Author: Alfredo Matos

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Introduction

In the realm of cybersecurity, knowledge and vigilance are strong allies. As we embark on our cybersecurity journey, our first step is to assess our security literacy and best practices.

This self-assessment is designed to empower you with the knowledge and practices necessary to bolster your cybersecurity posture. Safeguarding our online presence has never been more critical. This self-assessment will guide you through an exploration of essential cybersecurity best practices across various domains, including user behavior, internet usage, digital device security, social network safety, network security, and mobile device protection.

Our class is not just about understanding theoretical concepts of security, it’s about applying practical measures to safeguard your digital identity, personal information, and digital assets. You will be encouraged to critically evaluate your current habits, knowledge, and security practices and to identify areas where improvements are needed.

This is your first step in thinking like a cybersecurity professional. You’ll learn to identify vulnerabilities in your digital life and take proactive steps to address them. By the end of this exercise, you’ll have a clearer understanding of your strengths and areas for growth in your approach to networks, devices, personal information and many other topics.

Remember, cybersecurity is not solely the responsibility of experts

• it’s a collective effort that begins with individual awareness and action. By investing your time in this self-assessment, you are taking a crucial step toward becoming a more informed and responsible digital citizen.

Over the next two hours, you will explore cybersecurity from a personal perspective, gaining insights that will serve as a foundation for the exciting concepts that await you in this cybersecurity course. Your digital safety and the security of your online presence are at the forefront of this endeavor. Let’s get started.

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

1. Authentication: Assess your knowledge and practices related to secure authentication methods and password management.

2. Browsing: Evaluate your safe internet browsing habits, including recognizing and avoiding potential online threats.

3. Email: Rate your practices for secure email communication and email security measures.

4. Messaging: Examine your awareness of secure messaging practices and encryption.

5. Social Networks: Evaluate your awareness of privacy settings and safe practices on social media platforms.

6. Networks: Assess your understanding of and measures taken to secure home or workplace networks.

7. Computers: Rate your practices for securing personal and professional computers.

8. Mobile Devices: Assess your knowledge and practices related to securing mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.

Scoring

• 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

• Present Score: Enter your current score in the “Present” column for each category.

• Future Score: In the “Future” column, plan and enter the score you aim to achieve by implementing improvements.

Calculations

• Present Score: The spreadsheet will automatically calculate your overall score based on present pratices and knowledge. The bigger the area, the better.

• 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

1. For each category, honestly assess your current cybersecurity practices and awareness, assigning a score in the “Present” column.

2. In the “Future” column, plan the score you aim to achieve by implementing improvements in that category.

3. 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 excelent resources maintained by Alicia Sykes at https://github.com/lissy93/personal-security-checklist. This includes a Personal Security Checklist which you should also check.