One of the most important things when it comes to cybersecurity is making sure that you are comfortable with how secure you are. To be clear, I don’t want you to be “comfortable” to the point that you are not using 2FA or complicated passwords; in that regard, I would like you to be slightly uncomfortable. Your comfort level is more along the lines of whether you have taken a reasonable amount of measures to ensure that your system is as reasonably safe from phishers, hackers, and other sorts of infiltrators who would mess around with your system.
1) Have you backed up your files? – For me, this is a necessary thing that can be done every once and a while, and it is simple to do. I like backing up my files to a couple of separate hard drives. I like backing up my files specifically because I have had the occasion where I may have accidentally deleted my entire filing system. It was a good idea to be able to have a backup that I could fall back on.
2) Do you use different passwords for different accounts? – I spoke a while back about my Netflix account getting hacked and the fantastic customer service that I got. The only thing that stuck with me was the lady advising me to change my e-mail password and my Netflix password, incase both had been compromised. It’s essential to make sure that you use different passwords for everything simply because it makes it harder for whoever is trying to infiltrate your systems. Let’s assume for the second that you use the same password across everything you have (e-mail, streaming services and your bank as an example). If someone were to gain access to one, it would give them the ability not only to access the others, but it would also mean that they could steal your streaming service, route any money that goes into your account automatically into theirs. They would be able to send e-mails to your contacts then, giving them the possibility to do the same to anyone in your contact list. Having different passwords is tricky, but it is vital to ensure that your system stays safe
3)Are your passwords complex enough? – Every year there are always posts that I see about the top 10 most straightforward passwords to guess of (insert year here). They are all usually the same ones too. “Password,” “Incorrect,” “Pa55word” are usually among the favourites. These types of guessed passwords are deeply concerning only because of how frequently they are supposedly used. For my money, having longer passwords, with numbers, capital letters, and special characters, can make the difference between getting infiltrated and not. I appreciate that “Pa55word” has both a capital letter and numbers, but it’s still a bad password to use. Have you enabled double verification? – For those of you who have not heard of and tried 2 Factor Authentication (or 2FA), It’s a way to ensure that you (And only you) are the one logging into your system. When you enter your login into information, there is a verification code texted or e-mailed to you. You are not allowed into your system until you enter the code provided to you. This means that if someone can get your login into, they STILL won’t be able to get in because they likely will not have your phone or e-mail on-hand to receive the code.
4) Do you have a password keeper? – Something else that I’ve talked about before. Just because you have multiple different passwords doesn’t mean that you have to keep them all in your head. You definitely shouldn’t keep them on paper, or anywhere they can be easily found. The answer that I would recommend is getting a password keeper, which will keep your passwords safe and secure. The app that I like using is called “Password Keeper.” It’s an app that I have on my phone which requires it’s own password even to get in. If someone were to steal my phone and get into it, they would still need the secondary password. After five attempts, any information in the program is removed from the phone. I would highly advise getting a program like this so that you can keep all of your passwords secure.
Like everything else in life, how well your ability to protect your data depends on the work that you put into it. If you use the same easy password everywhere, if you don’t enable 2FA or anything else that will make your system more secure, it’s more than likely that you will get hacked. We spend more and more of our lives on the computer. To ensure that you keep your online experience as secure as possible, you must enable as many functions as possible to keep yourself protected.
What do you do to keep your system safe?
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