One of the scariest things that can happen to you digitally is to have your profiles, accounts, and sensitive information hacked. Not only is this an invasion of your privacy, but it can also have serious ramifications for your personal, professional, and financial life. Because of this, it’s wise to know what you can do to protect yourself and what best practices you should be following to safeguard your personal data.
To show you how this can be done, here are three tips for protecting yourself against hackers.
Use Good Password Hygiene
Your very first line of defense against hackers is to practice good password hygiene.
According to Kim Komando, a contributor to FOXNews.com, having good password hygiene doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to string together random letters, numbers, and symbols that will be almost impossible for you to remember on your own. Rather, it means that you use letters, symbols, and numbers to create a password that’s logical for you so it’s easy to remember but wouldn’t necessarily make sense to others.
In addition to having a strong password, you also want to change your passwords on a very regular basis so that in the event that someone does gain access to your accounts using your password, they won’t have that access for long.
Install The Right Software
Another thing you need to do to help protect yourself from hackers is to use the right software to keep unwanted intruders out and make your information harder for hackers to use even if they do gain access to it.
Some of the software you should be sure to install and use appropriately, according to Jackie Dove, a contributor to Business News Daily, are a firewall, antivirus software, anti-spyware, and encryption. By using this protective software and getting all available updates as soon as they become available, it will be much harder for hackers to gain access to and steal your information.
Take Advantage Of Two-Factor Authentication
To give yourself the best chance of keeping your information for your eyes only, you should seriously consider using two-factor authentication whenever it’s available to you.
Kari Paul and Jacob Passy, contributors to MarketWatch.com, shares that two-factor authentication usually involves you typing in your password and then also being messaged or emailed a code that you’ll have to input as well. While this will mean it takes a few extra seconds to log into your account, it is well worth it for the safety of whatever information you’ll be accessing once you get in.
If you’re wanting to up your game in protecting yourself against hackers, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you accomplish this and keep your sensitive data safe.
Originally posted on February 13, 2020 @ 2:48 am