Audit your accounts
Before this course: Cybersecurity Basics: Protect Yourself and Your Business (course 7.8). You already know passphrases, MFA and backups. Now imagine a house with many doors. Today you walk around the house, find which doors have weak locks, and fix the most important ones first.
- Before this course: Cybersecurity Basics (course 7.8). This course assumes you finished it and goes deeper into doing the work.
- An account audit is a list of your accounts, with a note on how each one is protected. You fix the highest-risk accounts first.
- Highest risk first: email (it can reset other accounts), banking and payments, phone carrier, cloud storage, then social media and shopping.
- The Cyber Centre says passphrases should be at least 4 words and 15 characters. If you use a password with MFA, it should be at least 12 characters.
- Every account should have its own passphrase or password. Reuse lets one breach open many doors.
- A password manager helps you keep many unique passwords. Protect the manager itself with a strong master passphrase and MFA.
- Delete accounts you no longer use. An old account is a door nobody is watching.
- Open a blank page or spreadsheet with four columns: Account, Unique password?, MFA on?, Recovery info up to date?
- List your accounts, starting with email, bank, phone carrier and cloud storage. Use your password manager's list to find the rest.
- For each account, fill in the columns with Yes, No or Not sure. Do not write any passwords in the sheet.
- Mark every "No" or "Not sure" for email, bank and phone carrier as priority 1.
- Fix priority 1 first: change to a unique passphrase, turn on MFA, and check the recovery email and phone number are yours and current (menus differ by site).
- Turn on MFA for your password manager too.
- For accounts you no longer use, find the delete or close account option in settings and close them.
- Check: your priority 1 accounts all show Yes in every column.
Read the video script
[Host] "You can't protect accounts you forgot you had. So start with a list."
[Screen: a simple table with Account, Unique password, MFA, Recovery] "Four columns. Account. Unique password. MFA on. Recovery info current."
[Text on screen: Email, Bank, Phone carrier first] "Fix email, bank and phone carrier first. Those are the master keys."
[Host] "Never write passwords in the list. And close accounts you no longer use."
Build your account audit with at least 10 accounts. Fix your three most important accounts today and write the date you did it.
ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude
Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.
For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.
I'm learning "Security in Practice: accounts, devices and backups" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "Audit your accounts". What the lesson teaches: - Before this course: Cybersecurity Basics (course 7.8). This course assumes you finished it and goes deeper into doing the work. - An account audit is a list of your accounts, with a note on how each one is protected. You fix the highest-risk accounts first. - Highest risk first: email (it can reset other accounts), banking and payments, phone carrier, cloud storage, then social media and shopping. - The Cyber Centre says passphrases should be at least 4 words and 15 characters. If you use a password with MFA, it should be at least 12 characters. - Every account should have its own passphrase or password. Reuse lets one breach open many doors. - A password manager helps you keep many unique passwords. Protect the manager itself with a strong master passphrase and MFA. - Delete accounts you no longer use. An old account is a door nobody is watching. The exercise I'm working on: Build your account audit with at least 10 accounts. Fix your three most important accounts today and write the date you did it. I'm stuck. Please: 1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example. 2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step. 3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.
I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "Audit your accounts" from the course "Security in Practice: accounts, devices and backups". Here's what the lesson says: Before this course: Cybersecurity Basics: Protect Yourself and Your Business (course 7.8). You already know passphrases, MFA and backups. Now imagine a house with many doors. Today you walk around the house, find which doors have weak locks, and fix the most important ones first. The activity: Build your account audit with at least 10 accounts. Fix your three most important accounts today and write the date you did it. Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words. Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.
Sources
- Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, best practices for passphrases and passwords (ITSAP.30.032): cyber.gc.ca/en/guidance/best-practices-passphrases-and-passwords-itsap
- Get Cyber Safe, passphrases, passwords and PINs: www.getcybersafe.gc.ca/en/secure-your-accounts/passphrases-passwords-a
- Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, secure your accounts and devices with MFA (ITSAP.30.030): www.cyber.gc.ca/en/guidance/secure-your-accounts-and-devices-multi-fac
Stronger MFA and passkeys
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Harden your phone, tablet and computer
This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.
Secure your home router and smart devices
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Public Wi-Fi, travel and VPNs
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Backups you have tested
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If ransomware or a takeover happens: your recovery plan
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Final project
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Quiz
What do you do first in an account audit?
List your accounts and fix email, bank and phone carrier first.
Which MFA methods does the Cyber Centre call stronger?
Phishing-resistant, FIDO-based methods, such as passkeys and security keys.
Why are SMS codes considered weaker?
They can be intercepted using fake texts or fake websites.
What is MFA fatigue?
Repeated approval prompts sent until the user taps Approve.
What should you do with app permissions?
Review them so they match what the app does.
Which two passwords on a home router should you change?
The Wi-Fi password and the router admin password.
Which Wi-Fi encryption types does the Cyber Centre list for routers?
WPA2 or the newer WPA3.
Name one thing a VPN does not protect against.
Clicking a malicious link or downloading malicious content.
What does the 3-2-1 approach mean?
3 copies, 2 types of media, 1 offsite.
After ransomware, should you power the device down?
No. Disconnect it from the network but do not power it down.
What should you do before considering a ransom payment?
Contact the police.
Final exam
This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.
Certificate
This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.