If you’re into the social media scene or if you only have an email address, you are still vulnerable to having your personal information leaked to the entire world. This has been more known lately due to the online accounts of A-List celebrities that have had personal information leaked such as personal photos, documents, and more. There are a few things that you can do, however, that will prevent this from happening – or at least make it that much harder.
Secure Online Accounts
Taking advantage of two-factor authentication is an excellent way to ensure that your online account is extra secure. See if your accounts have that option by checking out one of the two factor authentication websites that list those companies that enable this option, such as twofactorauth.org.
Ensure that your passwords are as complex as possible. Using tools such as LastPass can make this easier for you by remembering your passwords for you, and making it simple to create a unique, highly complex password for each new account that you create. Don’t use the same password for all accounts, and try to use numbers and symbols as well as a mix of capital and lower case letters.
Back Up Your Photos
Backing up your photos is an important step for anyone to take. Use cloud based services – but to be even safer, you can store personal or highly sensitive photos and documents onto separate hard drives that are encryption enabled. You can find out more about encrypted hard drives here.
Use A VPN When You Access The Internet From Public WiFi
Using a VPN is the latest measure in order to help foil potential attacks and hacks while using a public internet connection. A VPN is a “virtual private network” and encrypts your internet connection so that the data coming and going from your computer is not accessible to anyone. Using public internet connections can put your data at risk, so don’t do sensitive things such as banking or sending personal account information over a public network unless you have to.
Check Those Mobile App Policies
This is probably an annoying step to take that nobody ever wants to do, but it’s a good idea to check on how mobile apps use and store your data. You don’t know how they use the information unless you read their privacy policy, nor do you know what they do with your information/pictures/data when you delete the app or close the account.
If you want extra protection against tracking your whereabouts, disable the app usage of your location. Also, opt for apps that use end-to-end encryption to prevent third parties from sniffing out your transmissions.
Lock Your Phone
This seems like an obvious step to take, however you would be surprised how many people don’t do this. Secure your phone using a passphrase and ensure that you’ve enabled cellphone security apps that allow you to wipe your phone in the event that it is lost or stolen.
Stay Up To Date
Staying up to date on the latest advances in technology as well as the latest advances in malware and online criminal activity is the best way to ensure that you stay safe online. Continue to follow this blog as well as other security blogs so that you’ll always know when new safety features are available or if there’s an extra sneaky scam lurking around the internet.
