Everyone is a hacker target. Never think that it will not happen to you. With everything including your life and finances online it becomes imperative to keep yourself safe and you need to do that by being vigilant and as well as by following the below mentioned tips:
- It is important to keep all the software updated. Your operating system needs to be updated and hence keep the Automatic Updates on in your system. When your browser asks you to update the browser plugins always make sure that you do it. Staying up to date will keep your device safe and hacking will be difficult.
- Cyber criminals keep inventing new methods to get to your financial and personal data. The most common is phishing scams where they try to trick you to believe that you need to provide such information and once they get it they will not only dupe you of your finances, they can even take away your identity. Commonly phishing is done through emails, though it can be done on smart phones too. Make sure to never divulge your banking information or information about your credit cards or your login ID’s, passwords etc.
- The problem nowadays is we need passwords for everything and managing them is a real pain. We opt for the easy solution of having the same password for many websites or reusing the passwords again and again. These are easy for hackers to hack and hence keep a strong password and the longer it is the better. Also never write down your password and never ever share your passwords with others. Also make it a point to change your password every few months.
- Never visit sites that are unknown and also do not download software from sources that you do not trust. These can have malware and they will work on your system in the background and all your data would be compromised. If you find any suspicious link do not download it or open it.
- A most common way for your system to get compromised is by leaving it open, if anybody can operate it then naturally everything can get compromised. Always lock your computer screen when you move away from your desk. Always lock your smart phone or tablet and this way only you will be able to use it.
- Anti-virus from many reputed companies are available in the market, get one and install it. These will ensure that your system is not compromised. Threat detection will be very easy. You can also install intrusion detection system so that any intrusion is not allowed.
- The most important step is to back up your data. Systems fail and having a back up will surely help. Also if there is a cyber-attack you can always use the back up.
