5 Rules of Cyber Hygiene Everyone Has to Know

In the first half of 2021, the attacks on people’s privacy on the Internet have hit 304.7 million globally. Companies keep trying to surpass the privacy rules set for the personal data shared online, but we don’t even realize how much our information is used by third parties. This is why being mindful of what you share on the web is so necessary now. If you know the set of rules for cyber protection, you will have more control over who can use your private information.

Why Companies Look for our Data

In a world of so much competition, companies have to use every asset imaginable to get insight on how to provide more value and benefits for the audience. Essentially, they want to know how to make you choose them among others.

There are though two types of companies that gather your data on the Internet:

• Data brokers. Did you know that there are companies that gather information online to sell it to businesses? These companies don’t want data to make insights as their strategy, they try to find as much as they can to provide benefits to other big companies.
• Businesses. Companies use the personal information of their users for various purposes, including analytics and targeted advertising. They take data on location, IP addresses, names, and even paying information to create a detailed picture of their real audience.

However, gathering data to improve how the company works and sells its products sounds quite innocent. How dangerous the use of big loads of personal data can become evident after the infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal. American data broker company Cambridge Analytica used the personal data of millions of Facebook users to sell psychological profiles to political campaigns before the 2014 election. This led to two important consequences:

1. The famous lawsuit that Facebook got because of the insufficient protection of data privacy of its users.
2. When personal data of users were used to allow politicians to manipulate the elections, people were furious about the misconduct and attempt to make a move on their human rights.

Knowing that the personal information of users is a treasure many companies want to have, businesses started to invest in data protection. After all, a single data breach costs American businesses an average of $8.64 million.

There is also such thing as identity theft. When you are online, you are a set of numbers that the computer recognizes as a real person. According to research by the Aite Group, 47% of Americans experienced identity theft in 2020. This number is frightening, especially when not all instances are innocent.

However, the use of personal data isn’t limited to only businesses. Famously, the FBI wanted to make Apple help with hacking technology, even if for the good cause. After the 2016 terrorist attack took the lives of 14 people, the FBI found an iPhone of the attacker. To try to add valuable attacks to the investigation, the establishment started a conversation with the company to gain the data from the phone.

What is Cyber Hygiene

Cyber hygiene is a set of habits you can use on the Internet to control who can see, use or share your personal information on the Internet. It can not only be used by individual users, but also by companies or organizations.

With every year, the number of attacks on personal data online is increasing. Personal data is recognized as a valuable asset companies can use for research, analytics, and advertising. In light of this happening, the White House urged the government and businesses to use the set of cyber hygiene rules to protect themselves from the attacks. These are the rules you can use too.

5 Rules of Cyber Hygiene

Just as you need to be careful in the real world, in the world of the Internet there are a set of rules that make your private information and online identity more secure.

Create Strong Passwords

In 2021, the top 5 most popular passwords in all countries consisted of variations of “123456” and the plain “password”. It takes a bit more than a second to hack those passwords and get whatever information they were protecting. This is why, as simple as this rule might seem, it is necessary to follow.

Source: wikiHow

Share banking details mindfully

What would you say if we told you that ATMs are popular hackers’ targets? In 2021, even the FBI had to issue an official statement of warning that hackers try to get people’s banking information from ATMs. Later that year, the FBI made public the number of losses as a result of cybercrime and internet fraud — $4.2 billion.

There are habits you can add to your payment routine to make your paying information more protected:

1. Avoid using public Wi-Fi. When you are giving your credit card numbers to the online stores, make sure you use your domestic Internet.
2. Two-factor authentication. Some years ago, two-factor authentication wasn’t even a thing, but you should enable it in your phone settings now to turn on even better protection.
3. Trustworthy financial apps. Before using any application that manages your finances, make sure that it was issued by the official establishment. Also, looking through their Privacy Notices wouldn’t hurt.

Apply Snowden’s Privacy Rules

If there is somebody that can tell valuable insights on data privacy, it is Edward Snowden. Snowden is an American former computer intelligence consultant of the National Security Agency (NSA). In 2013, he famously leaked very important information from the Agency. He shed light on the illegal surveillance run by NSA in cooperation with EU governments and telecommunication companies.

Edward Snowden now is pioneering for the security of data and freedom of the press, he gave recommendations on how to keep yourself secure from the ill-intended online attacks:

1. Encrypting phones and text messages. Don’t you ever think that your phone calls can be listened to? They can. To avoid worrying about it, you can add a free app Signal.
2. Encrypting your hard disk. You should move all valuable information to the hard disk and protect it with a password. If your computer is ever stolen, the thieves cannot access this information and figure out details about your life that they can use with ill intentions.
3. Using a password manager. For instance, if the password you used on the website ten years ago gets hacked, and you use the same password to access online banking on your phone, you can easily get your bank account hacked. A password manager helps to create unique passwords for every website. That is also why you shouldn’t use the same passwords for all websites.
4. Again, two-factor authentication. You know it is important when Edward Snowden points it out, too.

Read Documents Before Agreeing to Anything

Recall the times you clicked Agree instead of reading Privacy Notice or Cookie Policy on the websites. We will bet there were a lot. The reason is sometimes you are too tired to read loads of information or think that all of them are the same. However, almost every Privacy Notice differs and, if the company abides by the law, they state exactly what information you should be aware of them using.

New York Times even read 150 different Privacy Notices to make a point about how hard they are to read and almost impossible for the readers to understand.

If you don’t want to read all the documents, you should know what important questions to find answers to:

1. Does the notice give information on the law that regulates data processing?
2. What exactly do they collect? There must be a list of the information the business takes from you.
3. Is there a clear explanation of how the data will be collected? For instance, through cookies or other tracking services of purchases or different pages visited.
4. Why do they need this information? They have to tell what they use your data for — to make insight for the development of the business or to make more targeted feeds for your profile.
5. Do they share your information with third parties?
6. How long will the information be stored in the company?

Almost all companies, whose services you regularly use, explain why they need your information. For instance, when you give the details of your age and location to Tinder, they tell you that they are using this information to give you the options of the best matches nearby.

Source: Tinder

The same thing is with Instagram or TikTok To give you the feed you will enjoy, they must keep data about your preferences, frequent searches, or liked videos.

Source: TikTok

A very easy way to go through the document and find the important information is to use Ctrl + F and look for the keywords, like share, third parties, cookies, storage, or contact.

Regularly Update Software

Usually, when the software issues a new version it comes with better security practices, which makes the outdated version less supported and protected. If you want to be sure of the protection of your personal information, you should update the software you use when you see the notification.

Bottom Line

There is no doubt that privacy is important on the Internet, however, we don’t even know the scale of importance our personal information provides to third parties. We can use cyber rules to protect our data, but for businesses, it is extremely important to keep the information users trust them in a highly secure environment.

To be perfectly sure that your cybersecurity is top-notch, you can use the help of professionals. AVITAR has expertise in privacy protection online and can help you figure out all important steps to avoid leaks and breaches. Contact us using the form on the website, and we will connect you to one of the privacy specialists.