A guide to increase online security
In this digital day and age much of our lives meet the digital world. We do our work on our computers, we send money over the internet, send e-mails, post pictures of ourselves etc. A lot of very personal and sensitive information thereby gets stored online.
Due to this, information and data has become a very valuable currency, even more valuable than oil. This also means that there are nefarious forces at play that seek to steal this information from right under your nose. In this guide we will outline a few tips for you that can increase the security surrounding your online presence. This is especially handy if you are looking into online trading on sites like https://www.fxforex.com.
Acquire a Password Manager
One of the easiest ways you can be compromised online is through badly crafted passwords. Many of us tend to create one semi-strong password and use it for all our different accounts. This means that if one account gets compromised the hacker will have access to everything else in a heartbeat.
Take this scenario: you create a password like: a2daEdaN232. And only use it for one account. That is good right? Yes and no. You have circumvented the first problem of multiple accounts with the same password. But the password is not very strong. It lacks numbers, weird characters, capitalization etc. But if you were to make such a password would you be able to remember it? Not likely.
But if you get a password manager then all your woes are over. The manager will remember every password and fill them in for you as you log in. That way you can create many complex passwords for your different account and not worry about it.
2-step authentication
Many online services offer 2-step authentication these days and lord, is that a godsend in these times. How does it work and why do you need it?
2-step authentication basically means that you need to authorize logins on your device from another trusted device like your phone. This means in practice that if a hacker manages to get your login information, they cannot access your account from their device without you authorizing it. It is probably one of the greatest security measures you can employ.
Connect Phone Numbers and Recovery E-mails
If you happen to lose control of your account, you need to be ready to reacquire it in a heartbeat. You do this through a recovery process that is very common and similar on most websites.
They typically ask you for your phone number and another e-mail address that you can use to quickly regain access of your account and resecure it for the future. Do this as soon as possible. We have heard too many cases of people losing their accounts and not being able to get them back exactly because they did not bother to take these measures.
Common Sense – Avoid Suspicious Websites
Whenever you log on to a website you will typically see a green lock to the left of the address. That means that the website is secure and have taken some steps into keeping it that way. These sites are in general trustable and you can browse there without much worry.
But many sites do not have this lock. These are typically sites that offer free movie and tv-series streams on the internet, torrent sites so and so. A general piece of advice: stay away. You do not know what type of malware and virus that can sneak unto your computer from these places and it is not worth it to find out. Stay where it is safe.