Five Online Privacy Tips for Safer Internet day

It’s Safer Internet Day once again, so we’ve compiled 5 tips aimed to help you stay safe online.

Use Two-Factor Authentication

Two-factor authentication enabled on your online accounts can protect you from a number of different online threats, such as phishing attacks, third party data breaches and keylogger malware.

2FA means even if crooks do somehow manage to obtain your username and password, they still can’t access your online account because they’d also need a separate piece of information that is generated (or sent to) another device you own, or your email address.

Most online platforms – including Facebook, Twitter, PayPal, eBay, Gmail, Hotmail, Google and Apple – all support two-factor authentication. The great thing about 2FA is that it is effective at protecting you against a whole variety of different scams and threats.

Learn more about 2FA in our post here.

Use good password habits

Easy-to-guess passwords remain a stubborn bad habit in the Cybersecurity world, with classics such as “password” and “123456” remaining some of the most commonly used passwords according to analysis from data breaches.

These passwords will simply not protect you. Crooks can generate software that can try the most commonly used passwords when attempting to crack online accounts, meaning if you use a bad password, it’s likely to only take crooks mere seconds to bypass it.

Creating good passwords isn’t difficult. Use a variety of letters (uppercase and lowercase) and numbers, and you can even combine different words together to make a strong password. You can also use a Password Manager to store those passwords so you don’t have to remember each one.

And importantly, don’t reuse the same passwords across different accounts! This is because if one password is exposed (e.g. from a data breach) crooks can then try and use those leaked credentials in other websites. It’s called a credential stuffing scam.

Consider a VPN

VPNs are not for everyone, but if you’re a frequent Internet user or often use public Wi-Fi and don’t like the idea of people potentially snooping on your online activity, you could consider a VPN.

A VPN essentially encrypts all of the data your devices sends out and receives back from the Internet. Normally, this data contains information about your online activity, and could potentially be intercepted by third parties, such as your ISP or people using eavesdropping software. But a VPN will encrypt all that data and route it across its own private network, making it more difficult for your data to be intercepted and read.

And because the data is routed via the VPN network, even the website you’re using won’t know your true location, meaning in some cases you can bypass geographical restrictions.

We explain more about VPNs and our recommendations here.

Good Security Software

The most obvious piece of advice is to use good security software. Security software these days can protect you from a whole host of online threats including phishing, identity theft and of course malware. We recommend some full security suites in our post here.

Not only should you have good security software – but always ensure your software is up-to-date and still supported.

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Read this checklist of common scams in 2023

Finally, instead of droning on about the most current scams, we’ve created this brief checklist of some of the prolific scams doing the rounds.

Romance scams. Scammers use social media and dating websites to hook you in, and try and develop an intense relationship with you. But before long, they’ll be coming up with excuses as to why you need to be sending them money. We have a whole post on romance scams here, but remember – if you’ve never met in person, keeping your sensitive information and wallet out of their hands!
Hey I Need Help WhatsApp scam. Received a message from a family member on WhatsApp but it’s from an unknown number? Then it’s probably a scam. Always talk with the family member first, especially if talking about money.

Fake Facebook giveaways. We’ve talked so much about this over the years, yet they remain a popular scam. You’re not going to win expensive prizes from random, anonymous Facebook pages for “liking and sharing” a post. You’ll likely be forwarded to spammy marketing websites that harvest your personal information.
Facebook courier marketplace scam. If you’re selling on Facebook (or other platforms) be aware of crooks offering to send you money through a courier. This is a scam designed to trick you into paying an upfront fee on a spoof phishing website.
Facebook cloning scams. Received a friend request from someone you’re already friends with? It could be a clone account operated by a scammer attempting to trick you into sending them money. More on these scams here.