(Newswire.net — February 7, 2020) — From the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia allegedly hacking Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ phone to every little phishing and hacking attempt on the Average Joe, no one is immune from cyber attacks in 2020. The online Trust Alliance estimates that $45 billion was lost due to more than 2 million cyber attacks in 2018. So, yeah, it’s big business.
But that doesn’t mean you have to be a victim. Just a few small steps will protect you from the most nefarious attempts on your finances and your identity. Here are four easy ways to keep yourself safe from cyber crime.
OS Antivirus
The latest versions of Windows and Mac OS have built-in antivirus protection that works well, so you don’t necessarily need to spend more on third-party software. It does mean, however, that you need to make sure your computer’s OS is always updated and that those protection features are active.
WiFi Security
Our devices are rarely, if ever, physically connected to the internet with a cable. WiFi dominates our homes, workplaces, coffee shops, and is even available at 35,000 feet while we fly. Public WiFi makes your data especially vulnerable and you should never access sensitive information such as bank accounts when outside the home, but even home WiFi has vulnerabilities. A neighbor of even a stranger siting outside your home can snoop on your activity.
Good news: everyone asking “How to secure my WiFi?” can shut out cyber criminals for good with just a few key moves:
- Use a complex password (more on that below)
- Use a network name that doesn’t give personal information (don’t use your name or address)
- Keep your router updated
- Turn off remote administration—the ability to access your router from outside your WiFi network. This is usually turned off by default but check your router’s manual to make sure
- Disable SSID broadcasting. Called “service set identifier,” this is the name of your WiFi network and you can hide it from the list of available networks when you click the WiFi icon on your computer. This literally takes your name off the list of potential targets
Smart Passwords
Simple, repeated passwords are one of the fastest ways to losing your data to cyber criminals. If a service you use suffers a data breach, the thief will try that same password on all your accounts hoping to find a match. The easiest way to prevent this is to create complex, unique passwords for every account—especially sensitive ones like banks and social media.
Managing a bunch of different passwords with numbers, symbols, and different case letters can be a pain—it always used to be a pain—until password managers came along to save the day. Apps like 1Password and Last Pass create and store all your complex passwords and seamlessly plug them in on your smartphone and web browser.
Two-Factor Authentication
Even with the best password in the world, a hacker might be able to reset your account with access to your email or even a simple security question (it’s not that hard to figure out a mother’s maiden name or your first girlfriend). Two-factor authentication is the barrier that even the most expert cybersecurity professionals use to protect their datq. It’s called two-factor because it uses something you know, like your password, with something you have, like a smartphone or USB security key.
Almost every service and major bank uses some form of two-factor authentication and you should enable it every time. Of course, there’s even more you can do to protect yourself from cyber criminals—WiFi firewalls or a VPN—but these four steps will protect you from most of the cyber crime that plagues the internet today.