By Chetrice Mosley-Romero

If you have ever met me, you would quickly know that I LOVE “To Do” Lists. But when it comes to making out a “to do” list, if you’re like me, there’s always that ONE thing you forget about, right?

And just about the time you walk through the door at home, or you’ve left the office for the day, you suddenly remember what it is you forgot to do, and in that moment, it drives you just a little crazy. We’ve all been there. Of course, most of the time, it’s easy to head back to the grocery store for that gallon of milk or open your laptop to finish sending that email but how about protecting your personal information? That’s one item that you could say is and should be on our “to do” list every day.

This week is National Data Privacy Week and it’s fair to say that being concerned about our personal data is certainly something that’s on our minds these days. According to the Pew Research Center, 79 percent of U.S. adults report being concerned about the way their data is being used by companies. Add to that, another Pew Research Center study found that 93 percent of Americans considered it important to be able to control who could access their personal data.

The fact is, our ability to keep tabs on our data – everything from our social security number and date of birth down to the number of steps we’ve taken today, as recorded on our Apple watch or Fitbit device – is a balancing act. It’s all about what we need to do as a part of our everyday life while, at the same time, trying to take advantage of the convenience that today’s technology affords us. In other words,  being able to do everything in a click or two without getting hacked or being the victim of a phishing attack.

Fortunately, there are a lot of great (and FREE) resources to help you.

For starters, if you want to learn more about what is data privacy, the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) offers a great article that’ll help you understand more about it.

According to the NCA, there are also several key tips to keep in mind when it comes to protecting yourself, including:

• Knowing the tradeoff between privacy and convenience – Your data is tremendously valuable and it’s a good idea to make informed decisions when sharing it with a business or service.
• Adjusting (and managing) your privacy settings to fit your comfort level (err on the side of sharing less data, not more).
• Protecting your data – Turn on multi-factor authentication whenever it’s permitted and learn how to identify phishing messages.
• Creating complex passwords for each account or device and storing them securely in a password manager.

Here in the Hoosier State, we invite you to visit our Indiana Cyber Hub website for all kinds of cybersecurity resources, best practices, tips and even toolkits that you can download for FREE to help you stay safe whenever you’re online and protect your personal information.

If you’re a business owner, a non-profit organization or work in local government, there’s even a PII (Personal Identifying Information) guidebook (written by privacy experts) that you can use to help better protect yourself.

For more information, visit www.in.gov/cybersecurity.