It’s No Surprise Anymore: Your Online Accounts Are Not Safe
Your PC could be like an open book about your life. It likely contains many personal documents, including your bank statements, financial accounts, resumes, tax documents and last wishes, among many others. The last thing you want is anyone having access to these documents, but if you spend any time online, the chances are very high that someone could gain access to this information or any other. Your online accounts are just not safe unless you take the necessary precautions to make them safe such as the use of reputable virus protection software, using appropriate passwords, utilizing notifications for account usage, and only using your computer for personal accounts.
Set the Right Passwords
Using the password that you will remember the easiest is not the best technique to use when setting up your online passwords. You want to make them something that is difficult to break into. Whenever possible you should use passwords that are a combination of lowercase and capital letters, numbers, and special symbols and are at the very least 8 characters long. This will make it harder for anyone to guess your password, even if you use an obvious name, such as your own name, which is never recommended, but the number and/or special characters give it the extra layer of protection against being hacked. It is best to create an acronym of words or phrase you would like to use and add your letters and numbers to it. This will help you to remember it by using a name or phrase you love, while making it difficult to crack. If you think you will never remember your passwords, do not store them on your computer, rather write them down on a piece of paper but do not label it — just store it out of sight for those times when you might forget your passwords.
Antivirus Protection
A good antivirus program is one of the largest defenses against online hackers. Unfortunately, it is not enough just to install an antivirus to prevent unauthorized access to your PC; you must maintain it. Some virus protection programs for pc allows you to set up automatic updates and regularly scheduled scans of your computer; take advantage of this. At the very least, you have the peace of mind that your program is up-to-date against the latest threats and is constantly being scanned. In addition, however, you should check its status periodically and run scans whenever you feel that your information may have been compromised; it is always best to err on the side of caution.
Set up Notifications
Most online accounts offer notifications when your account was used by a computer other than your own. Websites track who accesses their pages and accounts by use of the IP address. As an added layer of security in addition to your PC virus protection software, set up these notifications. Facebook, Twitter, various banks, and credit card companies have this capability, it just might not be obvious right away. When you sign up for an account, go through the security pages and check out your options to increase your security. Some accounts, such as Gmail even offer two-step verification which makes users enter a second verification code after the password is entered. This second code is sent to a predetermined email or phone number, making it more difficult for anyone other than you to get into your accounts.
Avoid Public Computers
It seems like wherever we go, there are computers for use or at the very least free Wi-Fi to access accounts on your phone. While this is a nice convenience, it should never be used for personal accounts. You have no idea how secure the connection is and how easy you are making it for hackers to get into your account. If you are using a public computer or Wi-Fi, use it strictly for convenience, such as searching for a specific product or finding that perfect restaurant near your location — do not use it to do your online banking, pay a bill, access your social media accounts, or even check email in order to keep your accounts safe from hackers.
Your online accounts are not safe, no matter how comfortable you may feel. It is vital that you take appropriate steps to constantly ensure your privacy as new threats pop up every day. Starting with setting up a malware protection program to your PC is the best way to start, but you have to continually make changes and watch your access all of the time; as soon as you let your guard down, you are opening yourself up to the risk of being hacked.
