How to Prevent Online Breaches
As technology is advancing and the world is becoming more digitally based by the minute, taking better security measures to ensure one’s online safety and privacy is more important than ever. So people hacking into someone’s personal information online is obviously becoming a more common offense. People should be able to have their banking or health records online and not have to worry about it being hacked. They should be able to plan a harmless family vacation and pay for the hotel room online and not have to worry about the hotels account being hacked and therefore all their information being stolen.
Hotels are beginning to cut down on people booking rooms under someone else’s card. After you pay for a hotel room online, when you go to check in hotels now ask for your ID and the card you paid for the room with. This is how they are trying to ensure no one has used anther person’s credit card.
There are plenty of measures anyone can take to try to ensure their identity has a lower chance of being stolen.
One thing is to practice basic online safety. This includes not trying to self diagnose yourself online by putting in your symptoms and information into a health website. Around 90 percent of this information ends up getting stolen by hackers. Another precaution you can take is to mix up your passwords and usernames. Most people use the same password for multiple accounts, this only makes it that much easier for hackers to get into not just one account, but possibly multiple. Another easy step is to check the URL for “https” exactly. This is because the “s” stands for secure. At the end of the day an overall thought when it comes to keeping your private information private it to just keep in mind, whatever you put online has a chance of someone finding access to it. So try not to type anything into an online source if you did not want the stranger passing you on the sidewalk to know it.
Say someone has begun to hack into your online security, there are still ways to minimize your chances of a further breach.
Step one would be to, pin down exactly what was stolen. You will want to then categorize it into one of the three groups of how important the stolen information was from “least sensitive”. This is the stuff that could already be public knowledge such as your name or address. The next category is called “more sensitive”. This includes your birthday or credit card numbers. And the “most sensitive,” social security numbers, bank account numbers, and passwords fit into this category. The next thing to do is to immediately change your log in information. Report the hacker to the appropriate institutions immediately. This is important because if a credit card number has been stolen or your bank account number has been compromised the bank can shut it down so the hacker can not take anymore of your money. Also, this way no one can open any accounts posing under your name. You may want to research for new ways of guaranteeing your online security. Many credit card companies have an option so the card owner can have text message alerts every time their card is swiped. This way if someone is using your information you will know right away.
There are things you can do if your online information has been hacked.
The first would be to disconnect your computer from the WIFI, and pull the network cable. If you are trying to disconnected your laptop or computer from the WIFI you must make sure it is actually disconnected from the WIFI source because the hackers could have implanted malware that says the computer is disconnected from the internet, when in reality it is still connected. Shutting down the computer will prevent further hacking from happening. And once the computer is shut down completely, extract the hard drive. Search and scan the computer for any invasive malware that could be implanted. Get your personal information and the most important files backed up on a different hard drive than the one that was in the hacked computer. After you have done all of this, make sure to completely wipe your hard drive because even though you may think you have gotten rid of the malware, it could still be implanted somewhere. Reinstall the security software. You will want to check all your files that you backed up to make sure that they are clean so you do not reupload the virus back onto your computer and all your work wasn’t for nothing. The last thing it to do a final backup of your entire system. This is a precaution for the fact that if this should happen again, the entire process will not take as long.
Everything can be tracked nowadays by somebody, whether they would have good intentions or not. This cannot always be prevented but the best ways to try are to use common sense. Meaning, do not reply to suspicious emails, download sketchy apps, and basically do not put any personal information into a website without doing your research to make sure it is legit.