7 Basic tips to ensure security at your cyber space
#BeCyberSmart is the call of the day! The need of protecting our cyberspace was never felt to strongly ever in the past as it is now. In this blog post we will explore few reliable means to safeguard our cyberspace from hackers, scams and spam. Let us emphasise on two areas where personal responsibility and caution play an important role in achieving the goal. These two areas include securing all our devices both at home and at workplace. To make things easier to understand, let us divide the tips into two distinct categories – “at home” and “at work”.
Tips to secure your devices at home
Let us first look at the home front when it comes to cyber security. You are dangerously vulnerable to major problems when computers, smartphones, computer printers, monitors and smart speakers in your home are not secured.
If your devices are connected, make sure those are protected too
Many of the devices mentioned above come with the option of automatic updates. If the option is there for a device then you should better enable it. Else it is your responsibility to check for updates at regular intervals. You can set a recurring monthly alarm in your phone so that there is no way you can forget about checking for updates. This is a good way to stay updated on security aspect as well as stay abreast with your security awareness. Antivirus software implementation across devices is another assured means to ensure cyber security in your home. These programmes perform scans for you automatically and update you about any potential compromise in your system. Do select your antivirus software with little time and research. It will surely provide sufficient mileage over time.
Bolster your Wi-Fi network
In order to secure your cyber space from spam, scams and hackers you should better buy software in London that are authentic. But that is never the first step; the first step involves taking small steps like securing your Wi-Fi coverage, having all your devices protected and others. Do you know the wireless router in your home is the primary point of entry for cyber criminals into your personal cyberspace? It is possible for hackers to access all other connected devices you use at home through this device alone. Set your own password and username for your Wi-Fi router. Make sure the password is uncommon enough and is hard to crack. Consider using a password manager to securely store your unique passwords.
Role of a password manager
A password manager plays a significant role in protecting your passwords securely. Remembering a secure password at the right nick of time is little difficult in the present-day tech-friendly world. There are now more passwords to handle in our everyday life ranging from banking accounts, patient portals to social media profiles and streaming services. Thus people use the same password (and even usernames) across devices. This is a dangerous practice and cybercriminals can break into your personal cyber space easily. Even using minute variations in selecting passwords is not much of a great idea either. It is easy for cyber criminals to get through those varied patterns as well. Rather you should rely on a password manager to protect your sensitive profiles and accounts from unauthorised users. These managers are nothing but a master password that helps retrieving passwords for particular accounts. However you have to add those account passwords into it before so that the password manager can retrieve those. A password manager also allows you generate passwords. This is a good way to ensure your account password is unique and cannot be guessed or linked back to you easily.
MFA or multi factor authentication
It is also a good idea to enable multi factor authentication or MFA. This ensures the only person with access to your account is no one else but you. In easier words, MFA is a security enhancement. It requires a user to provide two pieces of evidence while logging into an account. As such, it adds an additional security layer. Thus cyber criminals find it difficult to barge in posing as you. MFA securities send a code at your mobile number that you have to enter while accessing a site or account that you want to. In absence of an MFA, hackers only need bypassing your password to get access into your account. But when you enable the MFA feature, hackers have to access two additional resources – your password and your mobile handset.
Securing devices at workplace
The aspects mentioned above to make your home impregnable to cyber criminals are also applicable to make your workplace secure from cyber attacks. Make sure all your software applications are updated at regular intervals, enable password managers and MFA.
In addition to the points already mentioned you need to take certain additional measures like the following.
- Consider all your business information as nothing but personal information
Start considering all your business related information as personal information. Typical business information includes company accounts, internal e-mails, vendors and others. Apart from that business information also includes an employee’s Personally Identifiable Information or PII. This includes an employee’s date of birth, mother’s maiden name, personal e-Mail ID and such other elements. Keep all these information away from any unknown entity.
Never ever click on doubtful links
Breaches in cyber security have a strong connection with phishing e-mails. An employee in your organisation just has to click on one malicious link and the game is up. These days it is even more difficult to identify phishing e-mails. Senders of this range of e-mails are now smarter and thus you will not receive any e-mail from a Nigerian prince. The bottom line of advice is to remain careful about e-mails received from unknown entities and unusual sources. Inspect a link first by hovering the mouse over it. At the left lower corner of the screen the URL destination will get displayed. Taking these few extra nano seconds will prove helpful keeping hackers as well as other cyber criminals at bay.
In the ongoing discussion it is relevant mentioning about the Softwareland. It is a reliable destination for the latest authentic software products. You can buy cheap software online from this destination. Authentic software is always more effective keeping cyber criminals away from your cyber space. If you have any query or want to know more about the tips discussed above, just remember you are always free to contact us.
