Cyber Safety: Modern Life Guide

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• Your phone now holds your money, identity and work, so its lock screen, updates and accounts deserve more care than any old computer ever did.
• Most modern attacks target people rather than machines, using urgency, fear or a tempting offer to make you act before you think.
• You never enter a PIN, scan a code or share a one-time password to receive money; anyone asking you to is running a scam.
• Check any surprising request through a second channel you already trust, such as the number on your card or a contact saved long ago.
• If something goes wrong, act within the hour: block the card, secure your email, switch on two-step verification and report it.

In deze bit

1. What changed when life moved into your phone

   Not long ago, cyber safety meant an antivirus program on the family computer. Today one small phone holds your bank, your payment app, your photos, your work chat, your identity documents and the codes that unlock all of them.

2. Six words that explain most attacks

   The jargon puts many people off, so start with six terms. Phishing is a fake message, usually an email, that tries to make you click a link or hand over details.

3. Payments, parcels and money-pressure scams

   Instant payments made daily life easier and scams faster. The most common tricks lean on money pressure: a refund you are owed, a parcel stuck for a tiny fee, an electricity connection about to be cut tonight, a job that pays well for liking videos.

4. Remote work, home wifi and shared screens

   Work followed us home, and so did the risks. Paolo, a freelance designer in Manila, works from his flat, a café and sometimes his cousin's laptop.

5. Urgency, fakes and too much information

   The modern feed never stops, and that suits scammers. When dozens of notifications arrive every hour, one more alert saying your account will be blocked at midnight blends right in.

6. What still holds, and the first hour after trouble

   Some rules have not changed in decades. Use a different password for every important account, which is realistic only with a password manager, an app that stores them behind one strong master password.