hacked. Never input any financial information through public wifi. Save your banking and shopping for later.
For maximum protection on your financials, use a separate device than your main computer. Have an iPad or other device exclusively for banking that you never use for browsing other websites on the internet. If you’re going to do any financials on your main device, use a separate browser, such as Chrome for browsing the internet and Safari for banking. Most viruses get stuck in the browser, so this will protect your identity in many situations.
If your “bank” calls you and asks you to provide some information for identity verification, never give them any personal information. Ask for their extension, so you can call back later. Then call the number on the back of your credit or debit card to find out more information. It’s very common for fraudsters to call and pretend to be your bank.
David’s tips to protect your business:
Use an SSL certificate on your website to encrypt your customer data (the “https” part in your browser). Never put your financial information into a site that does not have this.
Change the name of the admin account on your website, so your login is harder to guess.
Limit the number of password attempts on your website. Hackers can set up systems that try thousands of combinations until they break into your site.
Enable multi-factor authentication on your website (and banking!). This could include sending a code to your phone that you enter in your computer along with your password. It makes it that much harder for a hacker to get into your account.
Keep your website software and plugins up to date.
Back up your computer and your website in multiple places, using physical hard drives and cloud storage. You might even want to back up your current projects on a USB keychain and carry it around with you. Does this seem unnecessary? Ask yourself this question next time your computer crashes and you lose all of your hard work!
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Email David at [email protected]
- Connect with him on LinkedIn! (Be sure to include a note about the RVE Podcast. He doesn’t accept blind inquiries. Gotta keep that identity protected and all!)
Thanks for Listening!
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This is good advice. Often times I’m too nonchalant about this. Definitely need to give this episode a listen, as we are likely about to officially start traveling full time around mid-summer.