Protect Yourself

You are a target and high-risk computer user if you:

  • Work or volunteer for a campaign

  • Work for a vendor that serves campaigns, such as a digital, data, or polling firm

  • Are or work for an elected official

  • Work for an advocacy organization, a PAC, or a nonprofit engaged in the election process

  • Are you a family member, friend, or associate of a candidate

Why are you at higher risk than other computer users? 

Your typical computer user is primarily at risk of cybercrime and attempts to steal money. Cybercrime is serious; however, high risk users additionally face threats from nation states and hacktivists, whose goals extend beyond financial gain. They may seek to interfere in our elections process, including campaigns, conduct espionage, and steal and release sensitive information to embarrass candidates or influence the public.

If you are a high risk user, you MUST add precautions and implement protections!

The good news is that both Google and Microsoft recognize the need to protect high risk users and have built in tools to help protect you that are FREE and easy to implement.

Learn how to secure yourself with Google tools for high-risk users

Protections for High-Risk Google Users

Set up a passkey on your Google account
(available on Workspace and personal Gmail accounts)

What and why: Passkeys are the strongest form of account authentication that you can use to protect your accounts. Passkeys are phishing resistant digital credentials that reside on your device and legitimizes account access.

 




Turn on Google Advanced Protection Program (APP)
(available on Workspace and personal Gmail accounts)

What and why: Advanced Protection Program is specifically designed to protect high risk users like you through safeguarding users across the Google platform from targeted online attacks

 

Note: for Workspace users, their Workspace administrator must have Google APP enabled within the admin settings. Instructions to do so can be found here: https://support.google.com/a/answer/9378687?hl=en&ref_topic=9376233&sjid=13028205987648785957-NC

Use the Chrome password manager
(available on Workspace and personal Gmail accounts)

What and why:  The password manager can create and store complex passwords as well as store passkeys for all your accounts. Your login credentials are securely stored in your Google Account,  available across all your devices, and easy to manage 

 

Perform a periodic Security Checkup
(available on Workspace and personal Gmail accounts)

What and why: Google Security Checkup is a tool that helps users protect their Google accounts by identifying security issues and providing recommendations for improvement, including checking password strength and devices attached to your account.

 

Perform a periodic Privacy Checkup
(available on Workspace and personal Gmail accounts)

What and why: Like the Security Check up,  Privacy Checkup lets you choose what types of data are saved to your Google Account, update what you share with friends or make public, review apps you are sharing data with, and adjust the types of ads you would like to be shown.

 


Remove personal information from Google search
(available on Workspace and personal Gmail accounts)

What and why: Periodically search for yourself and easily request removal of  personal information (phone number, email) and bad search result information

 


Turn on Dark web monitoring
(Available on personal Gmail accounts only)

What and why: Set up a profile to monitor the dark web so you can learn if your information has been compromised in a data breach and on the dark web. 

 

Use a security key
(available on Workspace and personal Gmail accounts)

What and why: A physical security key is a small hardware device used for authentication to verify a user's identity when accessing online accounts or systems. It is the strongest method of two factor authentication. Even with the use of passkey, security keys can play an important role in storing passkeys and aiding account recovery. Highly recommended for Admins!

 


Use federated logins
(available on Workspace and personal Gmail accounts)

What and why: A Federated login is using your Google account and credentials to “sign in with Google” on other accounts.  If you have strengthened your Google account with APP and a passkey, you can use that strong credential across the internet as you login. The authentication you use with your Google account may be better than provided by the service provider where you are opening an account.