Cyber Security
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The dawn of the internet is both a blessing and can be a bit of a nuisance. Now we have pretty much the whole world at our fingertips; whether it is finding an answer through Google or emailing a friend hundreds of miles away, it is amazing technology. However scams, hacks and malware can make the internet feel like a dangerous place leaving most unsure what is safe and what is not!
To help you out Keytek® Locksmiths Training Academy has created some tips to make sure that your internet experience is a good one and that you and all of your information is safe!
1. Keep personal data to a minimum
The dawn of the internet has brought the rise of social media, which has become a platform for everyone to share every intimate detail of their lives. But this isn’t always the best idea. Of course it’s nice to show your friends and family where you’ve gone on your holiday but you also don’t know who is looking at your profile and you might have just told them that your house is vacant for the next week!
Keep the information you share online limited in order to protect yourself and not give too much away to ill-wishers.
2. Ensure you have privacy settings on and set to a higher standard
Every social media site, such as Facebook and Instagram, will have privacy settings in which you are able to set the severity. These settings allow you to control how much can be learnt about you through stored shared data. Not only will it allow you to limit the types of advertisements you get from marketers, it will also help to protect you against hackers that could have the same access to that information.
3. Keep your software up to date
All software will have upgrades with updated security precautions in place to combat viruses and malware. Unfortunately, security software cannot guarantee protection against attack but they can offer a higher resistance and in most cases will be able to detect and remove any suspected malware. Turn on automatic upgrading so that this is a step that you don’t have to consider.
4. Practice safe browsing
The best way to protect yourself on the internet is to get into the habit of safe browsing. By carelessly clicking you could endanger your online security and thus render your private information vulnerable. Going onto sites that you know might not be secure, clicking on links to unfamiliar websites and falling for ‘clickbaits’ are all things that you potentially lead you into a scam or the loss of your private information.
If you are unsure if a website is unsafe or not look for these things:
• ‘s’ in HTTPS; many URLs begin with ‘https’ to indicate they are encrypted and therefore protected.
• Look for a websites ‘Privacy Policy’; this policy should clear state hoe your data is collected, processed and protected.
• Look for contact details
What to look out for to identify less safe websites:
• Suspicious pop ups with extravagant claims
• Advertising with obvious spelling/grammatical errors, promote miracles or celebrity news
5. Be careful what you download
Similar to safe browsing, don’t download any old thing off of any old website as this might be a security breach. Ultimately, you can never know what you are downloading so you should always take extra care that you are only downloading something from a website that you trust and is recognisable.
6. Choose strong passwords
Choosing strong, unique passwords for all of your important accounts will be impetrative to your online security. The issue is with passwords we tend to choose ones that are memorable, such as a child’s name, and use them in different variations. For example your daughter might be Louise and your passwords would be Louise123, Louise10, etc. Using these types of passwords could leave you more vulnerable than others as that sort of information is normally quite easy for someone to find out. You should always try to use passwords that contain a mixture of numbers, letters (both capital and lowercase) and special characters.
7. Make purchases from secure sites
We all enjoy the convenience of shopping online but ordering from non-secure websites may give ill-wishers access to your card details. If you want to know if an online shop is legitimate look at reviews on independent sites such as Trustpilot, and check that the site itself is secure with a padlock next to the website URL.
As added protection by online with a credit card or Paypal; as through a credit card you have higher protection and more chance of being refunded any money stolen and on Paypal your bank details cannot be accessed by scammers.
8. Use parental controls
Useful for both adults and kids, you can set parameters on your device so that when it connects to the internet it will restrict what websites you are allowed to access and in most cases will block or come up with a warning if the site is determined as unsafe.
Keytek Academy®
We hope you found our cyber security blog useful and that you have more confidence in keeping yourself and your family safe online. If you enjoyed this blog why not check out some of our others such as Locksmithing: Your New Career! and How to Stay Safe at Work!
