Data Security: 11 Things You Can Do Right Now

We live in an age of unprecedented interconnectedness. The amount of data floating around out there is staggering, and even the most innocent looking site might be collecting your personal information. 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t just take a major hack for cybercriminals to get their hands on this kind of information. 

A lot of the time you’ll find that data leaks are due to human error– which means that you’re largely responsible for protecting yourself and your data. Fomoco News has some more things you can do right now with data security.

Here at our company we’re always trying to educate our clients on best practices when it comes to security, but sometimes things slip through the cracks (that’s why I’m writing this blog post!). 

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and there is definitely no such thing as a free trip to the doctor. There are some very easy things you can do to keep yourself and your family safe from hackers at all times.

It sounds very simplistic, but sometimes it’s more of an art than a science. So here’s what we do: we check our calendars and make sure we’re never in the same place with anyone who isn’t on the calendar, which includes our kids’ teachers, dentists, babysitters and friends from school. 

We have very strict rules in place about when we can visit relatives, whether it be over the holidays or just for a quick stop-over on a random Tuesday afternoon. 

We also make sure to notify all of our family members that call us on Skype or Whatsapp that we are on a fixed schedule that has nothing to do with them. Some of the most common places people get hacked include financial websites, social media sites, dating sites and online banking.

1.Ensuring Your Family Has Enough Protection.

Protecting yourself from hackers can be time consuming– after all, it’s impossible to forever put up walls around your personal life. You should take it upon yourself to be vigilant about your data. However, you should also take steps to protect other people in your life who may not know the ins and outs of protecting themselves. 

It can be hard enough trying to keep children safe online without having to worry about data hacks, but this is 2016, and it’s an integral part of life these days! 

You need to make sure your family is protected adequately, and while you definitely want to exercise caution when installing software on someone else’s computer/tablet/phone, if you’re concerned about protecting a loved one you should strongly consider doing so.

2. Install a Firewall and a Strong Password

You’d be surprised how many companies have no idea what kind of hardware their clients have installed. This means that hackers can easily have access to your router/modem/cable modem, which is a major security risk. In addition, username and password combos can be easily cracked because they are easy to guess. 

A lot of times it’s not even necessary to crack passwords– simply knowing your username and password can be enough to take over your account, but this is the easiest way for hackers to get into your system. 

It’s also incredibly easy to tell when passwords are being used on your laptop/tablet/phone because the process of re-entering them several times can make them easily recognizable.

If you’re concerned about keeping your account safe, install a firewall and strong passwords. That way, you won’t need to worry about your username and password getting cracked.

3. Don’t Live in The Past

We’re seeing more and more people who wish to revert back to the old social media sites, or use messaging apps that are no longer supported. We’ve even seen grandparents using AOL because they think it’s safer, never mind the fact that their children don’t use it anymore. 

This is a huge security risk, because you’ll be transmitting data about yourself without even knowing if people are still vulnerable. It’s important to educate yourself on the latest security risks so you know what steps you need to take. If you’re worried about getting hacked, check out our blog post on how protecting your hospital information can be easy!

4. Don’t Use Browsers

In the past, we’ve seen people use Netscape Navigator because they thought it was more secure. The problem with this is, Netscape Navigator hasn’t been updated in 15 years. We also see people using Internet Explorer because they think it’s safer than Firefox. 

If you’re using older browsers there’s a very good chance you’ve got some kind of security hole in your computer/tablet/phone, which is incredibly easy to exploit by hackers. It’s important to keep your software up to date at all times so you don’t run into any problems.

5. Deactivate Your Social Media Accounts

This is a fairly easy and obvious one if your social media accounts are deactivated, they can’t be hacked. If someone manages to take over your account they’re going to have a lot of trouble gaining access to anything that isn’t publicly available on the Internet– and that includes pictures and information about you. 

This doesn’t mean that the worst thing that could happen would be the hacker getting a hold of what you’ve already posted they can also get access to any private data stored in sites like Facebook and Twitter, which is fairly dangerous.