Personal Cyber Security Tips: 10 Good Practice

Every day we surf the internet recklessly without thinking of its drastic consequences. In fact, not just on the internet but also on social media where we post whatever comes to our minds. Here are the Top 10 personal cyber security tips.

Have you ever thought for even a microsecond that someone might be keeping track of our every move on the other side of our laptop or mobile screens?

Well, did you know that more than 60% of fraud originates from mobile devices? Also, around 1.4 lakh account hacking attempts are witnessed every hour on various social media sites.

If this is not an eye-opener for you, then what else can be? But we don’t need to do a lot to stay safe online because the truth is, no matter what we do, we still are vulnerable to being hacked.

However, there can be several small ways by which we can still stay cautious and be a step ahead of the average person in terms of cybersecurity.

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Top 10 Personal Cyber Security Tips

The following are some of the points you should keep in mind while you are online.

1. Use end-to-end encrypted sites

To be safe on the internet, try to use HTTPS sites rather than going on HTTP sites. The only difference between the two of them is the ‘s’ in HTTPS which stands for secure.

There is a lock icon across the hyperlink of such websites that shows that they are secured as compared to other sites so, your data is safer there than at any other place.

2. Be selective on social media

Coming to social media serves as a platform for unknown and extensive exploitation of your personal information. Whenever you are online, remember that even if you are adding some personal information for your friends to look at and know about it, thousands of unknown people can easily see it without much effort.

Even if they don’t hack your password, they can do so by going through your profile by accessing your mutual friends’ ID. It’s that simple. Just a few clicks and everything they want to see is right before them. So, no matter how private your account is, keep it concise and put safe information and pictures on the account.

3. Keep a track

The mantra is simple. Stay safe, back up, and monitor. As much as staying protected is important, tracking your daily activity is equally required. Sometimes, you get to know your account is hacked when you see such posts that have been liked by your account but you never did on your own. In this manner, you can get to know about your account being hacked as soon as possible to make amends to stop it from further problems.

4. Different passwords

This is self-explanatory. Keep a different password for different social media profiles. It’s indeed obvious why but still just for the sake of convenience, we don’t follow it. but the truth is, we need to follow it as a part of the various little things we can do to fulfill it. So, not very drastic changes, but keep some changes in them to stay safe.

5. Connect to encrypted Wi-Fi only

As obvious as it may sound, the more neglected it is. Always try to use Wi-Fi networks that are secured because usually, hackers are looking for victims who fail to do so.

It is much easier for them to access your personal information while your password is not encrypted and they can steal the personal information that your laptop or mobile phone has in a second.

If you think, you have nothing to lose if your mobile gets hacked then, it’s the greatest myth one can have in their mind. You don’t know what a hacker might find useful. Your mere identity, maybe, is what they need for committing crimes then no other personal information is needed to create havoc, and this itself can create a huge problem for you.

6. Do not save your passwords in your browser

This is a very common mistake that all of us must have done at least once in our lives. Whenever our browser asks us to save the password for the site, our tentative choice is ‘yes’ so that we don’t have to keep feeding passwords every time.

It surely is an easier way if you frequently use that website, however, at the same time, it comes with a lot of risks as well. Anything that makes our lives easier on the internet or social media is only a step forward for hackers to enter our lives.

If we save the password for that website, it becomes quite a cakewalk for hackers to hack your ID and have access to your details. So, no matter how many times you have to type in your password, never save it even once and do it every single time.

Also, use a virtual keyboard whenever you get the chance. It’s the safest option to enter your ID and password for any site.

If you already saved a password, follow these steps to remove saved passwords from Google Chrome.

7. Back up your phone

While we talk about securing ourselves on the internet, it is equally essential for us to keep the information safe on our phones in the first place.

Keep backing up your data regularly so that even if something happens to your mobile phone, your data is completely secured. Keep the settings for backup daily this way there won’t be a lot to back up together if you do it irregularly.

8. No Public Wi-Fi Spots

These Wi-Fi spots are a temptation for everybody. They are free of cost and they give a break to our ever-exceeding bills that we spend on mobile data. But, sadly, they are more likely to be prone to danger than any of us ever thought them to be.

This is because they are easy to access for all of us so, the hackers do not have to crack the Wi-Fi password to get to us in the first place. Hence, the first level of their fraudulent activity is done without any effort.

Thus, always avoid using those public Wi-Fi networks to keep yourself safe from cyber crimes.

9. Be choosy

You don’t have to accept every follow or friend request you get on social media. Of course, it increases the number of people on your profile but trust me, it’s not more important to get the numbers if they are not genuine. Some of them are just spam and if by mistake you have accepted their request, either undo it or block them before it’s too late.

Sometimes, more people have blocked them than you thought. Luckily, if it is a private account, it will be banned if at least 10 accounts have blocked it. So, take a step if the question is about your safety.

10. Think before clicking on any link

It’s human tendency to just click on whatever you see in a different color on a bio. However, it can pay you hard if you’re not very careful at clicking the links. Do not just relentlessly click on any link you come across on social media or the internet in general.

See for yourself whether it is safe to open it or not. Sometimes, just opening the link can get your profile hacked and all your information will be leaked before you even realize it has happened. Therefore, be cautious while at it.

The Bottom Line

So, now we know quite a lot of Personal Cyber Security tips to follow to stay safer. Some of them are easy, while others are more known than followed but all of them are important to remember every time we surf the net.

Remember, you might be looking at a single picture or are surfing a particular website but there are thousands of eyes keeping a watch on your activity at the very moment. If you want them to merely look at your history and not be able to do anything then create your surroundings on the virtual screen more secure than it is right now.

As much as a flower is loved for its fragrance it’s detested for its thorns. Make sure your hands don’t land up on them or you might get a reality check of something that you never thought could harm you this much.