With social media sites like Twitter and Facebook attracting a huge online audience, this creates a bigger avenue for cyber criminals to steal the identity of unsuspecting people.
Even those computer users that take precautions when surfing the web, may potentially be vulnerable to these cyber-attacks, especially if they are granting third-party applications access to their social media profiles.
Once a hacker has successfully obtained the users location, family connections and date of birth, they can use such information to hack online storage, email and online banking accounts.
Here are 10 things that you can do to protect your presence online:
1. Check the Privacy Settings
If you want your profile to be more secure, why not consider setting all your Facebook posts to “Friends only”. Facebook and several other social media platforms will usually alter your setting changes, so you will need to constantly monitor things, to ensure the most secure settings are enabled.
2. Don’t Click On Solicited Links
One of the primary ways that criminals infect your computer with malware is by hiding them inside the attachments of emails. Phishing emails can sometimes be spotted by the poor grammar and spelling in the emails and websites that they link to. However, targeted attacks, such as mass mailings can sometimes be much harder to identify. With the advent of social media, it has made it much easier for cyber criminals to profile their victims, making it easier for them to choose who to target. Social media allows cyber criminals to see what you are posting and send you a message that is crafted around your general interests.
3. Don’t Reuse Your Primary Email Password
A hacker that has successfully got into your email account now has access to a whole host of things. Through your email account, they can reset passwords to your other services, to gain access to them. A criminal can get into your email account and find tons of sensitive data, such as password, and banking details, date of birth, etc. All of which will be used to steal your identity. Identity theft costs the UK in excess of £2billion a year.
4. Use Many Passwords
Reiterating on my previous point, consider having separate passwords for each online service you’re signed up with. The downside to this is that you will be forced to remember the different passwords; however there are many techniques that you can use when creating passwords, just to make them more memorable. Alternatively, you could store the passwords offline, that way, criminals would only know your passwords if they literally broke into your home.
5. Don’t Give Personal Data to Unsecure Sites
A website that contains the https in the address or a padlock symbol next to it is what is classified as a secure website. This means, any information that you send to the site, will be encrypted, protecting it from hackers.
6. Make Sure To Monitor Your Bank Statements
The most organised people will usually cross check their receipts with their monthly bank statements; however that could be considered the extreme approach. All you need to do is keep tabs on those transactions you are unfamiliar with, doing double checks on them.
7. Ignore Pop-Up Ads
There are so many different kinds of pop-ups out there, some of which may even contain malicious software. I highly recommend you stay away from any pop-ups that ask you to input your personal details into them, this s because some of these ads are capable of installing malware onto your system. Pop-ups advertising survey and eCommerce sites are the ones you should be on the lookout for.
8. Macs Are Just Like PCs
Your new MacBook Air is just as vulnerable to attacks from these cyber criminals. That wasn’t always the case, in the past, criminals used to target primarily Windows users; this is because of the large number of users on PCs, however today things are changing. The good thing is that both Microsoft and Apple have added additional layers of security to their operating systems, making them more secure. But the more determined hackers are constantly looking for ways they can exploit them.
9. Watch Out For Auction Sites
It’s very important that you exercise caution when on these websites. Always do a background check on any seller, by looking at their feedback. Keep any online payment details secure by constantly changing up your passwords. Consider opening a separate bank account for which you can use exclusively for online shopping, as this will limited any potential fraud cases.
10. Monitor Online and Offline Posts
Always be wary of any suspicious mail that you receive, such as pre-approved credit cards that you have not signed up for, along with other financial offers.
AUTHOR INFO:
Uchenna Ani-Okoye is a former IT Manager who now runs his own computer support website www.compuchenna.co.uk.