CIP Cyber

Keep Your Online Personal Identity as Secure as Possible

Table of Contents



1
– Make
Password Stronger




Your
password strength is crucial to protecting your identity online.
There are just too many bots that run automatic password trial and
error configurations. Your passwords for all your private information
should be a combination of letters and numbers, with uppercase
letters in random places. You can also substitute numbers for
letters, mash multiple words together or deliberately misspell words.
If you’re good at keeping track of your passwords, the best type of
password is a random string of characters.




2-
Pay Attention
to Those Security Questions




Although
security questions are used for a backup, this doesn’t mean you
shouldn’t put as much thought into them as you do your password. Use
questions that only you know the answer to, or better yet, don’t
directly answer the security question at all, instead, deliberately
enter specific numbers, letters or combination of both.




3-
Make Use of Applications




Use reliable anti-spyware and
antivirus programs to prevent infiltrations of malware, worms and
computer viruses. These can infiltrate your computer and send
information back to an Internet criminal or website looking for
personal information.




4- Beware
of the E-Mail from People You Don’t Know




If you don’t know who the
sender is, don’t open any attachment that comes from them. This could
be malware. You should also beware of e-mails that sound too good to
be true, it usually is. Never give out your personal information to
e-mail recipients you are unsure of, no matter what they offer. When,
or if, you receive an e-mail from your bank asking for your personal
information, make sure you call the bank and verify this e-mail was
sent from them.




5- Check
Credit Card Statements Carefully



Monitor your credit card in
your bank statements to make sure that there are no strings charges.
Criminals will sometimes try a one dollar deposit or withdrawal just
to make sure the number works before trying to purchase larger items
later. Remember, to ask for credit report every year and look for
credit accounts are charges that you didn’t make. This will tell you
whether someone else your credit information.

6-Use
Common Sense When Surfing Online



if something doesn’t feel or
look right when you’re surfing, then click off the site. Stay away
from suspicious sites, and quickly leave any you come across without
clicking on anything. Warning signs include websites that have
excessive amounts of advertisements, those that have sexual intent or
have too many sexual implications; this usually an occasion of an
unsafe site.



7-
Remove Personal Information from Public Websites



If you have listed personal
information like your phone number or address with social media
platforms like Facebook or MySpace, you should remove these, as an
identity thief may be able to use this information to establish
accounts in your name.



8- Keep
Track of Your Children’s Surfing Habits



Your children’s surfing
activities could put you and them and risk. Talk to them about safe
surfing practices and consider using current parental control software to protect them further.



9- A
VPN Service is Your Best Option



Although, all of the above
suggestions can help protect you against cyber crimes, the best type
of protection is secure surfing through encryption services. This
works by encasing your surfing activity in a virtual tunnel
protecting it from all other Internet access. This type of service is
offered by a Virtual Private Network (VPN). When you contract a
reliable VPN service company you protect all of your Internet
surfing, whether you are visiting websites, sending E-Mail or
chatting with friends. In essence, using a VPN means you don’t have
to worry about all of the above steps. All of your Internet activity
is kept completely safe.



Bottom line



Although
there are some basic, and common sense activities you can perform
yourself to keep your identity safe online, the easiest way of
protecting yourself is by surfing through a VPN service. In the
Internet world this is comparable to driving around in a bulletproof
car. And the best part is that a reliable VPN service is really
inexpensive, often costing about five dollars a month.







CIP Cyber Staff

CIP Cyber Staff

CIP Cyber Staff comprises CIP cybersecurity experts committed to delivering comprehensive information on critical infrastructure protection. The content covers diverse topics, equipping professionals to defend organizations and communities in an ever-evolving cyber landscape.

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