How to keep your online life and business safe from threats

A lot of people struggle with keeping their online accounts private and safe from cyber threats. We see incidents of Twitter accounts or Facebook accounts getting hacked every day and websites being defaced by hackers or shut down for maintenance because of a cyber incident. Cyber incidents are neither pretty nor rare. Anyone can suffer from a cyber attack, whether initiated by a hacker in a remote corner of the world or by someone close to you who has found a way to learn ethical hacking online and is misusing that information for cheap thrills or personal vengeance. No matter what your case, you can prevent these incidents significantly with just a little bit of awareness. Here we are going to tell you a few ways that you can follow to keep your online life and business safe.

• Keep your passwords unique and strong and change them every once in a while so that you are safe from any data leak consequences. Setting a password is not enough anymore, you also need to have multi factor authentication on top of it. This will ensure that if anyone else tries to sign into your accounts or your websites then the request will have to go through your cell phone or your email.

• If you own an online business then you are automatically at high risk from cyber attackers that can hold your hard work at ransom or threaten to delete your data or use the information you collect to attack your customers. The risks are endless and quite dangerous. To make sure that your business stays private and safe, you should hire an ethical hacker with CEH training or its equivalent, to identify the possible security flaws with your business. It is a common myth that such services are only hired by large organizations. However, the fact is that it’s the small and medium-size businesses that are the most victimized by cyber attacks. Investing in cybersecurity and making it a priority of your business can help you cut losses in the long run and build a reputed image in the new privacy centered market.

• Cyber security professionals can only protect you so much. At the end of the day, your ultimate safety is in your hands. Whether you are an individual or a business owner, you need to educate yourself on the basic cyber security practices. Most cyber incidents are successful because people are ignorant and careless with how they use the Internet and digital technology. Social engineering is still one of the top ways that hackers use to perform cyber attacks of the highest potential. You will find plenty of information on the web about safe browsing, password hygiene and anti-social engineering methods. Make sure that you don’t just understand how important cyber security is but also end up implementing it in your daily life.

• Another main reason for cyber attacks and malware infestations is that everybody keeps downloading unsafe and unknown software on their devices. Any application that is on the Play Store or the App Store or even the Web store can be malicious for your device. Always trust the developers who have a good name and authentic reviews. As a rule, never ever install unfamiliar applications or software from the Internet or the online stores without checking their background first.

The bottom line is that on the Internet, everyone is a stranger. Keep your kindness and hospitality limited to social interactions as much as possible. Even as much as a link asking for feedback could be malicious or lead to a fake Instagram sign-up page and end up stealing your credentials. Never trust anyone on the Internet unless you personally know them or are assured of their authenticity.