Staying safe online is, finally, a topic that is coming up more nadm roe often amongst everyday people. The online security community has been thumping its chest for years to get more people aware of the cyber security tips to be covered here, and people are listening.
Read along and be one of those people who listens, and who enjoys all the benefits of…not being the victim of a hack or identity theft. They’re pretty good benefits.
9 Cyber security tips for safe online activity
1: Trust wisely
There are websites and businesses that have been around since the Internet first began. There are also those which started yesterday. The long running ones have a certain pool of trust built up around them. Not only that, but they’ve been through the ringer a few times and may have had to deal with hacks already.
Take the time to research any business you’re thinking of buying from online. Review sites (hey, that’s why we exist!) and a little social searching can go a long way to preventing fraud, and keeping your data secure.
2: You don’t have to share EVERYTHING
Preventing online data from being stolen by not sharing it is the best method. It’s a bit like saying ‘you won’t get pregnant if you don’t have sex,’ but a little indiscretion on your part can go a long way.
Having your email hacked, when it’s full of bank details can be a costly mistake. Posting where you are on social media can be worse. One push of ‘Forward’ can end careers and cause terrible data loss. Be sure that you have to send it online before you do.
3: Find out who is tracking you
There are dozens of companies that exist solely to track your online behaviour. They sell this information to advertisers who then use it to advertise to you. Google’s tracking is pretty extensive.
Finding out what new services are going to be tracking is crucial. They may display your contact information publicly. They may sell you out to third parties. They may use your email address list to send out mass emails to your friends. Find out before you signup.
If you want to be proactive, Ghostery is a free app which can help you discover ad tracking, and easily locate opt-out screens.
4: Shut down old accounts
Do you still have a MySpace account that you haven’t touched in a decade? It’s probably time to close it if you have any personally identifiable information on it. If you prefer to protect yourself against imitation accounts, just remove this personally identifiable information.
For accounts with paid services connected, this can be more difficult. Steam, iCloud, Amazon, they all want you to stay so they don’t make it easy to leave. Contact their technical support team to be sure that you’re shutting down properly.
5: Encrypt on public WiFi
Everyone feels safe using their own WiFi at home. Out in public, however, is an entirely different matter. The number of online threats from public WiFi is high. There are man in the middle attacks, password fraud, eavesdropping, session stealing, and on and on.
Encrypting your connection using one of the VPN services we recommend is the easiest way around this. A
6: Update, update, and update again
I know, it’s mega-annoying how programs only ever want to update right when you’re in the middle of something. Most of the time, those updates are all about a new security flaw that has been found in the software.
Be sure that the update is from the actual provider. If you receive a notification and it seems off, go to the website of the actual manufacture and check for updates. It’s free, it protects you, why not get it done?
7: Have a dynamic password strategy
You can’t have one super difficult, or super lame, password that you use everywhere. If that’s what you’re doing, you know that one of the most popular passwords is ‘password,’ right? And you know that there are free tools that let people hack easy passwords….right? Password recovery tools?
A way to get around this is to use a password storage tool. These will allow you to use many complex passwords, while only having to remember the one complex password you create for your password storage tool’s sign in.
8: Use two separate browsers
Using one browser for your general browsing, and another for secure transactions, can be a small way to increase your safety online. It may not make the biggest difference, but being on a browser that doesn’t allow secure information to be leaked because it’s not on there after a bad click can be as good as surfing in incognito mode all the time.
9: Security questions matter
If your password recovery question can be guessed, you failed. Some good old trial and error can give a hacker access to your account. If your security question can be found online, such as you mother’s maiden name thanks to Facebook, you can’t use it. Use security questions with answers that are easy for you to remember, but impossible to guess or find online.
Cyber security tips are common sense
With the exception of using encryption and discovering who is tracking you, most of the cyber security tips above are common sense. Staying vigilant and making sure you’re making the right decision is going to be more important than any software you install.
Feature image credit to Sergey Nivens / Shutterstock