Pocatello promoting cybersecurity

The city of Pocatello is teaming up with the Department of Homeland Security on the issue of cybersecurity. They’re promoting public education through a program called “Stop.Think.Connect.”

The idea is awareness, becoming more educated about online safety so you can go online without having your identity stolen – or worse.

“People can be really careless when they’re on the Internet clicking on links,” said J. Chris Sorensen, chief information officer for the city’s information technology department.

One basic is passwords. Sorensen said we can visit 40 or 50 sites that require a password, and they should all be different. But you can have a base password.

“And then you use a special extension for each one of those,” Sorensen said. “Maybe the company name or initials or something. That way if someone hacks your password, they don’t get access to all your different accounts.”

The city of Pocatello is just one of more than 150 government, academic and nonprofit organizations trying to empower the public with knowledge of how to protect yourself against any kind of cyber attack.

“Anything from cyberbullying to someone stealing your identity on the Internet,” Sorensen said.

Sorensen related a personal story of a friend who posted often on social media, and found out that was affecting his job applications.

“There’s a recent survey that says 70 percent of recruiters said if they found questionable content on an individual on the Internet, they wouldn’t hire that individual,” he said.

The IT department has its own Facebook page now as part of the campaign, where it is posting daily tips on various cyber topics. Click here to find their page: on.fb.me/1zQ6g0b

Part of the campaign is also to recognize scam phone calls, backing up files, and even cyber ethics.