Data Privacy Day is an international effort to empower individuals and encourage businesses to respect privacy, safeguard data and enable trust. This year’s events, sponsored by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), focus around the theme, A New Era in Privacy

The most important type of information to keep private is personally identifiable information (PII). According to the U.S. General Services Administration, PII is information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, either alone or when combined with other personal or identifying information that is linked or linkable to a specific individual.

How Can You Protect Your Personal Information?

Lock down your login: Fortify your online accounts by enabling the strongest authentication tools available, such as biometrics, security keys or a unique one-time code through an app on your mobile device (2FA). Your usernames and passwords are no longer enough to protect key accounts like email, banking and social media.

Make your password a sentence: A strong password is a sentence that is at least 12 characters long. Focus on positive sentences or phrases that you like to think about and are easy to remember (for example, “I love country music.”). On many sites, you can even use spaces!
Unique account, unique password: Having separate passwords for every account helps to thwart cybercriminals. At a minimum, separate your work and personal accounts and make sure that your critical accounts have the strongest passwords.
Write it down and keep it safe: Everyone can forget a password. Keep a list that’s stored in a safe, secure place away from your computer. Alternatively, use a service like a password manager to keep track of your passwords.

The NCSA Stay Safe Online website features many free resources to help you manage your privacy with online safety basics, responding to Identity Theft, Fraud and Cybercrime, information on how to secure your key online accounts and devices as well as tips for parents on raising Privacy-Savvy kids.

The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), part of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), encourages users and administrators to review NCSA’s tips on Managing Your Privacy and the following NCCIC tips:

In today’s world, everyone is digitally connected and must think about safety and security both online and offline. Visit the websites mentioned above and see what you can do to be safer online.