Essential Tips for Cyber Hygiene to Stay Secure Online

What is Cyber Hygiene: 

Cyber hygiene has become crucial due to continuous cyber-attacks. As you make sure your personal hygiene is sound so is the cyber hygiene important for you to stay safe online. The frequency of cybercriminal activity indicates that there’s an extreme lack of cyber education. 

Below we have discussed the common problems of the cyber world and shared tips on how to take care of cyber hygiene. 

Common Problems: 

Main 5 problems of cyber world are: 

  1. Not taking care of your external devices and sticking them in every strange device. 
  2. Not using a VPN like Surfshark
  3. Sharing passwords online or having weak passwords. 
  4. Not making copies of your sensitive data.
  5. While working remotely, not being cautious with sensitive data
  6. Clicking on unknown links or accounts.

8 Tips to Improve Cyber Hygiene. 

You may have heard of cyber hygiene but What are some ways for one to stay safe and secure online? 

Below we have shared practical tips for best cyber hygiene practices.

1- Long and Strong Password: 

Make your password as difficult as you can. Use long passwords as those are difficult to crack and can keep your accounts secure. 

Don’t use the same password for every account. I know it is easier to remember one password than many but this habit can be fatal for your online life. 

The same goes for passphrases. Use difficult and long passphrases to secure your social media and email accounts. 

Don’t share your password or passphrase with anyone. Remember, no authentic site needs to know your password to operate. And only scammers or hackers demand passwords. Steer clear from those websites or accounts. 

2- Two-step verification method: 

This should become a common practice as two-step verification methods are relatively safer. They provide much-needed security and keep your various accounts under your control. 

3- Use VPN:

If you want to know how to be stay safe on the internet, VPN is the key. Virtual Private Network provides you a tunnel for secure data flow. It blankets your online activities, and, thus it becomes easier to access private information even on public Wi-Fi.

VPN is safe for iPhone as well as Android phones. Install VPN in few steps and stay safe online, also read review is available to download for free and as free trial version. VPN app for iPhone helps you browse internet without any hackers threats.  

4- Firewall: 

A firewall controls the flow of information and data to and from your device. It filters viruses and Trojans and the likes. Make sure you have installed an updated version of the Firewall on your electronic devices and that it is enabled. It will scan every file entering your system and will delete dangerous files automatically. 

5- Change online behavior:

The increasing cyber-attacks indicate that there is a lack of cyber education. People need to change their online behavior to avoid cyberattacks. Learn to identify phishing emails. They have the same patterns. And if you look closely, pause before clicking you will see tell-tale signs of it. 

No one can become rich by clicking on links or sending money to strangers. No one can double your money. They will only steal it. So don’t transfer any sort of amount to strangers. Nor tell them your passwords. These are tactics to steal your money or online information to use against you. 

6- Declutter your system and mobile: 

Now and then clean your laptop, desktops, and mobiles of unnecessary programs and apps. Clutter also becomes a potential source of viruses. Outdated software becomes a threat to your data. Delete old files, this will make your processor faster, more secure, and more efficient. 

Update your OS regularly. Updates provide security patches that are necessary for our systems. Do not ignore update notifications and always remain vigilant. 

7- HTTPS: 

Links with HTTPS certificates are more secure than the ones without them. The S in the HTTP stands for secure. Scammers, and hackers don’t use secure certificates on their websites and hence it is the greatest sign of their dishonesty. 

Do not click on such links no matter what they claim. The moment you click on such links, the hackers enter your system and steal your private information. They can also be ransomware. It will lock you out of your data and would demand money to unlock it. 

8- Caution in Work From Home: 

When you are working remotely, make sure you are using secure network for communications. Also, do not give anyone your work laptops or phone when you are privy of some special data or applications. You must keep the personal and office devices separate to keep the data secure from hacking. Encrypt all forms of communications. That way, fraudsters or hackers will only see garbage if they break into your data. Make copies of your data on cloud and external devices as well. 

Conclusion: 

We cannot stop using the internet but we can change our behavior towards it. We can remain easily secured by staying vigilant about our online activities and habits. By following the above cyber hygiene steps you will be able to overcome hackers and cyberattacks. These steps are a sure-fire way to keep those cyberattacks at bay. 

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