You might have grown up with a screen next to your bed and a keyboard at your fingertips, but many older members of your family gained tech literacy much later in their lives.
Acquiring new skills can be difficult for older adults, especially when those skills are so different from any of their other life experiences.
To keep in touch, many older adults strive to gain basic tech skills — but more likely than not, you are often called upon to help your older family members use their devices properly.
Unfortunately, older tech users are prime targets for cybercriminals, who know how to exploit their limited knowledge and skill to gain access to their devices and data. If you want to do your older family members an incredible service, you can set them up for success with the following cybersecurity solutions:
1 – Ensure they have adequate antivirus protection
Antivirus software is perhaps the most essential security tool for any user with any internet-connected device.
All computers, to include mobile devices like smartphones, benefit from the protection of antivirus tools, which actively scan the device for signs of malicious code and then quarantine the code to prevent damage to the device or data
Usually, antivirus solutions run in the background without consuming a significant amount of processing power, so a user might come to forget their presence — until they identify a threat and keep the user safe. You should do the work of choosing a computer antivirus app for your older family member and installing the app on their device.
You might let them know that they have a new security solution on their computer, so if they see the new software, they will not uninstall it. You can also provide them with ways to contact customer support for their antivirus tool, so if they need more advanced cybersecurity assistance, they won’t bother you.
2 – Arrange for them to take a Cyber Hygiene course
Just like regular hygiene helps keep an individual clean and less likely to fall victim to disease, cyber hygiene consists of the essential habits that work to lower a user’s risk of cyberattack.
Many young people innately understand and adopt the practices of cyber hygiene, like avoiding third-party download websites or maintaining strong, unique passwords. However, older adults with limited tech skills need more formal training in cyber hygiene — which is why you might sign your family member up for a cyber hygiene course.
Usually, courses on cyber hygiene are relatively quick and aimed toward users who lack tech expertise. These courses tend to consist of simple lectures with no testing or assignments. Still, if your older family member is uncertain about their ability to understand the information, you might take the course alongside them — and you might learn a thing or two as well.
3 – Help them sign up for ID theft protection
Seniors are more vulnerable to identity theft scans for a variety of reasons.
Older adults tend to be more trusting of strangers and more willing to divulge sensitive information, and because older adults tend to have larger savings and better credit, they are targeted by scammers looking for big scores. In addition to teaching your older family member how to recognize some of the more common elder scams, you might install ID theft protection on their devices.
This security tool identifies when a user’s sensitive information is leaked or distributed. Then, a user can take appropriate steps to protect their identity, like freezing their credit, closing associated accounts and notifying credit bureaus of potential ID theft.
4 – Make sure they have (and use) a webcam cover
It is easier than you might think for cybercriminals to hack into webcams. Wireless, wired and built-in webcams can provide criminals with unprecedented amounts of information about a user, to include what they look like, how they speak, where they live, what their home looks like and more.
Sometimes, cybercriminals will use their webcam access to terrorize users, perhaps by taking compromising photos to use as blackmail.
Other times, cybercriminals will silently gather data about their targets to steal their identity. In any case, this nefarious act can be thwarted with the use of a webcam cover, which obscures views through the camera until the user removes it.
It is easier than you might think for cybercriminals to hack into webcams. Wireless, wired and built-in webcams can provide criminals with unprecedented amounts of information about a user, to include what they look like, how they speak, where they live, what their home looks like and more.
Sometimes, cybercriminals will use their webcam access to terrorize users, perhaps by taking compromising photos to use as blackmail. Other times, cybercriminals will silently gather data about their targets to steal their identity. In any case, this nefarious act can be thwarted with the use of a webcam cover, which obscures views through the camera until the user removes it.
Bottom line
If you feel responsible for keeping your older family members safe online, you aren’t alone. Fortunately, there are more than a few tools you can utilize to improve the effectiveness of your family member’s online security, so you can relax and enjoy their digital company.