Today Cybersecurity is a must. Cyberthreats and cyberterrorism sound awful and are awful but if you’ve never experienced them for yourself, it can be hard to take them seriously.
Equifax suffered a massive data leak, but when you find out months later that it happened because they flat out refused to update a patch that let hackers in the back door, it’s hard to feel sorry for them.
If a national fast-food franchise has its Twitter account hacked and several messages calling it’s food stinky and gross are broadcast nationwide, it probably feels more funny to you that angry, and you probably think it could never happen to you because your Twitter feed is followed by about 19 people and you mostly just talk about the new Star Wars movies or who’s going to win the World Series.
The problem with that line of thinking is that everyone can be a target for cybercrime. It can stem from as harmless a transgression as rooting for a baseball team that some person on Twitter doesn’t like. From there, you could have your social media hacked and then your personal information attacked.
Before you know it, you’re having to rebuild your online reputation and find new bank cards and credit cards to replace the ones that were compromised during your data breach. All because you said you like the Astros over the Nationals (and you weren’t even right!)
So how can you convince yourself to take the Internet more seriously? These tips can help.
- Related: 8 Proven Ways to Prevent Hacking
4 Cybersecurity Tips
1. Really think before you post. Whether it’s on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or a blog, really consider what you want to say before you spout off on something online. Would you say the same thing in mixed company? Or is it easier to be a tough guy behind a computer screen? Imagine that whatever you’re going to post or tweet will appear in a billboard. Maybe The billboard is out in the middle of nowhere, but people will still see it. Mind your words.
2. Get New Password Support: let’s face it, one hack and you are done. Everything you write, read, buy, sell, and work on is tied together online. Use Dashlane, or a similar password manager, to keep your logins safe.
- Related: Top 5 Password Managers
3. Stop posting where you are and where you’re going. When you post photos on Facebook that the public can see of you in a swimsuit and your whole family at the beach, any criminal following your public profile now knows you are on vacation and the task of robbing your home just got a whole lot easier. Limit what the average person can see about you.
4. Don’t talk to people you don’t know. This goes for Facebook, IG, Twitter, even LinkedIn to a certain degree. Introducing yourself to a total stranger online is odd behavior, you don’t really know who they are, much less what their motivation is for reaching out to a total stranger to talk.
Plenty of cybercriminals are engaging people who try to draw you in personally to establish a trust relationship before they go after what you have online that can be valuable. If they want to talk, keep them at arm’s length and never share credentials of any kind. Even if they can make some sort of tenuous connection – they used to work with a former coworker of yous, verify with the person they are referencing before giving them any details about yourself.