2018 is the year to learn from 2017’s security mistakes. Securing yourself online will only be as good as your practice of it. Modern day cyber security is known to be more innovative and arguably more successful as the years go by.
There should be a check list which every digital user must follow in order to ensure that they are positioned in the best way possible to combat cyber security. Some actions are just common sense but some aren’t as obvious as you think. Let’s discuss 5 cyber security tips that should position you better for 2018:
Keep you social media secured at all times
Cyber criminals have improved their ways of gaining access and finding flaws to pull innocent victims out from the secure environments. When on social media, depending on what person you are, you should always keep things private – posts, photos and personal information about yourself. This way you have the peace of mind knowing that only your friends/followers etc can see your personal information. Public profiles and pubic displays of information have been used by cyber criminals to successfully hack into accounts and even successfully extort users simply by viewing their personal information. Take Facebook for example, if you’re having trouble logging into your account you will be asked a number of security questions ranging from data on your profile and even matching your friends with their profile pictures – if all of this stuff is public, hackers will already have the information necessary to log in to your account or reset your password. Keeping things private will certainly go a long way to eliminating such threats. Two-factor authentication logins are always a good way of keeping hackers away.
Update, update, update
The big hacking story of 2017, the global WannaCry ransomware virus, became a global affair simply because computers around the world were not updated or patched to the latest available update. Systems running older versions of Windows fell victim to ransomware hackers affecting a lot of countries around the world. Updating operating system, software and apps should be a part of our daily digital lifestyle. We shouldn’t keep hitting the ‘Ignore’ or ‘Postpone’ buttons as you never know when an attack is going to occur. Android users see updates from the likes of Facebook and Google almost on a weekly basis and there are legitimate reasons for that – mostly bug fixes and the constant updates including security updates.
Say no to Free WiFi, no matter how much you need it
Free public wifi is a gold mine for even novice hackers. As soon as you connect to a public wifi your device is already sending and exchanging personal data to and from the servers. Public wifi poses a huge risk for hackers to intercept your data instantly and to make it worst they can even narrow down your exact location. To counter this you’ll need to get yourself a good VPN. VPN’s scramble your data being sent over the network and is a much secure method of using public wifi. But as a general rule of thumb, wherever possible try not to use free public wifi.
Secure your home network
The home network is often the place where successful attacks occur especially if you live in a densely router-populated area. We specifically mention ‘router’ because routers have proved to be the source of all attacks. Hackers have hacked routers and subsequently stolen all personal information sent from within a home network. Routers, especially those with stock passwords, are known to be targeted by remote hackers. Some of these hackers are located half way across the globe but have the means of stealing your personal data from whilst sipping on a Pina Colada on the beach. There are numerous ways to secure your home network, some include changing the out-of-the-box password on the router, change the network name (SSID), hide the network name (SSID), increase the number of firewalls, use VPNs and update the router firmware.
About IntelliTeK Pty Ltd
IntelliTeK is a managed IT services company in Sydney, Australia. With major vendor relationships and accreditations from the world’s leading IT companies including WatchGuard, Microsoft, Trend Micro and Amazon Web Services, IntelliTeK have kept clients happy since 2007.
IntelliTeK are always up to date with the latest cloud backup solutions which is why we only partner with the best in the industry. If your company isn’t fully equipped to fend off cyber criminals, then get in touch with us so we can discuss your options. Call us on 1300 768 779, email us at info@intellitek.com.au, fill out the web form, or have a Live Chat with us below.