October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, but good cyber hygiene should be practiced year-round.

North Carolina’s electric cooperatives are working together and with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), the national trade association for electric cooperatives, to establish relationships, provide tools, share resources and training information to harden and improve the overall cyber landscape. 

You can help too. Good cyber hygiene is equally important at home and in our personal lives. Here are a few cybersecurity tips you can implement at home:

• Enable multi-factor or two-factor authentication for your online accounts. This extra layer of security allows websites and applications to confirm you’re really who you say you are. The additional authentication may come in many forms, including a confirmation text code on your phone, an email or even a separate authenticator app. By adding this second step, you’re making it a lot harder for hackers to access your accounts.
• Use secure passwords. This means using unique passwords for all your accounts and ensuring they are at least 15 characters long. Randomly generated passwords or passphrases are typically more secure. You might also consider using some type of password manager.
• Think before you click. Be careful when clicking links or opening attachments. This is one of the most important ways to protect yourself against scammers and hackers. If you receive a text message or email that seems too good to be true or threatens negative consequences for not taking immediate action or displays a sense of urgency, take extra precaution.

We all have a part to play in combatting cyber threats. Electric cooperatives and their local and national partners will continue working together to advance cybersecurity defenses for all co-op members and the local communities they serve.