Test Your Personal CyberSecurity Savvy

Test your Personal CyberSecurity Savvy: a reader asked…

I think I’m pretty good at keeping my online accounts safe, I use good passwords, MFA wherever it’s available, and don’t respond to spam emails or any warnings where they give a phone number to call. Is there anything else I should do?

Actually, there are a lot of things to do and to avoid doing. I think one of the best ways for you (and everyone) to get a reality check on their personal cybersecurity savvyness is to take a test, and then go back and see what answers you got wrong. Here’s an excellent test:

https://nationalprivacytest.org

That test is actually a pretty decent tool that not only shows you how good you are at protecting your digital life, but gives you good comparisons to others taking the test. They do ask for some demographics information to help you compare yourself to others in your geographic location, age group, gender, etc. I feel comfortable providing that as it helps me better understand my unique situation. And, I trust Nord – they’ve proven themselves to protect my personal data with the best digital security practices in the industry.

The test is split into three sections with questions for each section. These are:

1. Daily digital habits
2. Privacy awareness
3. Risk tolerance

Like most self-assessment test-taking, you should answer quickly with whatever answer(s) look right to you. Don’t spend a lot of time on each question, quickly answer honestly and move on. That will make sure that your test results are most accurate in terms of how you normally operate in your digital life.

Once you’ve completed the test, there is a Profile section that asks you for your gender, the country you live in, your age (bracket), your education level, and your work industry. Once you’ve answered those questions you’ll see your score. I recommend you use the arrow buttons below each question to page through and read what it says, especially about any questions you got wrong.

Next, you can click the “View Report” button below the questions to compare your score with others in your demographic. The resulting page lets you choose whatever demographic or combination of demographics. I recommend you click through and do the comparison for each section of the test, and for each demographic you want. You might find that you’re right in the norm for your demographic.

That might suprise you, as many people think they’re more savvy than they are. Not a put-down, just a reality check. From a worldwide perspective, a country rankings by score section of the report shows that the most savvy countries overall are Namibia, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu, which all scored 70% or greater! By the way, the US scores at 63%.

One other thing to look at, NordVPN has a blog that I often turn to for information and advice, and it’s worth a read. Check it out at https://nordvpn.com/blog/. Here are some other cybersecurity websites I like, although most are a bit wonky:

• https://krebsonsecurity.com/
• https://thehackernews.com/
• https://threatpost.com/
• https://www.welivesecurity.com/en/
• https://www.darkreading.com/

I don’t expect most consumers will be looking at many of these as they are not as laser-focused as my website is on personal and consumer technology and safety in your digital life. Oh, and you may notice I’m no longer listing cisa.gov or any other US goverment sources. I have my reasons.

Lastly, don’t necessarily construe this article as me recommending NordVPN products in general. I do like their password manager and their VPN product, but I tend to discount anything any company puts out (on their own websites or in email) that simply serves as a sales pitch to buy their products. I try very hard to parse out the good information and ignore the product pitches. What struck me about the test above was that it is very good and consumer-oriented, well worth the time investment to help each of us become more self-aware of our personal cybersecurity awareness. These days, the threats to our digital life are increasing exponentially, and staying safe is not a one-and-done affair, but an interative process. Stay aware and learning about new cybersecurity threats and you’ll stay safer in your digital life.