PROTECT YOURSELF BY CLEANING YOUR DIGITAL CLUTTER!!

You might think you are doing everything right, using strong and unique passwords, looking for phishing emails and you set up two-factor authentication on every account that offers it. 

Basically, you think you are acing cyber security, but there is a new threat popping up all the time; so the easiest way to protect yourself is to clean up your digital junk...

All your old email accounts, forgotten thumb drivers and years worth of crap in your downloads folder. All this stuff is a liability, saving data that you want or think you will need someday is sort of the while point of the digital revolution, but holding on to accounts and files that you probably won't use again is sort of a risk. Your devices can be hacked or stolen and big companies can suffer data breaches that expose their information, so the less there is, the better off you are. 

Here are some tips on how to clean that clutter before it comes back to haunt you: 

Digital Dumping:

Address all your physical devices, destroy old CD's thumb drives, and external hard drives you do not need anymore. When considering old PC's, gaming consoles and smart home gadgets, be sure to back up everything you need from these devices before you wipe everything. 

Next, deal with your most current device you work with on a daily basis. Sort through your desktop and clean your documents folder. Eliminate all the old PDF's or credit card statements or any other digital trails you no longer need. This will go a longer way towards keeping you safer. 

You can also save sensitive documents on a cloud service or password-protected external hard-drive and take it off the devices you use every day that could be lost or stolen. 

Go Deeper:

Get into applications, Internet services and the cloud. The most important account to consider is your email account, which is the central data hub of your online life. Think about it, an email account would be a jackpot for hackers, because it contains information about a host of other people, like your family, friends and coworkers. 

Delete old emails you no longer need and export all the important emails you will need in the future to hard drive or to your cloud service account. 

Cancel Old Accounts:

Look for all the apps you no longer use and shut them down. Be sure to close your account and clean it out, so that the company who runs the app has the smallest amount of data possible about you. 

After your digital cleaning is done, try to remember these practices as you inevitably accumulate more digital crap! Think twice before downloading files, and be sure to wipe it off your device once you have used it. Delete all those old documents and control your digital footprint the easiest way!!