A friend of mine had his phone hacked and most of his contacts got emergency request for money. He ended up going into the service provider’s brick and mortar as online and phone wasn’t working for him.

Here are my minimum recommendations for my besties on how to manage your info to protect you and your family. If you are a trusted family/neighbor, I can do a walk through with you. Note: you can find more info on any of these suggestions from trusted internet sites.

Passwords: Use a password service, there are many good ones out there. It can be a pain to move to one but I use the ones on my two primary browser providers.

If you don’t have an auto gen’d password, have at least 15 characters with: upper, lower, number, and symbols. Use unique ones for bank and credit cards. No pet, birth, family names should be used in passwords. Change passwords at least once a year.

ISP: change the default password on your router. There are YouTube vids to walk you through the process.

Home: Make your house look harder to break into than your neighbors.

Use video cams like Ring, security signs, motion detector spot lights, barking dog, long 2″ screws in door hardware, and lock bars for windows. Always lock the door to house whether you are leaving or staying, make it a habit.

Use a lock box for door deliveries, they are relatively inexpensive at Cosco and easy to affix to your porch. Fence in the backyard.

Wallet: don’t store your SSAN card in wallet, memorize the number. If you have cash in wallet, don’t flash your cash (as we used to tell soldiers on payday). Put $1 bills on outside of cash. Have emergency contact info in wallet.

Phone: Always have at least a 6 digit access code. Slide emergency contact info inside case. Use family locate app on fone for you and all family members.

Email: If you get email asking for money, don’t reply. If it’s an apparent emergency, call them. 100% of the time it’s a fraudulent attempt to separate you from your cash. Use a white box inbox where only family and friends email go through. Review junk periodically, I do this daily.

Identity Insurance: I use LifeLock. There are others and a number of good online reviews for the companies providing them.

Isn’t life in the 21st Century fun? Sigh …