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6 Steps to Stay Safe on the Web

With this article, I will give some ideas for maintaining the security of electronic devices. This is urgent and mandatory with the increase of attacks on significant companies, small businesses, and ordinary citizens.

But where to start? This is usually the question we often hear in conversations about this topic. The best thing is, to begin with, your accounts and devices. It is possible to stay safe and surf the web confidently if you apply a few practices, choose tools that protect you, and keep your systems up to date.

Account security and password management

Passwords are used for everything these days. A February 2020 study found that the average citizen has more than 70-80 passwords. Everything from email to our favorite online store requires one, so unsurprisingly, 65% of people use the same password for multiple accounts.

But why is this important? Even though access to your bank account and access to your Facebook account use the same password, no one will guess that your password is based on your favorite recipe. Right? Well, surprisingly, it doesn’t take much to think. Nowadays, using various methods, such as brute force, dictionary attacks, or rainbow tables, is relatively simple.

Don’t reuse the same password for many websites

A bank may be less likely to suffer a security breach, but what about all the other websites we use? According to some studies, 30,000 websites are attacked every day

When a small business’ website is attacked, and the usernames and passwords are stolen, the attackers can use freely available credential padding tools to automatically try those username and password combinations on thousands of other websites.

Try services like Have I Been Pwned, which can tell you if your email address has been involved in a data breach.

Use strong passwords

The more characters, different capital letters, and special symbols a password have, the more difficult a “brute force” attack will be.

Use a password manager

A password manager is a software that usually comes in a browser extension and stores all your passwords in an encrypted format so that you don’t need to remember every password individually. Instead, you only need to remember one master password. Even the United States government recommends using one!

Define Multi-factor Authentication

Two-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) are best practices for maintaining security. Each extra authentication step adds a layer of protection. At a minimum, 2FA should be enabled for high-value accounts, such as your bank account. Tools like Google Authenticator App or YubiKey make code-based MFA more convenient.

Keep your software up-to-date

Knowledge is power when it comes to cybersecurity. Hackers exploit vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access to information, but if you keep your systems up to date, it makes exploiting those vulnerabilities more complicated. Check daily that you are using the current version of your browser and operating system.

Conclusion

You can make these changes at a time, but these adjustments can make a huge difference! 

These are good practices to start implementing in your business and family.

Segue-nos

6 Steps to Stay Safe on the Web

With this article, I will give some ideas for maintaining the security of electronic devices. This is urgent and mandatory with the increase of attacks on significant companies, small businesses, and ordinary citizens.

But where to start? This is usually the question we often hear in conversations about this topic. The best thing is, to begin with, your accounts and devices. It is possible to stay safe and surf the web confidently if you apply a few practices, choose tools that protect you, and keep your systems up to date.

Account security and password management

Passwords are used for everything these days. A February 2020 study found that the average citizen has more than 70-80 passwords. Everything from email to our favorite online store requires one, so unsurprisingly, 65% of people use the same password for multiple accounts.

But why is this important? Even though access to your bank account and access to your Facebook account use the same password, no one will guess that your password is based on your favorite recipe. Right? Well, surprisingly, it doesn’t take much to think. Nowadays, using various methods, such as brute force, dictionary attacks, or rainbow tables, is relatively simple.

Don’t reuse the same password for many websites

A bank may be less likely to suffer a security breach, but what about all the other websites we use? According to some studies, 30,000 websites are attacked every day

When a small business’ website is attacked, and the usernames and passwords are stolen, the attackers can use freely available credential padding tools to automatically try those username and password combinations on thousands of other websites.

Try services like Have I Been Pwned, which can tell you if your email address has been involved in a data breach.

Use strong passwords

The more characters, different capital letters, and special symbols a password have, the more difficult a “brute force” attack will be.

Use a password manager

A password manager is a software that usually comes in a browser extension and stores all your passwords in an encrypted format so that you don’t need to remember every password individually. Instead, you only need to remember one master password. Even the United States government recommends using one!

Define Multi-factor Authentication

Two-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) are best practices for maintaining security. Each extra authentication step adds a layer of protection. At a minimum, 2FA should be enabled for high-value accounts, such as your bank account. Tools like Google Authenticator App or YubiKey make code-based MFA more convenient.

Keep your software up-to-date

Knowledge is power when it comes to cybersecurity. Hackers exploit vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access to information, but if you keep your systems up to date, it makes exploiting those vulnerabilities more complicated. Check daily that you are using the current version of your browser and operating system.

Conclusion

You can make these changes at a time, but these adjustments can make a huge difference! 

These are good practices to start implementing in your business and family.

Segue-nos

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