Five essentials to safeguarding your family’s devices

Cybersecurity may not be the most common topic around the dinner table, but it deserves to be.

Bad actors are targeting internet users across the board with a variety of tactics to gain access to the information you and your family members share online, store on devices, and may unwittingly provide to these criminals.

The numbers make the case: One in two American internet users had their accounts breached in 2021, while the FBI documented more than 800,000 annual complaints in its 2024 Internet Crime report. Of that group, nearly 18,000 cybercrimes were reported with victims under the age of 20.

Protecting your family against these dangers is more important than ever. Here are five essential ways to safeguard the connected devices you and your family use every day.

1. Keep your phone’s software and apps updated
Gaining immediate access to new features and improvements to the user experience is a big motivator for keeping your operating system and apps up to date. But there are more important reasons, too. Here are the big ones.

• Security patches: These updates often fix vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit. Outdated software can leave your device open to malware, spyware, ransomware, or unauthorized access.
• Bug fixes: App and system updates resolve bugs that may cause crashes, freezes, or battery drain. Developers track performance issues and use updates to improve the overall user experience.
• Compatibility: Staying updated ensures your apps continue to work with your device’s operating system and other devices or services you use (e.g., smartwatches and payment systems).
• Privacy improvements: This may include changes to how data is collected and shared to meet evolving privacy regulations, giving you more control over your personal information.

2. Use strong and unique passwords or passcodes
The days of using ABC123 or all-timers like “qwerty” and even “password” as passwords for your devices or app logins are long gone. In fact, most systems won’t even let you use them anymore. Instead, picking a difficult-to-guess combination of letters, numbers and symbols is your best bet for password security. Here’s why your password matters.

• Protect information: Each family member likely has accounts tied to banking, healthcare, email, and school systems. Weak or reused passwords can lead to account takeovers and exposure of sensitive info like Social Security numbers or insurance records.
• Prevent “domino effect” breaches: Using the same password across accounts means if one gets compromised, attackers can access others. Unique passwords isolate each account, minimizing risk.
• Protect shared devices and streaming services: Strong passcodes on family devices (phones, tablets, smart TVs) prevent unauthorized access to content, inappropriate purchases, or app tampering.
• Safeguard children’s digital safety: Children are increasingly targeted in cyberattacks through games, social apps, or fake links. Using secure credentials and enabling parental controls can limit these threats.
• Keep communications private: Messaging apps, email, calendars, and cloud storage are often shared or interlinked. Strong passwords help ensure private conversations and photos stay private.

3. Enable multi-factor authentication wherever possible
Speaking of passwords … they’re not enough to protect you these days. Multi-Factor Authentication, or MFA, is a login verification method that requires you to prove beyond your password that you should be granted access to a system. MFA protocols typically use two or more forms of authentication, such as something you know, such as a password or answer to a secret question; something you have, such as your phone or an authenticator app; and something you are, such as a fingerprint or other biometric.

Enabling MFA for all of your family members will:

• Secure against theft of passwords and credentials: Fraud is a constant issue, and identity theft makes up nearly a quarter of all fraud reports. Still, many people stick to a handful of passwords they use over and over again across the internet. When one site is breached and its users’ credentials leaked, bots spray sites across the web looking for matches. But MFA provides a second level of protection to thwart those attempts.
• Protection from what you can’t see: Despite all the protections we can implement at home, public WiFi at a neighborhood coffee shop typically offers nowhere near the robust protections of your home network. All it takes is one compromised WiFi router to provide a gateway for hackers to install password-harvesting malware. And without MFA, the game is on.

4. Be cautious about downloads and links
Always be cautious about downloads and links, especially those embedded or attached to emails and on unfamiliar websites, because they are one of the most common ways cybercriminals gain access to your devices and personal data. Here are ways it often happens:

• Malware delivery: Clicking on a suspicious link or downloading a file from an untrusted source can install malware such as viruses that can damage files, ransomware that locks you out of your system, and spyware that secretly monitors your activity.
• Phishing scams: Hackers often disguise emails to look like they’re from trusted organizations (banks, retailers, even friends). The links may lead to fake login pages designed to steal your username and password.
• Data theft: Some links initiate background scripts that can capture sensitive data — like your saved passwords, browser history, or even keystrokes — without you realizing it.
• Software vulnerabilities: Malicious downloads can take advantage of outdated software on your device to bypass security protections and install harmful code silently.

5. Use a VPN on public WiFi
Public WiFi — the kind found in airports, coffee shops and hotels — is convenient but often unsecure. But a Virtual Private Network (VPN) can help protect your privacy and security when you're connected to these networks. Here’s why.

• Data encryption: A VPN creates a secure pathway between your device and the internet, so even if someone intercepts your traffic, encryption makes it unreadable.
• Protecting sensitive info: Without a VPN, things like login credentials, credit card numbers, and emails may be transmitted in plain text — an easy target for cybercriminals.
• Shielding your IP Address: A VPN hides your real IP address and location, which adds a layer of privacy and can prevent tracking or targeting based on your geographic data.
• Defense against fake hotspots: Attackers sometimes set up rogue WiFi networks (e.g., “Free Coffee Shop WiFi”) that mimic legitimate ones. A VPN can help protect your data even if you connect to one unknowingly.

Safeguard with the C Spire Connect & Protect Plan
Connect & Protect from C Spire features devices kids want with parental controls you need at every stage, including a standalone watch plan, kids phone plans with no data, and kids phone plans with unlimited data and built-in protections — as well as home WiFi with built-in parental controls that can protect kids on every device in your home.

And to get you started, all Connect & Protect plans come with free guided setup for parental controls, content filtering, access to our online parent resources hub, and GPS location tracking. Let us help you keep your kids protected online.

Safeguard your family now.