Internet Security
Knowing that going online is common in today’s world. We all live our lives online, from ordering groceries to applying for jobs and even working from home. This year alone, an estimated 466 million people have been the victims of cyberattacks. With these figures rising by the day, one might wonder, “Is my information secure?” or “Is my privacy at risk?” It’s time to take control of the situation. Rather than allowing others to collect all of your sensitive data before you can stop them, you must educate yourself on how to protect yourself online! So, here are some simple yet effective methods for maintaining your privacy while surfing the web. Each step will be accompanied by a relevant video tutorial to further explain the step.
1. Who Are You Talking To?
People may occasionally appear on your screen, claiming to have seen you online or to have obtained your phone number or email address. They want to be your friend – for free! Beware! These are scams designed by hackers to defraud others by obtaining personal information through social engineering. This is accomplished by cloning popular social media websites such as Instagram and Facebook. Users are duped into believing that it is their friend who has appeared on their screens asking for something in return by creating an identical profile to the original one. The only way out of this mess is to avoid adding random people on the internet. If someone you don’t know appears on your screen and asks you personal questions like your address, home phone number, or even your workplace, simply ignore it and report the profile for impersonation if necessary. That person is most likely attempting to steal from you!
2. Keep A Clean Slate
With hackers attempting to gain access to your accounts via various methods, including brute force, there’s no doubt why you should close unnecessary tabs while surfing the internet so they don’t have access unless you need them. When was the last time you logged out of Facebook, for example? Did all of those little game pop-ups really need access to our devices’ data? Most likely not! The more apps these games have access to, the easier it will be for hackers. Imagine your entire Facebook timeline, including all of your photos and videos, being replicated onto another page – that would be a nightmare, right? To avoid such nightmares, always log out of any unnecessary applications when not in use.
3. But Which One Should I Trust?
Through Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, there has been an increase in the number of people attempting to bring down popular websites where we spend the majority of our time online. These individuals are referred to as hackers, and they thrive on chaos and disorder, disrupting our daily lives. They can even bring down large corporations like Amazon if not handled carefully. So, how can you protect yourself? There are numerous methods for protecting your data while surfing the internet. Virtual Private Network (VPN), Tor browser, and Proxies are the most common. Of course, there are additional methods that will not be discussed in this article for security reasons. What matters is that you understand why these websites were created in the first place!
4. Look Before You Leap!
By far one of the simplest yet most effective steps we can take to improve our security is to look for a padlock symbol on a green background on every page where we enter sensitive information. This symbol indicates that all communications between your computer and the website server have been encrypted to prevent hackers from intercepting these communications. However, you should be aware that this icon does not guarantee that your information will always be 100% secure before encountering problems with these websites. Tumblr, for example, was hacked earlier this year, affecting over 65 million users.
5. Data Decryption
There are numerous methods for storing data in encrypted form in order to protect ourselves from hackers who may want our personal information. Truecrypt and GPG are two examples. If you have disc encryption software installed on your computer or smartphone, you could use this. The process isn’t difficult at all because instructions are provided during installation!
6. Use Antivirus & Internet Security
Antivirus software such as Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, and Kaspersky, among others, protect your computer from viruses, worms, trojans, and other malware that can steal all of your personal information in seconds of gaining access to it. For example, it’s common for hackers to send specially crafted links in e-mails that, when clicked, lead to instructions that download malware onto your computer.
Antivirus software can protect you from this by scanning each link before clicking on it! However, having an antivirus is no longer sufficient because there are more sophisticated forms of malware such as ransomware, which encrypts all of your data and demands money in exchange for the data to be unlocked and used again. It is best to purchase a good internet security package that includes anti-virus software as well as other useful tools such as spam filters, etc.
7. Avoid Public Wi-Fi
If you’re browsing the internet at Starbucks or McDonald’s, chances are no one will suspect you of anything illegal. We’re all aware that hackers can be found anywhere, including our favourite restaurants! So, what are your options? For secure browsing, activate your VPN. However, if the VPN significantly reduces your internet speed, it is best not to use it because some websites may not run smoothly or load properly.
8. Back Up Your Data:
We’ve all heard stories about people losing photos and videos during special occasions and never being able to replace them because the only copies were stored on their phone, which was stolen/lost/broken, etc. Imagine how terrible it must be to lose such precious memories, don’t you think? This is why we always recommend that everyone back up their data once a week or so!
