There’s not much you can do after being attacked by a cyber-criminal. Cyber breaches threaten your online identity and your sensitive data, and once it’s stolen or compromised, you won’t be able to stop the damage. The best way to prevent digital threats is to learn how you can protect your digital identity and increase digital security while using the internet and other forms of digital tools. If you are not familiar with any of the methods you can follow to protect your important data and avoid cyberattacks, we put together this simple guide that explains some of the ways you can enhance your cyber or digital security and protect your digital identity.
Getting your computer infected by a virus can lead to a number of serious problems. These problems include slowing down your computer, compromising your data and stealing your information, and even using your device as a host device to attack other targets or devices. Installing an antivirus program will protect your computer from all forms of ransomware and malicious software as long as you update it and renew its subscription every time it expires. Some operating systems will take over that part for you and update your antivirus automatically in the background without needing any interaction from you.
No matter how safe you try to stay on the internet and how many tools you are using to secure your digital existence, data is always prone to be lost or stolen. You might think that storing all your work data, emails, documents, pictures, and videos on your computer is safe but hardware devices break all the time and you can end up losing a bunch of significantly important files. To minimize this risk, backup all of your data, including your business data, on different storages or hardware, or even store them securely in the cloud to increase digital security.
Phishing and email scams will put you at great risk of having most of your financial accounts compromised. Cybersecurity gurus at All Things Secured say most cyberattacks striking our privacy start in our email inbox that can become a gateway for accessing our banking details, personal identities, and even social media accounts. Using more than one email address for different purposes and online activities will help you spot scamming attempts and know when an email is fake. For example, if you receive an email from your bank on your email address that you use for social media accounts, you will be able to tell if it’s a scam.
If you are using an account that lets you add a two-factor authentication system, you might want to go for it. Especially, if you have any important or sensitive information on that account. Two-factor authentication adds a second layer of protection to your valuable accounts and asks for extra security questions when accessing the data on the account. Most systems would ask a couple more questions in addition to the email address and password of the account. Two-factor authentication may add a few extra seconds to the process of getting into your accounts, but they are surely one of the most secure ways of protecting your important accounts and keeping your sensitive information safe.
Hackers and cyber-criminals can gain access to many of your digital accounts by identifying one of your passwords and usernames and using them in different combinations with other accounts and platforms. The best way to stop this is to use different unique passwords for each account and change the passwords every while to maintain the security of your digital information. Coming up with unique strong passwords and remembering all of them may not be an easy thing to do but thanks to many technological solutions, you can now use password organizers and password generators to cope with this problem. There are even password managers that handle remembering passwords for you every time you access our online platforms, the only password you need to remember while using a password manager is the main program password.
Nowadays, cybersecurity is very important even if it seems a little confusing to work with so many security tools on our mobile and computer devices. You have to stay on the look for new techniques and software that can help you increase your digital security and protect your online data. Don’t wait until it’s too late to retrieve stolen information, backing up your data, and staying prepared is the simplest way of preventing cyberattacks and having a safe digital experience.
