8 simple tips to protect your online data

Today is Data Privacy Day. It may not make for the most exciting hashtag moment (#DataPrivacyDay…) but it is important that – in an increasingly interconnected world where most of us have more and more personal information about us available online – we learn how to protect our data.

While this isn’t an ultra-thorough exhaustive guide on protecting your data (we could babble on for pages and pages) we’ve collected some top tips that – if followed – will drastically reduce your chances of having your data falling into the wrong hands online.

Enable Two Factor Authentication

Most of the big websites these days will support some form of two-step-authentication (2SA) or two-factor-authentication (2FA.) This includes sites like Facebook, Instagram and PayPal. When enabled, someone logging into your account from an unrecognised device will need more than just the password to access the account. As such, this is a brilliant form of defense if a crook manages to obtain your password.

A popular example of 2SA is using a SMS code sent to your smartphone to login as well as your password; most people have a phone after all. More advanced and secure examples can also include USB keys that need to be plugged into a device to authenticate a login.

Don’t reuse the same passwords!

A big security no-no is reusing passwords across different accounts. If a crook manages to obtain a password and username or email address for one account, they then could use that information to try and login into other accounts on other websites or apps. It’s a technique called “credential stuffing”.

This is popular after big data breaches where cyber crooks break past the cyber defences of a big company (Yahoo or MySpace, for example) and post large volumes of login information onto the Internet. This means it may not even be your fault that crooks managed to grab your password! So if that does happen, making sure you don’t reuse your password elsewhere will help protect you against intrusions.

And while we’re discussing passwords, yes it is important that all your devices (especially portable devices like laptops and phones) have strong passwords or PINs enabled in case they get stolen!

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Don’t sign up for fake giveaways

Social media, especially Facebook, is bustling with fake giveaways and competitions that ask you to share a post to your timeline and then sign up to “claim a prize” on some random website. When you go to these websites, they ask you for lots of information about yourself, including your phone number, email and name. It’s called “data harvesting”, and these websites are looking to spam you in any way they can.

In worst case scenarios, your data may even be sold off to spammers who may use that information to launch targeted scams against you.

Use recommended social media privacy settings (and don’t add strangers!)

On social networks like Facebook, where user’s often upload and share lots of information about themselves, it is important to use strict privacy settings so only people you’ve accepted into your digital circle can see your information.

Even seemingly innocuous information can be a goldmine for data thieves, so make sure your profile is locked down and you only connect with people you know on social media. Our full guide on locking down your Facebook profile can be seen here.

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Avoid clicking links in emails

One popular way of tricking you into handing over important data – such as your login details – is with phishing email scams. These are the emails that appear to be from someone you trust and ask you to click a link and enter your username and password.

However, that link may very well lead to a spoof website which steals all the data you enter into it, and potentially hands over control of your account to crooks. Often, these scam emails can appear to come from your bank, PayPal or even Netflix. We discuss how these scams work and how to spot them in our article on identifying and avoiding phishing scams.

Back up your data

Backing up your data doesn’t mean just moving it somewhere, like onto a USB key. It means having a second copy of your data, on a different medium or device, kept at a different location. This means if your original copy (or your backed up copy) is stolen, lost or becomes inaccessible, you still have another copy. Our recommended backup solutions are here.

 
Don’t do sensitive stuff on public Wi-Fi

Public Wi-Fi is not the place to login to social media, do your online banking or do a spot of e-shopping. There are tons of tools that anyone can download that can easily snoop on the browsing habits of people connected to the same public Wi-Fi.

If you do use public Wi-Fi (or even if you don’t and want to stay anonymous) consider using a VPN which can obfuscate your personal information so it cannot be snooped on. Good VPNs cost money, but they’re great for people who want to stay anonymous online. ExpressVPN is one option and you can check them out here.

Use reliable security software

Many different types of malware are designed to spy on us (like spyware) and steal our sensitive data (like key-loggers.) That’s why it’s important to ensure malware doesn’t ever get onto our devices in the first place.

Most modern computers and laptops come with some sort of security software installed that comes packaged with the operating system (e.g. Windows) but if you want a superior and more reliable level of protection, we always recommend installing a third party program as well. For those with some degree of experience with online threats, a free program should suffice; AVG, Bitdefender or MalwareBytes all offer great free versions.

For those who would like some more hands-on protection including support and extra features (such as anti-SPAM and protection from phishing scams) you can check out our current editor’s recommendation below.