Nowadays, almost everyone is reliant on the internet, whether they know it or not, or even more than they care to admit. When you check your phone for emails, they have been delivered over the internet, many financial transactions nowadays are also done online. So as we become ever more reliant on this, how do we ensure we are keeping ourselves as safe and secure from the threat of viruses, hackers and many other online dangers as best we can?
There are many issues associated with relying so heavily on the internet, and many ways we can keep ourselves protected from the countless threats appearing everyday.
Digital security companies are constantly playing catch-up with an endless stream of viruses and threats looking to catch unsuspecting victims on the internet. Phishing scams and malware are a constant threat on suspicious websites, while downloading and opening the wrong email attachment can spell disaster for your computer. To reduce this threat, always remember to run an anti-virus program and keep it constantly updated so you are alerted to any threats you encounter and can safely remove them.
If you are working using a cloud service, ensure that it is a reputable and has all the necessary protection before you sign up for their service. For business that are reliant on cloud services, ensure that your provider complies with the highest level of security processes. Pronestor, a brand of meeting scheduler software for example, hosts on Amazon, which complies with the highest level of security on the market.
There are many unscrupulous persons online that will stop at nothing to obtain people’s personal and financial details to commit crimes such as identity theft and fraud. This may sound like a broken record but when it comes to passwords and login details, do what you are instructed to do— choose a difficult password and don’t use it on multiple sites and platforms. This will only increase the likelihood that if one of these is compromised, then the others could fall with it.
The consequences of stolen details could be as simple as your money being spent on shopping for these criminals, to a knock on effect on your credit rating which could take many years to rectify and affect your standing in the eyes of financial institutions should you wish to take out loans.
More recently, hackers have taken to attacking, but not limited to, celebrities and their private photos. Within the past few years there was an iCloud leak that affected dozens of celebrities and sent their private images onto the web. Such attacks may be more difficult to deal with than straightforward theft. Take precautions by not saving anything you would not want posted on the internet in the worst-case scenario.
While internet security is getting more and more advanced, so are it’s enemies, and for normal people using the internet, it definitely still pays dividends to constantly update your knowledge on current threats. So much of our lives can be found online that we should be doing all we can alongside companies to protect our privacy.
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