While going online can be a fun and enjoyable experience, you could find yourself in hot water if you don’t make sure you are using it securely. The world is rapidly becoming more digital and online, and the same can be said for cybercrime. Cybercriminals are creating new and more inventive ways that aim to have malicious intent for anyone they target. A cybersecurity lapse could be anything from losing online software to having your finances drained by hackers.
As you go online, you may find that the biggest threat can also come from nefarious third parties. Data is becoming more valuable than oil, according to reports. This goes hand in hand with the way cybercriminals and hackers are targeting data, which has seen a huge amount of data breaches worldwide – this has come in both individual attacks and also multinational corporation hacks where millions of individuals have had their personal information and data exposed.
Multiple ways are secret and lesser-known but can be crucial to protecting yourself online – here are the best of them:
Utilize and Update Security Tools
There are many online tools you can use to be a cornerstone of your security plan. These tools can be found in antivirus tools, a strong firewall, a VPN, and even a proxy residential that can make you untouchable online. A free antivirus can be the crucial tool that scans your PC and keeps it healthy from any malicious and dangerous files or data that could be embedded. Using a firewall acts as the censor or scanner that monitors what comes in and out of your network. It works to ensure that you are not getting any dangerous files coming in, that could be something like ransomware, malware, or the like.
A VPN and proxy can be the additional booster tools that give you a cloak of anonymity. A VPN hides your IP address but also encrypts your internet traffic and data, meaning no hacker, cybercriminal, or third party can snoop and spy on you online. A proxy server can be used on top of this to pose your IP as residential, which is effective when you work online or run a digital business.
Be Smart With Passwords
One of the biggest problems with most users online is poor password management. Whether it is using the same password for all important account logins, having a breadth of weak passwords that you use consistently, or even just leaving crumbs and clues to what your password might be through your social media or personal accounts. You can however take smart action immediately to protect your passwords and become safe fairly easily.
Using a password manager app can be a key move that allows you to get securely-generated passwords that you can store on an app. This way heightens the security and strength of your password strategy but also removes that moment of frustration when you can’t remember your password. A password manager will also generate a random assortment of letters, numbers, symbols, and capitals that are around 14 characters in length. This is the perfect way to get the best passwords with minimal work or frustration.
Get Two-Factor Authentication
Getting two-factor or multi-factor authentication can be the ultimate difference maker that enhances your security to the next level. The best thing that two-factor authentication can do is mitigate the need for passwords, as no matter what happens you will need to pass the authentication whenever you log in to anything. The way this works is usually through an online piece of software or tool, or you can even hook your phone or tablet up to this. Whenever you log in using a username and password, the two-factor authentication will request that it is you logging in before it can grant access. This is the perfect tool for when you might lose a password, get caught up in a data breach, or something of the kind.
Two-factor authentication is something that is becoming more adopted in all scales but it is not quite popular just yet. It is something that cripples a lot of cybercriminals and hackers who thrive on stealing passwords and logins. Without these, they are going to find it so much tougher to hack into people’s accounts.
The final piece of advice or ‘secret way’ to protect yourself online is to just use common sense.
There is a huge rise in phishing attacks, which are becoming hard to distinguish from the real thing. That email you think you might be getting from your boss could be an attempt to extort you for thousands of dollars. So double-check, triple-check, and even just avoid contact attempts that could even be deemed as unusual. You can never be too safe as you browse online, so you must take as many ways as possible to become more safe and secure on the internet.
