A Few Things to Fix Before the Holidays

October is the one month a year when we go looking for a good scare. Haunted houses, horror movies, the neighbor's over-the-top yard display... all in good fun.

The digital kind of scare is less fun, so we thought this would be a good time for a little cybersecurity housekeeping. Before the shopping, traveling, gifting, and general holiday chaos begins, here are three quick upgrades you can make now and mostly forget about later.

Stop Making Up Your Own Passwords

When one of your go-to passwords turns up in a data breach, it can end up unlocking far more than you intended. The simplest solution is to let your devices do the work. Choose Create Passkey whenever it is offered, or let iCloud Keychain, Google Password Manager, or another trusted password manager generate a unique password for you.

Passkeys are even easier. You log in with Face ID, Touch ID, or your device lock, with no password to remember or type.

Give Your iCloud Data Some Extra Protection

Your iCloud account may hold years of photos, notes, messages, and device backups. That is a lot of your life in one place. If you use Apple, turn on Advanced Data Protection, which extends end-to-end encryption to more of your iCloud data, including backups, photos, and notes.

You will need to set up an account recovery method carefully. After that, it is essentially a set-it-and-forget-it upgrade.

Stop Getting Important Security Codes by Text

Text message verification codes can be intercepted through a scam called SIM swapping, where someone takes over your phone number and receives codes meant for you. For the accounts you would least want to lose, especially your primary email, banking, and investment accounts, switch to an authenticator app when one is available.

Apple Passwords, Google Authenticator, 1Password, and similar tools generate the code directly on your device. Set it up once, and you are done.

Do It Now, Then Enjoy the Holidays

Three small changes and a few minutes of effort, and you can head into the busiest time of the year with a little more peace of mind. Because by December, remembering where you hid the presents should be enough of a security challenge.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you'd like any assistance, or have any questions about setting any of these up security measures.

_{DISCLAIMER: Past performance may not be indicative of future results. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and there can be no assurance that the future performance of any specific investment, investment strategy, or product made reference to directly or indirectly in this newsletter (article), will be profitable, equal any corresponding indicated historical performance level(s), or be suitable for your portfolio. Due to various factors, including changing market conditions, the content may no longer be reflective of current opinions or positions. Moreover, you should not assume that any discussion or information contained in this (article) serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from Elmwood Wealth Management. A copy of our current written disclosure statement discussing our advisory services and fees is available for review upon request.}