Library hosts free cybersecurity training |
Library hosts free cybersecurity training |
https://www.hccommunityjournal.com/article_068d5971-878d-46f7-a2a9-d04acbf19caf.html
Publish Date: 2026-07-11 01:00:00
Source Domain: www.hccommunityjournal.com
Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points.
Cybersecurity professional Tim McDearmon brought a free online safety workshop to Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library on Saturday, June 27, covering strong passwords, account security and how to increase protection when on the internet.McDearmon presented the “Safe and Secure Online” program, opening with an explanation of why older adults face an outsized threat from cybercriminals.”The sad thing about it is that one of the most targeted groups of people that the hackers go after are senior citizens,” McDearmon said. “That’s where the money is. Senior citizens have built up their savings, their credit, and they are used to sharing information about themselves to others.”
McDearmon explained that seniors tend to trust people more than younger generations and were never taught cybersecurity in school. He cited $1.1 billion in U.S. losses from scams in 2022, noting the figure grows each year.McDearmon said a personal moment at a local senior center helped spark the presentations.”I was down at the Dietert Center eating lunch in their cafe, and I just overheard some gentleman on the phone, and it sounded very much to me like he was getting scammed,” he said. “I regret not doing anything about it at the time. I’ve been scammed multiple times, and I work in cybersecurity, so they’re very tricky.”Much of the session focused on passwords. McDearmon compared them to the locks on a door and urged attendees to stop using simple, guessable combinations.”Don’t use your pet’s name, don’t use your kid’s name, your mother’s name or anything that the hacker could find on your social media account,” he said. “If they find that out, they could try that as a password.”He recommended a minimum of 12 characters and encouraged the use of password vaults such as Bitwarden, LastPass and Apple’s iCloud Keychain to help manage a variety of complex passwords for different sites. He demonstrated Bitwarden live during the presentation.
“The hackers are getting smarter and smarter, and the tools that they use are getting more and more powerful,” McDearmon said. “Password generators and password vaults are becoming more and more of a necessity.”He stressed that passwords stored in such applications are encrypted securely before being stored, meaning even the companies behind the software cannot decrypt them without a master password the user creates.The session also covered multi-factor authentication, which McDearmon described as adding a deadbolt to a door that already has a lock.”With multi-factor authentication, when I log in to my bank account online, I have to type in the username and password, and then it sends me a text with a code,” he said. “That’s what they mean by multi-factor authentication. Multiple layers of security to provide more than one form of verification.”He noted that while such features are currently optional on many platforms, they are becoming increasingly mandatory.The group also discussed the risks of public Wi-Fi, including the library’s own network. McDearmon cautioned that anyone on the same public network with the right tools can monitor traffic between a user’s device and the router.”If you’re on free Wi-Fi, I say don’t buy anything, don’t access your bank account, don’t put any personal information on there,” he said. “Just do some browsing.”He also warned of fake Wi-Fi hotspots set up by hackers inside public spaces using names nearly identical to legitimate networks, and advised attendees to use their phone’s cellular data instead when accessing anything sensitive in public.For more information about Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library’s programming, visit its website at kerrvilletx.gov/92/Library.
