Take steps to protect yourself, your business, and your personal information online. Stay aware of common security threats and keep your accounts safer with strong passwords.
Stay Safer Online, On Your PC, and On Your Mobile
We'll Answer
- What are some common security risks of being online?
- Why is it important to protect myself online?
- How can i protect myself online?
Imagine Ananya is a professional baker. She's recently started building her presence online, which has been great for business.
Ananya's website and social media pages help customers find her business and book her services, and being online lets Ananya stay connected with clients, discover new ways to better baking, and more.
However, being so connected online also comes with some serious security risks.
What in particular is at risk for Ananya (and what should she take precautions to protect)?
Should Ananya take precautions to protect this?
- Her bank account number
- Her data
- Her reputation
- Her customer's data
Tell me in comment section
Ananya should protect all of these. If she doesn't, her personal information could be stolen, as could any information she's collected from clients, and her reputation could be hurt, too. Luckily, there are some simple steps she can take to be safer online, for her sake and her customer's sake.
The first step to staying safer online is using a strong password.
Too often, people peak weak passwords, Ananya might think her daughter kirti's birthday, the name of her pet zara, or her postal code would all be perfect passwords, but those could all be pretty easy for someone to guess.
When choosing a password, make it as hard to guess as possible. Aim for a long mix of uppercase and lowercase characters, numbers, and symbols. Be creative - think beyond a word, pharse, or sequence of numbers.
For example, say Ananya has 2 dogs, 1 horse, and 3 birds. A strong (and creative) password could be the first letter of every word in the phrase " I have 2 dogs, 1 horse, and 3 birds" (with some capital letters thrown in): iH2d1h&3B.
Once you have a strong password, make sure you protect it. Don't use the same password for all your accounts and logins, and don't share your passwords. even with coworkers.
Of course, having a lot of unique, complex passwords can make it hard to remember them all. A password manager like bitwarden can let you access them across multiple devices.
For an extra layer of security, some devices and accounts let you enable 2-step verification. This form of authentication is strong, as it requires something only you know (your password) and something only you receive (such as a multi-digit code sent to your phone via SMS).
Imagine Ananya gets her phone stolen. The quickest way for malicious people to access your data is to literally take your device and open it.
This is why it's important that Ananya has a screen lock on all her devices. Lock your phone, computer and other devices when you're not using them, whether it's with a password, PIN, pattern, or fingerprint, Then, don't leave them unattended
Accidents happen. If you do lose your devices, you many still be able to prevent data from being stolen. Google search "find my device" from another device to check the location of your stolen device, lock it, and even delete data remotely.
Say Ananya receives what looks like an urgent SMS from her bank asking her to click a link to confirm her account number. This is a classic "phishing" scam.
A Phishing scam is when someone tries to trick you into sharing personal information with them online. It's usually done by email or SMS, or through sites that look like ones you log into regularly.
Handing over personal info is extremely dangerous, as it gives others access to your money, your identity, and in Ananya's case other people's data. Luckily there are some common traits you can look out for to avoid phishing scams.
Common traits of phishing scams include:
- A generic greeting
"Hello Mr. or Mrs. insert first and last name here"
- Being too good to be true
"I want to send you money right now, I just need your account number"
- A link to click on
"Click here to update all your personal information and security questions"
Often a phishing scam will lead you to a site that looks remarkably similar to a site that you regularly visit, such as your Gmail login.
Most banks and other trustworthy institutions will not ask you to click a link. Instead, they'll say something like, "Please visit our site and log in to your account to take action."
To be safer, Ananya enters personal information only when she visits a site by herself, by search, or from her bookmark.
Phishing can also happen over the phone. Vishing (voice phishing) messages or calls appear to come from trusted sources and may instruct you to call a number and share personal information. To stay safe, always use trusted numbers, not the ones provided in the message.
Say Ananya's browsing online and gets an alert from her computer that says "your computer is infected. Click here to fix it." This time, she's not sure if it's scam.
Sometimes, a pop up ad on a website can look like a regular computer alert. It's meant to frighten you to take quick action without thinking. This can lead to getting your info stolen or being scammed into paying for things you don't need.
Pop-up blocker on Chrome can help stop these harmful ads. Additionally, you can periodically scan your device for infections (using trusted anti-virus software, of course)
Not all alerts are scams - those frequent alerts that ask you to update your devices' software and operating systems may seem annoying, but often these updates patch holes in security. Because of this, scammers tend to target people who have not updated their devices.
Imagine Ananya loves chill songs, so she downloads a music app on her phone from a trusted source like Google Play.
Before you install an app to any device, the app will request permission to access certain data (like your location) or capabilities (like your camera). You can allow or deny individual permission requests.
Google Play will also show you everything an app will be access, which can help you decide whether or not you want to install the app. Look over these permissions and make sure they make sense for that particular app.
Say the music app Ananya's about to download is asking to access her phone call logs. Why would an app for music need to know who she's calling? She might look for a different app.
Safety doesn't ' stop once you've downloaded an app. It's important to keep your apps updated, especially ones that hold personal or financial data.
App developers make updates to stay ahead of security concerns and fix little things that might be broken. By keeping apps up to date, you ensure you're using the most secure version.
If you're worried about app updates using your phones data and costing you money, you can set your device to only updates when connected to WI-FI.
Another common way someone might steal personal information or damage your computer is through malware such as viruses.
You can get malware from opening attachments or links from unknown emails or ones that have been "spoofed" to look like they're coming from a trusted source, or from clicking malicious online ads.
You can also get malware from downloading software, even if it's from a trusted source. A malware protection service Google Play Protect can help keep your devices safe.
Say Ananya's at a park and realizes she forget to invoice a client. The park has public Wi-Fi she can use to make and send an invoice on her phone, but should she?
Sometimes it seems easier to connect to a public or open network, but networks with passwords are safer. With a password, only those who are authorized can access the network, making it harder for someone to intercept personal data.
If you do use public Wi-Fi, avoid logging into personal accounts, making purchases, or sending sensitive information because it can be more easily intercepted
When creating your own Wi-Fi network, use a strong password, change that password periodically, and know who has access. If you wouldn't give someone a key to your house, you might think twice about giving them a key to your Wi-Fi.
If you are a business that likes to offer customers access to Wi-Fi, like a Cafe, consider having one Wi-Fi network for customers, and one for employees to use for payments, transactions and other important work.
Do This Now
Now that you know the risks of being online and the precautions you can take to stay more secure, Let's make a list of what you need to do.
Let's make a list
What steps might you take to stay more secure online?
- Make stronger passwords
- Create unique passwords for different accounts
- Start using a password manager
- Enable 2-step verification
- Enable screen lock in my devices
- Updates my devices' software and operating systems
- Update my apps
- Check app permissions
- Change my Wi-Fi password
- Create separate Wi-Fi networks for my business and customers
Yeah. Right
ReplyDeleteI am downloading bit.warden password manager.
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