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School of Data & Tech

Security in Practice: accounts, devices and backups

Step 6 of 8 in Tech Lab

Next in your path: 7.10.2 IT Support in Practice: troubleshooting and ticketing

What you'll be able to do
  • Audit your own accounts and fix the weakest ones first.
  • Choose stronger sign-in methods (authenticator apps, passkeys, security keys) and plan for lost phones.
  • Harden phones, tablets and computers with updates, locks and app checks.
  • Secure a home router and a guest network.
  • Use public Wi-Fi carefully and know what a VPN does and does not do.
  • Build a backup you have tested, and know your first steps after ransomware.

This course is defence only: it teaches you to protect your own accounts, devices and network. It follows guidance from Get Cyber Safe and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (the Cyber Centre). It is education only, not legal or professional advice.

Words in this course 39Open the Vocabulary Hall
01

Audit your accounts

In simple words

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.

Key facts
  • 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.
Step by step
  1. Open a blank page or spreadsheet with four columns: Account, Unique password?, MFA on?, Recovery info up to date?
  2. List your accounts, starting with email, bank, phone carrier and cloud storage. Use your password manager's list to find the rest.
  3. For each account, fill in the columns with Yes, No or Not sure. Do not write any passwords in the sheet.
  4. Mark every "No" or "Not sure" for email, bank and phone carrier as priority 1.
  5. 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).
  6. Turn on MFA for your password manager too.
  7. For accounts you no longer use, find the delete or close account option in settings and close them.
  8. Check: your priority 1 accounts all show Yes in every column.
LESSON 01Audit your accounts
LESSON 01 / ANIMATED LESSON / AI VOICE00:00 / 01:00
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."
Try it now

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.
Open Claude
Sources
My notes
02

Stronger MFA and passkeys

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.

03

Harden your phone, tablet and computer

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.

04

Secure your home router and smart devices

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.

05

Public Wi-Fi, travel and VPNs

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.

06

Backups you have tested

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.

07

If ransomware or a takeover happens: your recovery plan

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.

++

Final project

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.

??

Quiz

  1. What do you do first in an account audit?

  2. Which MFA methods does the Cyber Centre call stronger?

  3. Why are SMS codes considered weaker?

  4. What is MFA fatigue?

  5. What should you do with app permissions?

  6. Which two passwords on a home router should you change?

  7. Which Wi-Fi encryption types does the Cyber Centre list for routers?

  8. Name one thing a VPN does not protect against.

  9. What does the 3-2-1 approach mean?

  10. After ransomware, should you power the device down?

  11. What should you do before considering a ransom payment?

EX

Final exam

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.

CE

Certificate

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.