At the beginning of the year, most of us have New Year's resolutions related to the improve our personal and professional goals. Registration for a gym membership, quit, or get the professional license are certainly worthy resolutions.
But this year, you should also make resolutions to better protect yourself against fraudsters and criminals. Cyber criminals and hackers are developing more sophisticated methods to steal your personal information and data. If you do not take precautions or to implement the necessary security measures, you can easily have cleared your bank account or become a victim of identity theft!
Here are five tips to protect your personal data and information in 2014:
1) Install Antivirus / Antimalware on all your devices and keep them up to date
new viruses hackers and criminals are constantly developing and releasing and malware. If your machine is infected by malware, criminals can easily steal your usernames and passwords to your bank accounts and other sensitive information on your computer.
To prevent computer worms, viruses, Trojan horses, keyloggers, and other malware from infecting your computer, it is important that you keep your anti-virus anti-malware programs and updated with the latest definitions.
2) Protect your personal information on social media sites
Since business model set of Facebook is based on exploiting your personal information, it is best not to share your personal information on Facebook and other social media sites.
immediately delete information such as address, phone numbers, emails, your year of birth, and other sensitive information from your social media or forum profiles.
then go to the list of your friends and take the people you do not know personally or trust.
Finally, remember never to reveal or post any sensitive and private information wall postings, messages or stream.
3) follow these rules Security Password
After secure password best practices is one of the best ways to prevent hackers and criminals from stealing your information. poor password practices such as the use of the names of your pet or your school or words that can be found in the dictionary can be cracked in seconds! Follow the tips below to create a strong and secure password.
- Use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, symbols and numbers to create your password.
- Use at least 8 characters. Passwords with 12-14 characters is ideal.
- Do not use the same password for multiple accounts. In addition, you need to create extra strong password for your banking and financial accounts.
- store your passwords in a safe place. Do not store your passwords on your computer or email. You can use an encrypted USB drive to store your password or write the password of notes on note paper and keep them in your wallet.
4) secure the data on your mobile device
Mobile devices are as powerful as a computer. As our lives are increasingly dependent on our mobile devices, we also stock a lot of personal and sensitive information on our mobile devices. Thus, it is essential for you to obtain information and data on your mobile device.
- Use a password to lock / unlock your device
- Make sure your anti-malware software, applications and OS are up -. Every time you're online, you are exposed to malware and other online threats
- Avoid downloading applications from unknown sources - Some of the applications are malicious and can infect your device with malware. Do your research and make sure you download it from a trusted source.
5) shows for social engineering
Criminals know that human beings are emotional and naive. As such, one of the most common tactics criminals use to steal confidential information is social engineering.
Social engineering is the use of psychological tactics to manipulate people into revealing information and confidential or sensitive data via email, chat, social media, or phone. Most of the time, criminals are after the users' passwords or banking information.
To avoid becoming a victim, be wary when someone on the phone, someone you met on a dating site or social media sites, or e-mail asking you to reveal or confirm your personal or financial information. Also, avoid clicking on suspicious email links or pop-up banners.
6) Always use a VPN service when connecting to an unsecured public network
If you are away from home or work and need to connect to the Internet at hotspots public Wi-Fi, make sure to use a VPN service. Public networks are coffee shops, airports and hotels are inherently not secure.
Pirates almost could easily steal your username, passwords and other sensitive information.
A VPN service protects your privacy and secures your Internet communications. This means that all traffic entering and leaving your device is encrypted, protecting your data and information against hackers.
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