Foolproof Tips to keep your digital identity secure

In this digital age, almost everything is connected to the internet that is why you have to be extra careful because it’s literally the land where no rules apply. Protect yourself smartly or fall prey to cyber criminals. 

Here are some tips to keep you safe!

If Seems Fishy, Don’t Fish.

Inherently, people have more confidence in social media – only in recent years have threats been published. Do not consider friends or link invites, even though you have people in common. A fake account might give you a request for a friend to create a profile and dupe another into claiming they are a legitimate account. They may also give you a request for a different attack, for example by clicking on a phishing connection. The best choice is for those you don’t know not to approve link requests.

Evaluate Everything on the Internet Carefully

In addition to not accepting requests from accounts you don’t know, take the time to go through your current followers across all accounts. Double check current connections and friends and recent requests – you may have unknowingly accepted a request from someone who looked familiar but is unknown upon further inspection. An individual’s profile may look legitimate (i.e., you have multiple connections in common and the person claims to work for a company you know). Hackers use this tactic to masquerade as someone you should trust. The more mutual connections you have, the more difficult it is to detect whether the account is fake. Dig deeper before you click accept or even respond to a message to ensure it’s not fake.

Don’t Trust Anyone Easily

It is good to get assistance with any computer issues you might have from technological help. However, don’t be misled by suspected tech support agents who call or email you otherwise. Yes, it will complain that your machine has viruses sent out and that it needs to be cleansed or that you are in trouble. They will make some crazy story, but they will eventually start demanding passwords or remote access to your machine. Hang up. Hang up. Hang up.

Get Protection

A powerful antivirus or even a full protection suite is needed for every PC and laptop. Some security suites provide laptop anti-book protection; even stand-alone tools can lock a missing or stolen laptop and even help to retrieve the laptop. Mobile device protection products tend to combine antivirus and anti-submission. But any computer may get lost or stolen, therefore install protection. Android devices are especially vulnerable.

Don’t stop; also download a private virtual network, or VPN. The VPN protects data during travel on the internet, while your local protection program protects your data on your own computers. The use of a VPN also allows for the hiding of your personal IP address so that websites are not able to locate your location. This lets you access region restricted networks and programs such as UK TV if you’re abroad.

Phishing Is No Fun

Having a Trojan robber on millions of machines is difficult. It’s difficult. To manipulate victims simply into giving their credentials is much simpler. In order to enter his username and password, phishing Websites imitate banking and other sensitive websites. You can also redirect to the current location. Do not give away your identity. Do not click on any links if you receive an email from your bank. Log on to the website of the bank, instead. Check for a stable HTTPS URL and lock Icon, and make sure you have the right URL in the address bar. If a website flags as fraudulent with your antivirus or browser, stay away!

Don’t Broadcast Your Life on Social Media

The more information you share about yourself (e.g. home address, travel plans, birthdays), the more the bad guy will learn about you and target you in the most efficient manner either directly by hacking or indirectly by using social engineering. The types of information hackers may use to formulate answers to the security questions in the two-factor authentication or password resets, for example, birth days and animal names, likely posted on Instagram. Indirectly, bad cyber criminals can use your details to construct a customized, generically more efficient attack. North Korean hackers were for example recruiting on LinkedIn last year with a pledge to promote and increase salaries to mid-level workers in a Latin American bank. The employee was demanded to download and install and execute an allegedly recruitment-related file. The file included malware that has helped North Koreans penetrate the network that connects all ATMs in the world.