10 tips to avoid getting hacked. Complete Guide

Are you an individual work from home and feel yourself insecure by using the Internet that is surrounded by hackers and cyber thieves?

Well, Cyber snipers are active all the time attacking online businesses and individuals. Their next target could be you or your business. Not only can these attackers cripple your computer, your smartphone and destroy your data but even more importantly you could end up being the sufferer of identity theft.

But don’t worry before getting to their knees or being their prey I am going to share with you 10 important security steps. By following these steps you can make yourself more protected both at your business and home.

Credit: Pixabay

Let’s start off with no first 

1)Update your computer 

The first step is to get everything on your computer up to date. if you're using a PC you're running windows and if you're on a Mac you' rerunning the Mac OS so make sure if you're running the newest version or not, to check this you can do a simple search on Google how do I find the version of my operating system will enable you to find that information quickly if you're not on the newest version of your operating system then you should upgrade to the latest one for example if you're running Windows XP or 8 you should stop what you're doing right now and upgrade as soon as possible the next step is to make sure your antivirus software is also up-to-date just like in the previous point the quick search on Google will help you identify where to look to find the antivirus software information and make sure the browser that you're using to surf the web is also up-to-date using the latest version.

So the first and foremost things you can do which is updates and patches. Some people think that if I install a patch it's going to break everything and that can happen but by-and-large do not so it is safe for us to install the patches that have been given to us by our software vendors and operating system. so let's do that because for the biggest reason is going to be their error. usually security updates to your systems in those patches and we want to make sure to get those installed because they are what's going to be our first line of defence against some bad actor out there looking to do us harm or steal our data infiltrate our systems.

2) Two-factor authentication 

Number two, use two-factor authentication or two-step verification everywhere that you can.

Your banking systems, Twitter, Facebook all support the ability for you to enable additional security the feature that you may not know.

You go to your settings, 

You can enable it and

every time that you log in,

it'll register your computer, and you can then get a text message to go into that system as a second form of verification.

And why that's important

is because if a hacker

gets access to your

password, they still have

to have access to your phone

to get access to your account.

And that's really important by enabling that specific security step.

Credit :Pixabay

3) Don’t use the same password 

Number three is, don't use the same password everywhere.

let's be honest here most of us use the same password for everything why do we do this because it's simple and easy to remember 

we don't want to forget the password and

have to try to remember all the

different passwords as a result we end 

Photo by cottonbro from pixels 

up using the same password over and over

here's a problem with that though once a

the site gets hacked or your username and

password has stored the hackers will then

try to take that same information to

other sizes like banks or you're social

media accounts

access sensitive information they

could use to exploit you even further

the assumption is that you probably use

the same username and password

the combination on these other sites and

that's a safe bet

so here are some simple things you can do

get a tool that enables you to keep

track of all your passwords in one place

the beauty of these apps is that you

only need to know one password when you

enter your password into the app it will

populate the login information you

previously stored into the site you're trying to access also change your passwords every three months to avoid using your name birthday or initials in your password.

4) Create a strong password 

number 4 is creating strong passwords. Make it extremely hard if not

impossible for someone to hack into your account. So in order to make a strong password follow these steps 

• Use more than one word in your password like a phrase but the one you remember it easily later. Also, avoid using common phrases.

• It’s a good thing to use a combination of upper and lower case letters and also include some special characters in your password.

• And the most important thing is that avoid using personal information while making a password. After creating a strong password note it down with you keep it secure and don’t share it with anyone.

5) Public wireless 📶 

connections when using a wireless internet connection in a public place

like a coffee shop remember you're on a network shared by others and you can be

compromised many people don't think about this when surfing in their hotel room you're on the same wireless connection with a lot of other

people and you need to be sure to turn

off sharing in the settings of your

device enable your firewall settings and

visit sites that are encrypted which you

can find at the top of your address bar.

Another thing is that avoid public Wi-Fi and to avoid using public Wi-Fi one of the things you can do rather is to use your phone cellular signal has a location now you might be restricted by a data plan and that's okay I understand that totally but if you can switch to something like that model for network activity and network access is by using your own phone using your own network thing that you know when you trust is way better than trying to use some sort of public Wi-Fi access that you've no idea who is lingering and looking around that might be able to steal your data so you should avoid using it.

6 ) Encrypt the data on your computer 

if you have a Mac computer you have the file installed already on your computer take these simple steps. Search on Google how do you could encrypt the data disk encryption will prevent the third party from infiltrating the content of the computer if in case it's stolen a thief could a just cut the drive out and plug it into another computer to view the entire contents so you should remember the password because the password unlocks the data so put it in the password manager. for Windows users

BitLocker is a default encryption service but it’s sad that Windows 10 home users won't have access to

BitLocker without the first upgrading to windows 10 pro but there exist some other 

methods doing for to date on your computer by encrypting there yousendially lock it so that should your

computer be jeopardized someone cannot view the vulnerable information you have stored something that is important to you.

7) social media

Try to put limited information online.

Hackers can look at that.

Look at your doing and spending habits, what you’re doing at the daily routine

going and buying things 

at a certain location.

Those are all the important things that attackers can use to identify

when you're going to be out 

or when you're going to be

at a specific spot.

The infiltrator can use that as a tool to attack you.

They can also be sending a text message through any one of the social media platforms to track you.

So those are trends that

attackers can influence 

is essential, how you actually operate,

and all that information

that you post online

are things that they can use to attack you.

 

8) personal information.

This is one of the most important 

aspect that attackers

can influence to get access to your data.

That is the social security numbers, your credit card numbers. A person calling you from bank services is not going to ask you for that type of information.

So whenever you get a call,

that's too good to be true,

or a call that is a fraud

services line, call them back.

Look at the number on

the website themselves

and call it back cause a

a lot of times attackers will

represent financial services.

They'll pretend 

different groups in order to get your personal information and use that to be able to make deceitful charges.

So it’s better to verify first by going to  their site, call them itself, out from there and then call to an actual person that's at that institute itself.

9 Avoid phishing 

 Phishing is the FALSE practice of sending emails that pretend to be from a reputable company in order to gain personal information from people like passwords or credit card numbers you may have received those emails before that have

braining that is consistent with an institution or service you use like a

bane oftentimes in these emails there's a link requesting you to reset your password and when you click on the link it will take you to a site that looks just like your bank and upon entering your personal

the information they can now take that information to your bank's website and

getting access to it

don't be a trap. Your bank and other similar institutions

will not ask you for sending prudent information over email and you also don't give out your personal

information over the phone or email to someone 

unless you began that contact again and also

check the site you're on to ensure it has the HTTPS and lock icon in the address bar.

10) credit cards 

 Inspect your credit card and

bank accounts on a regular basis if there's anything suspicious or odd communicate your credit card company immediately also make sure to know what

credit cards you carry out with yourself and their contact information for each if you lose your cards call immediately and cancel them. when using ATM or credit card in public like at a gas pump be sure to look for

skimmer devices as these can easily pull your information off your card. And also limit the use of your debit cards for retail purchases or online because the law provides much protection from liability when your credit card is illegally used then when your debit card is fraudulently used.