Simple steps to securing your devices and accounts

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Everyone is now online. Individuals and businesses alike are living on the online sphere. So just like we need security for our homes and offices, it is also integral that we take care of our cybersecurity as much as our physical safety.

Data theft and hacking activities affect more and more people worldwide by the day. Just recently, hackers acquired information from an estimated 50 million Facebook accounts worldwide. With such intrusive activities going on, it is imperative that we invest in the right tools to protect our online accounts and profiles. Here are nine tips to follow in ensuring the security of your digital personality, profile, and accounts.

Be keen on privacy and security of your information

When it comes to online security, the buck stops with you.

What kind of privacy options have you chosen on the online platforms that you frequent? Are your social media profiles open to all and sundry? Do you have random and hard to guess passwords for all your different online accounts and activities?

Often we are online with our mobile devices. To enjoy and ease the use of these devices, we download apps that ask for permissions to access our other apps, contact lists, microphones, and other indecipherable permissions. By permitting apps access to our online profile environment, we are creating openings for both hackers and malicious advertisers and to monitor our activities for their own gain.

Therefore, it is important for each and every person to understand that their online privacy and security begins with them. That you do not have to answer in the affirmative to all questions and permissions requested by mobile apps and other online platforms seeking to know you better.

We should ensure that we provide only the most basic of information in our online platforms to ensure we are safe both online and offline. For example, do not provide your home address on your social media platforms.

Password protect your online accounts

Strong passwords are the armor that protects our online platforms. Like armor, passwords should be impenetrable. We should avoid creating passwords from important personal dates and people for example birthdays and loved ones. Using passwords based on personal feelings make it easy for hackers and people well known to you to easily gain access to your online accounts and profiles.

Make use of easily available password generation and storage tools known as password managers. They are available for free or quite cheaply. These tools generate random multi-character passwords for your accounts and store them well for easy retrieval.

Also, it is important to regularly change your passwords. This increases the security and privacy of your digital profiles and information.

Two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication involves adding an extra layer of security beyond your password. Whoever tries to enter your account would need a code sent to your phone by the online platform to access it.

To maximize the security of your online platforms such as social media or email always ensure that you opt for a two-factor authentication access code.

Browse securely

When accessing the internet, ensure that your web browsers are secure and private. The commonly used browsers, save and record all your internet activity making it easy for them to sell your information to advertisers and malicious individuals and corporations.

It is advisable that we should always set our search engines to browse in private mode. This enables you to visit the internet without your browser recording your internet activity.

Also, you can add a browser extension that disables the browsers ability to record your activity. They also block the sites you visit from tracking and monitoring your internet activity.

Click log out at all times

To increase the security and privacy of your online profiles and personality, ensure that you always log out from social media websites, emails and apps once you are done using them. Although they often time out over prolonged periods of no use, leaving them open leaves you vulnerable to breaches of security and privacy.

Use only trusted Wi-Fi

We all love free things and Wi-Fi has become a basic need in many parts of the world. When using public Wi-Fi, you do not know who else is using it and what their intentions are. Therefore, always ensure that you do not log in to any of your online accounts.

It is very easy for your login information to copied and used to invade your privacy and lock you out of your accounts.

Take care of your devices

Ensure that all your devices are password protected. If someone found your laptop, tablet or cell phone, they would be unable to access your data due to passwords. As mentioned before, passwords are essential guards to our online privacy and security.

Secondly, ensure that your devices do not have viruses. Viruses can be used to track and monitor your online activity. Ransomware viruses can be used to hijack your device locking you out until you pay a ransom to be let back in. It is important to install trusted anti-viruses in our devices to clean out all viruses.

Third, ensure that you always use authentic and trusted software. As a result, your devices will be easy to use and you will have access to updates that will increase the security of your devices and thus of your online profiles, accounts, and personality.

Communication encryption

With over a billion users worldwide, Whatsapp is the most used text message app that offers communication encryption.

Encryption means that a message sent over an encrypted medium can only be read and understood by the intended recipient. Encryption, therefore, increases security and privacy of communication. In addition, both phone calls and emails can also be encrypted, thus ensuring that the message is kept private and confidential. If your traffic is not encrypted within an app like a privacy-and-security-strengthened chat or email, always use a VPN to blanket your data. You can download a VPN for your computer and smartphone.

 

Search engines

Search engines provide us with access to the internet. In addition to using search engines in private mode, we can also an array of search engines that do not track your online activity. DuckDuckGo is the most popular of these search engines and you can use it without fear of being tracked, monitored or your internet history activity saved.

 

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