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Introduction
Knowledge and vigilance are essential in cybersecurity. This self-assessment helps you evaluate your current security literacy and practices across key domains: user behavior, internet usage, device security, social networks, network security, and mobile protection.
You’ll critically evaluate your current security habits and identify improvement areas. This exercise is your first step in thinking like a cybersecurity professional - learning to identify vulnerabilities and take proactive measures.
Cybersecurity is a collective effort that begins with individual awareness. This two-hour assessment builds the foundation for your cybersecurity journey.
Cybersecurity Self-Assessment Spreadsheet
The Cybersecurity Self-Assessment Spreadsheet, which can be downloaded from here in English and from here in Portuguese, is designed to help you evaluate your current cybersecurity awareness and practices. You will assign a score from 1 to 5 for each category, with 1 indicating a low level of awareness or practice and 5 indicating a high level of awareness or practice. The spreadsheet will calculate a percentage score, representing your overall cybersecurity posture.
Categories
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Authentication: Assess your knowledge and practices related to secure authentication methods and password management.
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Browsing: Evaluate your safe internet browsing habits, including recognizing and avoiding potential online threats.
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Email: Rate your practices for secure email communication and email security measures.
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Messaging: Examine your awareness of secure messaging practices and encryption.
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Social Networks: Evaluate your awareness of privacy settings and safe practices on social media platforms.
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Networks: Assess your understanding of and measures taken to secure home or workplace networks.
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Computers: Rate your practices for securing personal and professional computers.
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Mobile Devices: Assess your knowledge and practices related to securing mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.
Scoring
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Score Scale: Assign a score from 1 to 5 for each category, with 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest.
- 1: Limited awareness/practices
- 2: Basic awareness/practices
- 3: Moderate awareness/practices
- 4: Good awareness/practices
- 5: Excellent awareness/practices
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Present Score: Enter your current score in the “Present” column for each category.
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Future Score: In the “Future” column, plan and enter the score you aim to achieve by implementing improvements you consider important.
Calculations
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Present Score: The spreadsheet will automatically calculate your overall score based on present pratices and knowledge. The bigger the area, the better.
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Planned Score: The planned score is based on the “future” column and will provide you with the expected results after you’ve changed and improved your security behaviors. The difference betweem both areas is your improvement delta.
Usage Instructions
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For each category, honestly assess your current cybersecurity practices and awareness, assigning a score in the “Present” column.
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In the “Future” column, plan the score you aim to achieve by implementing improvements in that category.
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The spreadsheet will calculate your overall percentage score and show the delta for each category, helping you understand where you can make the most significant cybersecurity improvements.
How to use your results
The results will provide you with guidance to improve your cybersecurity practices and awareness, but better yet it will highlight unknown unknows, and frame your mindset for this security class.
You can become your own security expert, carry out basic security assessments, and better yet, be aware of security issues, problems, pitfalls, mechanisms, safeguards, and many other aspects that will be crucial as you graduate into a professional in the Computer Science field.
References
This map is an adaptation of the resources maintained by Alicia Sykes at https://github.com/lissy93/personal-security-checklist. This includes a Personal Security Checklist which you should also check.
Author: Alfredo Matos