As the internet continues to become more deeply integrated into our lives, the matter of personal security is more important than ever. Considering how prolific social media has become, how popular e-commerce is, and how online services have generally replaced a huge number of offline elements in our lives, there are many different dangers we face on a daily basis.
It’s easy to simply assume a hack, data breach, or other such digital disaster won’t happen to you, but these problems are becoming more prevalent at the individual level. In this article, you’ll learn about some of the key ways to protect yourself against them.
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On Creating a Good Password
It may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how many times this aspect of online security catches people out. It’s commonplace for most people to use the same basic password for virtually everything, meaning that if there’s a data leak or targeted attacked, it isn’t only one account that’s at risk.
Strong passwords are longer and use unpredictable patterns. They may be a little harder to remember, but you should make sure to create a password with multiple uppercase and lowercase letters, several numbers, and special characters.
Aim for at least 14 characters, and never use the same password for different websites. By following these simple steps, you can quite easily mitigate any password-associated risks.
The Benefits of a VPN
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) works by encrypting information between your device and the internet, disguising and masking your data against anyone who tries to steal or alter it in any way. Encryption is essentially the process of transforming your information in a way that only you can decode with a special key.
VPNs also offer benefits other than enhanced security. For example, you can gain unrestricted access to sites and platforms that may be blocked for geographical reasons: it’s possible to log into the Netflix library of a different region, which may have shows and films unavailable in your own country.
Using a VPN used to be much more complicated in the past, but today, VPN services exist whereby you pay a subscription fee for access to a streamlined, easy-to-use platform. With most VPN services like this, protection is as easy as clicking a button!
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Remembering to Backup Your Data
While not directly related to any specific attack or data breach, making sure all of your data is backed up is a crucial step in the process of staying protected online.
In the case that your data becomes compromised, it’s usually advisable to do a complete factory reset on your device and change all of your memorable information, and this is something you’ll want to do as quickly as possible. Given so, being able to reset your devices at a moment’s notice knowing everything is backed up is one less stress to deal with. It can also be that a direct hack on your devices causes your data to be deleted, making a backup doubly valuable.
Remember, though, don’t make your backup directly on devices that are linked to each other: if your devices share the same accounts, they may be synced, so back up any important data on a separate drive if you can (pen drives are a good option).
Avoid Using Public WiFi if Possible
Public WiFi may be convenient, but it’s never your best option for connecting to the internet when outdoors. There are a number of inherent security risks that make these networks much more susceptible to hackers, meaning that anyone who connects to them is at risk of having their private, personal information compromised.
If you do have to use a public WiFI access point, at least make sure you don’t do any sort of online shopping or Internet banking to lessen your chances of a breach.
It’s also important to have automatic WiFi connections turned off on your phone while you’re out and about – you don’t want your phone or other devices connecting to these hubs without your knowledge!
Wrapping Up
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of the many ways you can protect yourself online. There are, of course, other risky elements to the internet that haven’t been discussed in this article, but these main points are enough to cover the majority of issues you’re most likely to encounter.
It’s important to note that you should never be fearful of using the internet for whatever purpose, but a little knowledge about the risks and how to mitigate them can go a long way.