)Protect your privacy
The word privacy is a rarity these days. With pretty much everything being accessible via social media or the website, there’s not much that can be kept private.
Personal information is worth a lot to both legitimate companies who want to be able to sell their products and services to you and to shady characters who just want to steal from you.
So, what can you do to help keep your personal information personal?
Restrict how much information you share via your social media profiles. The people that need to know you birthday/year of birth will know it, similarly avoid adding your email address and contact telephone numbers. The more information you provide, the more the cyber criminals are going to love you! If you don’t want people knowing about your private life, then avoid sharing it! If you are wanting to share information, then restrict who can view it. You can easily do this by editing your Privacy Settings.
It might sound simple (and it might be a pain) but set a password for your PC or laptop – you’d be surprised at how many don’t! While it might not matter while you’re in the house with loved ones who can access it, what happens if it’s stolen or it gets lost?
The same goes for your mobile devices (and perhaps even more so) as they tend to be with you the majority of time! There are apps you can download to help you locate your mobile device if it’s lost or stolen.
Surf the internet anonymously! Enable private browsing and by doing so you’ll be hiding specific information such as your browsing history, Cookies and site data and any information you’ve entered in forms.
We think companies are protecting us when they ask us for security questions such as your mother’s maiden name or your first school but consider giving false information as the answers. The truth is likely to be accessible via the internet for someone to figure out and use on your behalf to gain access to valuable information. Just make sure you remember the false answers!
If you do just one or some of these things, you’ll be one closer to keeping your personal information secure and out of the clutches of cyber criminals.
