Digital resilience

Passphrases, passwords and a password manager

Choose long passphrases over short, complicated passwords, and don’t change them on a fixed schedule unless there’s been a breach.^•

• Never reuse a passphrase or password across accounts.
• Change a password right away if it’s old and weak, reused, or part of a breach.
• Use a password manager to create and remember a unique login for every site, locked behind one strong master passphrase.^•
• Keep recovery codes on paper somewhere safe, such as your lockbox. Your family plan notes where they are, never the codes themselves.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

MFA adds a second check when you sign in, so a stolen password alone can’t open your account.^•

• Turn it on first for your email, banking, cloud storage and password manager.
• Prefer an authenticator app or a hardware security key over text-message codes where you can.
• Save the backup codes when you set it up.

Updates, anti-virus and safe browsing

• Turn on automatic updates for your operating system, browser and apps, on phones^• and computers^•.^•
• Keep anti-virus protection on, built in or reputable, and updating itself.
• Install apps only from official stores or the publisher’s own site, and check the permissions they ask for.
• Never call a number in a pop-up that says your computer is infected.

Backups and encrypting your copies

Back up your files regularly, and encrypt sensitive data.^•

• Follow the 3-2-1 rule for what matters most: 3 copies, on 2 kinds of storage, with 1 away from home or in the cloud.
• Unplug backup drives once a backup finishes.
• Turn on device encryption: a passcode on phones and tablets, and BitLocker (Windows) or FileVault (Mac) on laptops.
• Encrypt the USB stick that holds your ID and document copies, especially anything with your SIN.^• Keep its passphrase in your password manager.

Phishing, crisis scams and charity fraud

Scammers use urgency, such as a fake bank alert, a delivery problem or a disaster appeal, to make you act before you think.^•

• Pause whenever a message pushes you to hurry, asks for a code, or demands gift cards, wire transfers or crypto.
• Go to the site or number yourself, from your bank card or a bookmark, instead of opening a link.
• Check a charity before you give sadaqah or zakat to an appeal you don’t know. Look it up on the Canada Revenue Agency list, or give through your masjid or a charity you already know.

Optional extras

• A Faraday pouch for keyless car fobs deters relay attacks, where thieves boost the fob’s signal from outside to unlock the car.^• Keep fobs in it, away from the front door.
• An RFID sleeve for contactless cards is a nice-to-have. Wireless card skimming is uncommon.^•

An offline knowledge kit

Set it up while your connection works, and your phone or laptop becomes a reference library that needs no signal.

• Maps: Organic Maps, with your province downloaded.
• Encyclopedia and medical reference: Kiwix, with offline Wikipedia and WikiMed.
• Translation: Google Translate, with offline language packs.
• Your documents: encrypted copies on a USB stick, never inside this app.
• An on-device AI model, if you like. Open-weight models run on your own phone or laptop with no internet. They can be confidently wrong,^• so never use one for medication doses, medical decisions or religious rulings. The workbook covers choosing an app and a model.

Test it now: turn on airplane mode for five minutes and open each one, to make sure none asks for a download before it works.