Smarter Than A 80-Year-Old..? Wait, That's Not Right.

So because you came out of the womb basically with a phone in your hand, you assume you know all that there is to know about technology. You also assume that because your Mom is always asking you to help your Grandma post pictures of her dog on Facebook, that you know everything. (Maybe that is just my mom that asks me that though..?)

Despite being the first generation to use computers in elementary school, millennials are the most vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks, according to the 2016 Norton Cybersecurity Insights Report. The report, released the morning of November 23, shows that 44% of millennials have fallen victim to cyberattacks in the past year. 31% have shared passwords-- either to something harmless like Netflix or something as sensitive as a banking password.

FYI: Sharing passwords in risky online behavior, so I'm kind of confused... Shouldn't we know better?

"Millennials use more devices and are connected more, so their exposure is bigger," said Kevin Haley, director of security response at Symantec, to Buzzfeed. "They've taken that feeling of invisibility and they're out there all the time." In other words, because we are all on our smartphones, laptops, and tablets (maybe all at once or one at a time, you decide), it's become so ingrained in the way we live and work that we forget just how insecure the internet really is.

James Comey, the director of the FBI, has called the internet "the most dangerous parking lot imaginable," meaning that it is a minefield for malware, spyware, scams, infected websites, and identity theft.

Here are some ways you can minimize your risk online:

1.  Choose a secure password for each of your online accounts-- a secure password includes capital letters, numbers, and symbols. And don't share them. Ever.
2. Don't open emails from senders you don't recognize, and especially do not open attachments or links from accounts you don't know.
3. On social media, don't open links from sites you don't know-- malware sites can gain access to your accounts and post without your permission. 

While the Norton report does a good job of breaking down how these cyberattacks happen, it's good to keep in mind the definition of a millennial extends pretty far, meaning these cyberattacks can happen to 35- year-olds, and not necessarily people our age. Generation Z, the generation born between 1995 and 2010, uses the internet differently than the Millenial generation (ages 21 to 35). Regardless of whether Norton includes Generation Z in its definition of a millennial, we can all take steps to stay safe online. 

xoxo, Kaila