How to protect our Data and Identity online?

In this post we will know how to protect our data and identity because every three seconds someone’s identity is stolen. With social media channels like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram as popular as ever cyber criminals are able to access a wealth of personal information online. Even people who think they are being cautious with their privacy settings could be vulnerable to a cyber attack particularly if they allow third party applications to access their profiles. Once a user’s information such as location, date of birth and family connections has been logged, this can be used to hack into their other accounts, such as banking and online storage etc. if our confidential information is in so much danger then how can we protect it online? The best way is to limit your data sharing online. The following ways can help you limit your data exposure online. 

1. Details like your phone number, address, children’s age or school can all help hackers to collect more information. 

2. You can use privacy settings for a more secure profile on any social website change the settings to “Friends Only” for all posts. 

3. Select a password which is difficult to be traced but which you can remember. Always use a password which is a combination of letters, numbers and special characters. 

4. Turning your GPS location settings to “off” can also keep your family’s where-about more private. 

5. Spam email is getting increasingly refined. Never react to any messages with account data or passwords. 

6. Secure your Wi-Fi connection with a strong password so that the hackers in the local area cannot use your connection to carry out malicious activity. 

7. Before entering payment details into any website check the web address has ns s which stands for secure after the http. 

8. Beware of anything suspicious in the mail, like pre approved credit card that you have not applied for and other money related offers. 

9. If your computer or phone is infected with malicious software, other safeguards are of little help because you have given the criminals the key to all your online actions. 

10. You should switch all your most important online accounts such as email accounts and social media profiles to a two step authentication. Two step authentications also have the advantage of warning you in the event of an intrusion.