Why You Should Care About Your Privacy and Security Online
Nowadays we use the Internet for more things than ever before. From online banking to buying groceries and all kinds of products. We learn new skills with online courses and Youtube videos, etc. Remote work is also growing at a fast pace, and all of this is changing the way we live our days.
I believe that now, more than ever, it is very important to take additional precautions to increase our online safety and to protect sensitive information (not only our passwords or bank accounts but also professional data from our daily jobs).
Protect your identity
We should keep in mind that our identity is very valuable for most aspects of our everyday lives, from applying to a loan to getting a passport. Therefore, it is extremely important to keep it safe.
The threat from hackers and cybercriminals is rapidly growing and can eventually limit our freedom to use the Internet as we desire. Cyber attacks are increasing both in size and cost, and they are currently one of the fastest-growing crime categories.
The current COVID-19 pandemic is making things even worse in the way that phishing attacks and ransomware attacks have spiked, with attackers targeting both individuals and businesses using COVID-19 related baits.
How can we increase security?
To better protect ourselves against these threats, here are a few simple steps that we can take to improve our security and privacy Online:
- Install anti-virus software on our computers;
- Use strong and unique passwords and/or two-factor authorization;
- Be careful about requests of personal information online;
- Limit where and with whom we share sensitive data;
- Delete browser cookies once a month;
- Use a VPN to encrypt our data when we are Online (I have been using PIA VPN and it works very well).
As we lock the door of our homes, we should also lock our identities and personal information when we are Online! 🙂
“If you put a key under the mat for the cops, a burglar can find it, too. Criminals are using every technology tool at their disposal to hack into people’s accounts. If they know there’s a key hidden somewhere, they won’t stop until they find it.”
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO
Thanks for reading, enjoy every moment of your day!
Originally published at https://vitorpedro.com on April 26, 2020.
