Why Digital Devices And Online Accounts Need Spring Cleaning?

If springtime has brought with it the urge to thoroughly clean your living space, why not simultaneously purge your electronic devices and online accounts of the digital debris that fills them?

Performing the digital equivalent of spring cleaning at home isn’t just an opportunity to tidy up our online lives. According to cybersecurity experts, eliminating dust bunnies like dormant accounts and forgotten files can help protect personal data.

“Clutter is fuel for scammers. Outdated accounts, exposed data and forgotten apps give them more entryways,” said Michael Sherwood, vice president of product at cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes. “Cleaning up your digital life is one of the simplest ways to reduce your attack surface in a threat landscape that is increasingly smarter, faster and more automated.”

Here’s the digital spring cleaning checklist:

Free up storage space

Does your phone or laptop always seem to be running out of storage space? All the photos, videos and other large files we share or download add up over time.

Running out of internal storage can slow down devices or prevent them from downloading essential operating system updates. Personal gadgets often come with built-in tools that instruct users on how to free up space.

On iPhones, go to your settings menu, then General, then iPhone Storage; Here you’ll see how much storage you have left and which apps and files are taking up the most space. On Android devices, the Storage tab in settings offers a similar breakdown, with options to free up space manually or automatically.

The settings menus of Windows and Mac computers have similar dashboards and controls for detecting the largest storage space takers.

Archive important files by copying them to an external drive, cloud storage, or both, and then delete them from the device.

Organize your inbox

Your inbox is probably cluttered: notifications and reminders, receipts, newsletters, tickets, bank and credit card statements, and security alerts, much of it left unread. You may have a few personal messages that you want to keep along with spam to clean up.

Eliminating clutter can help increase productivity and focus, and there are tricks to make the process less tedious and time-consuming.

Sort or filter your inbox by size to show the largest messages (usually those containing oversized file attachments) at the top for deletion. Do the same by sender or date, so you can delete old and unnecessary emails or large bulk emails from multiple senders.

It might also be a good time to unsubscribe from any email lists or newsletters you’re no longer reading.

App control

Another way to free up space is to go through the apps on your phone and delete the ones you no longer use.

But don’t stop there. If any of these apps require you to sign up for an account, don’t forget to sign in and delete the account as well. Otherwise, any details you provide will remain on file and will be vulnerable to hackers.

“Every dormant account is an open door. Scammers are actively targeting abandoned logins because no one is watching,” Sherwood said.

Update apps and software

Make sure the apps you keep are the latest version by checking for app store updates. The same goes for the operating systems on your phone and computer. Check for the latest software updates and patches for best performance and security.

social media review

Cybersecurity experts recommend taking the time to audit your digital footprint to see how exposed you are on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and other social media platforms.

Sherwood said the goal is to “review what personal information is available and limit what apps and services can access it.”

You should check each account’s privacy settings and even consider deleting old posts.

“Limiting what personal information is publicly available helps reduce the risk of becoming a victim of cyberattacks such as phishing and identity theft,” said Chad Thunberg, chief information security officer at cybersecurity company Yubico.

Third parties

Has a website ever suggested you log in with your Facebook or Apple account? Has your smart thermostat or doorbell camera requested access to your Google account?

It’s worth checking which third-party apps and services can access your accounts. Removing unnecessary is another way to tighten your online privacy.

When I checked the “Third-party apps and services” tab of my Google account, I found only three, and I still need them.

My Facebook settings revealed 18 connected apps and services, but all but one had expired. I removed the remaining active link for a photobook service that I don’t remember using before but still had access to my name and profile photo.

Get a better key

Tighten security by reviewing your password practices.

If you haven’t already, make sure multi-factor authentication is turned on for your accounts.

Better yet, get a passkey. Thunberg said it’s a “modern login standard” that offers much better security than a traditional password. Toggle switches are two parts of a code that only make sense when put together; just like a digital key and padlock. A growing number of online services and platforms now support toggle switches, including Google, Amazon, Facebook and eBay.

Passkeys must be authenticated with your fingerprint, face scan or PIN, which means they “cannot be spoofed, compromised or copied by AI-based attacks,” Thunberg said.

If you’re not already using one, you’ll need a password manager to store your passwords. Apple, Google, and Samsung include their own password manager apps on phones, but third-party options from 1Password, BitWarden, Nordpass, and many others are also available.

Even if you haven’t started using password keys, you should still use a password manager to keep track of all your login information. Best practice is to use a different password for each account; so if hackers break into a service and steal your password, your password won’t work anywhere else. But it is not possible to memorize them all.

“A password manager not only creates strong, unique passwords for each account, but also ensures that users never have to remember them all,” Thunberg said.