Whether it’s 2000 or 2021, everyone wants and also deserves to have a private life. No one bears another person meddling in their personal matters. The problem today is that our whole life is on the internet. Whether we talk about our personal life or professional, every person has a digital presence. From our personal pictures to online banking, everything is present digitally on the internet. Although it is a necessary evil to cope with this fast-paced world, yet the biggest compromise we have to make is our privacy.
There had always been data breaches and people faced online threats, but in 2021, it had escalated multiple times. Have you ever noticed that you have searched for some sports equipment once only but now you keep seeing ads for different sports goods? Have you ever wondered how this had happened? You browse through a website and companies keep a track of your activities to know your interest. This data is then used to show you highly relevant advertisements. Meaning your personal life and searching is no longer your personal. Every company out there knows exactly what your interests are and what you are looking for. It means you need to take care of your digital hygiene.
What is digital hygiene?
Digital hygiene is a broad term used for all the behaviors and practices involved in maintaining the system health of your devices like computer and mobile phones and improving online security. Just like physical hygiene or dental hygiene, it involves cleaning up your digital world.
When you are browsing the internet, your system is vulnerable to many online threats. You cannot and should not go online without taking necessary security measures.
Here we are going to discuss which cybersecurity strategies should be taken into account.
Strong Password
Yes, it still comes to the basic thing of having a strong password. They always have and will also remain a basic step of accessing our accounts so it is essential to have strong and secure passwords. What can we do?
- For adding an extra layer of protection, you must enable two-step authentication for all your emails and social media accounts.
- Avoid using common sense Wi-Fi names and try to make them less identifiable. You can also make them complex by adding special characters and numbers to them. It makes passwords hard to crack.
Use Encryption for communication
Your searches, your communication, your personal data, nothing is safe on the internet. When you are using the internet without any encryption, you are inviting cybercriminals to spy on you. In order to secure yourself and your information, you must use a VPN.
Alternatively, if you are communicating and doing transactions on a phone, it is safe to use applications that have encryption available. In this way, you can securely faxing personal information to your business partners or customers without any worries that you can be hacked or scammed. Having this another layer of security will help you stay away from fraudsters and people with bad intentions for your business
VPN is a short form of Virtual Private Network that provides a layer of protection by creating an encrypted tunnel between you and a remote server. Everything you do is routed via this tunnel and makes you secure from prying eyes. Your computer IP address, identity, and location are masked as your IP appears to be on the said server.
Be Aware of Phishing Scams
There are lots of attractive offers we receive daily on the internet but not every offer is worth checking. In fact, they can result in a bad infection of a phishing attack. You will receive emails regarding your bank accounts or there could be a great offer to avail with just one click. These are most probably phishing scams and they are tricking you to give access to your secure information. So never click on any suspicious link and always check the email address from where you are receiving it.
Use Safe browsers and HTTPS connections
Like everything else, there are so many attractive browsers available online but not all of them are secure. Use only the secure ones like Chrome, Firefox, etc., and make sure that you have installed the security browser extension.
Another thing that you need to make sure of is to always browse a website with HTTPS. This will make sure that the site is secure without any malware.
Keep Your Anti-Virus and Malware Regularly updated
You have installed a good anti-virus and anti-malware but it will be useless against new threats if you don’t regularly update it. These applications and software need to be regularly updated on your computer as companies are regularly updating them.
When we talk about cybersecurity, no step is unnecessary. You have every right to protect yourself from prying eyes so don’t forget to follow these steps.
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