You would be surprised to find out just how easily someone can gain access to your social media profiles. All you need to do is use the same public IP address as a hacker, and yet it is just one of many ways how they can get in.
Even breaching something like a social network can create numerous problems, especially if you left a great deal of your personal information there. People can find out where you live, your email, and even get the idea about what your password can be for other online platforms.
Since this can be a huge problem, you should be very cautious about what you do online, and take necessary measures to keep your data safe.
Longer Passwords
First of all, you should never have one password for every online platform you use. It may be bothersome, but you should create an individual password for every account. Also the passwords you create should be long, but at the same time something you can easily remember.
You can create lengthy passwords really easy, by simply focusing on important events in your life. For example you can use a sentence “I went to Los Angeles in 2017” and take the first letter of each word and keep the year to create a password – IWTLAI2017.
Of course, it should be a longer sentence for a more adequate password, but it is a good way to create complex passwords and remember them at the same time.
Do not use your personal information on social media, and be sure to check privacy settings
Even if you are making social media profile, there is no need to include all of your personal data like home address, phone number etc. This can only get you in trouble if someone with malicious intent manages to hack your profile.
Also if you leave the information public, no one will even have to crack the code for your profile, the data will be visible to everyone. In other words, it would be wise to use privacy settings and set them to “Friends Only” (on Facebook).
This will only allow your friends to see the personal information you wish to include. Just make sure you check if these settings are still in place after every social network update, because there is a chance the settings will return to default after these changes.
Http vs https
This is really easy way to check if the site you are visiting is safe or not. If the site’s address begins with “http”, that means the site you wish to visit is not safe. This doesn’t mean the treats are lurking on every corner, of course, it just means they could be.
On the other hand “https” has the letter “s” at the end, which stands for secure, so these online platforms are more reliable and the chances of picking up a harmful piece of software are significantly lower.
Remove yourself from search engines
If you want to protect personal information the best way would be a complete removal. You have no idea just how easily Google can be used to find everything there is on you online and public.
You can use advance search feature like inurl: “keyword” and search the web for any term even your name. Basically, you should perform this search on your own, find your data online, and remove it. Here are also some tips on how to effectively remove yourself from people search engines.
Watch out for phishing scams
Spam emails have really made progress over the past few years and have become increasingly more dangerous. In other words, never use a password when responding to emails, even if the email looks like it comes from an official representative of your bank, or company etc.
It is usually stated that the customer support team will never ask for your password during the conversation. So, if you notice an email requesting these personal details, just delete it.
Well these were some of the effective ways on how to secure your personal data online. You can also add an extra layer of security by relying on a virtual private network to access the internet in the first place. However, the less details you give out about yourself and your family, the better.
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