Hackers targeting individuals and businesses has become a sad fact of the modern world. Therefore, you need to take all the necessary steps to prevent this from happening to you. The techniques you can try are generally straightforward but can also be effective. So, here are a few of the major steps that you need to take.
Maintain strong passwords
Passwords have been at the forefront of protecting accounts for years and even decades now. Therefore, you need to keep your passwords strong – with a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols – and not use the same password twice. Many people will use a password manager as a way of ensuring that they do not forget. You should also check your passwords periodically to see if they have been posted or compromised anywhere.
Use multi-factor authentication
For many sites, passwords are not the exclusive way of protecting vital information – there also needs to be multi-factor authentication in place as well. This adds an additional layer of protection and makes it trickier for hackers to access your account. Assume you have a site of your own; this is a useful way of ensuring that you are getting genuine visitors. On top of this, it is also worth looking into zero trust security as an additional means of staying protected.
Know the signs of phishing emails
While the first email with malicious intent was sent a long time ago, the issue of phishing emails continues to remain a persistent problem as it is something that is hard to stop at the source. With so many of them around, you need to start by setting up strong spam filters to prevent them from getting through in the first place. If they do find their way to your inbox, it is worth spotting the common signs of phishing and not clicking through to any links you do not trust 100 percent.
Install security updates regularly
To begin with, you need to have the necessary, reputable antivirus software and firewalls in place, as well as install the updates whenever they are offered. The reason for these updates is to stay ahead of the range of new threats that are always detected. Therefore, if you are still using an old version of antivirus or firewall, you make it more likely that you will get caught out.
While none of this advice may feel like it is groundbreaking, you need to make sure that you are practicing all of it to ensure both your systems and your data remain secure. This starts by having a system of strong passwords and a means of keeping up with all of them.
You then need to have the additional protection of multi-factor authentication as and when needed. At the same time, you should also learn to spot the common signs of phishing emails. Installing the right security systems is important in the first place, but so too is ensuring that all of them are kept up to date rather than attempting to rely on anything outdated and ineffective.
