Why Cyber Security?
Cyber Security has become a necessity in today’s world where all the information is often stored online and easily available for anyone who wishes to access it. Recently, Facebook and Google made headlines in several newspapers with regards to how they practice the privacy of their data. It is important to protect your data, however, for organizations, it is also important to understand how to handle confidential and sensitive information shared by the users. Data breaches attack personal information, private data does not remain private. Attackers may hack networks, systems, and accounts to steal your bank information, confidential data of an organization, credit card details, etc.
1. Think Before You Click
This is one of the most important Cyber Security email tips that you can use and follow regularly to keep your data safe. Stay cautious of the unknown links you receive through emails, messages, or while visiting other web pages that are not secure enough.
2. Use Strong and Varied Passwords
This is another one of the most significant cyber safety tips for users. It may be easy to use and remember the same password across multiple platforms for all your accounts but it makes your account more insecure. You should use distinct passwords for all your different accounts. With this practice, even if a company where you have an account is breached or hackers have gotten access to one of your account credentials, these credentials would not work on other websites. Also, you need to use strong passwords for your accounts as they are important for online security. To make your passwords strong and secure, you can refer to the password policy guidelines of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and consider the following:
- Use passwords with more than 8 characters and a maximum of 64 characters
- Never make use of the same password twice
- Use at least one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, one number, and a few symbols other than &, #, _, @, etc.
- Use passwords that are easy to remember and also, do not leave clues in the open or make them available to the public
- Change your password often and reset it.
It may be difficult to remember so many passwords for your various accounts, which is when a password manager comes into the picture. A password manager is a program or software that will help you store and manage all your passwords together. You will be able to access all these passwords using a single ‘master key’ password. This will help you keep these credentials secured and also prevent you from writing down your passwords, which is one of the most unsafe methods of keeping a track of your passwords. It is extremely important in this digital era for you to have cyber safety and security awareness.
4. Set up Two-factor or Multi-factor Authentication (MFA)
Generally, you require only your user id and your password to sign in to your account but the MFA service enables you to add extra security layers to the standard method of using passwords for online verification. With this, you will receive a prompt to add another method of authentication along with the password, like a code, fingerprint, OTP in your phone number or email, etc. With this method, you will be required to enter more than two credentials while logging in, keeping your account more secure by making it more difficult for hackers to access your data. This is another one of the most significant Cyber Security measures that you must take.
5. Check CERT-In Updates on a Regular Basis
CERT-It stands for Computer Emergency Readiness Team- India. It came into operation in January 2004 and falls in the constituency of the Indian Cyber community. CERT-In basically serves as the national agency to perform various functions in the Cyber Security domain such as cyber security incident forecast and alerts, emergency response actions for tackling cyber security events, etc. Hence, regular checking of CERT-In updates is very important to deal with cyber emergencies.
6. Keep Your Systems Updated
Another one of the most crucial cyber safety tips is that you must keep all your browsers, software, and operating systems up-to-date. This is especially one of the most important Cyber Security tips for the workplace and also for users. If your organization firewalls for security purposes, you must update that as well. The older your system and its configurations are, the longer the hackers have to find and exploit all the weaknesses. Updating them will prevent attackers from exploiting them for enough time until new updates.
7. Use Firewalls and Anti-viruses
Hackers can attack your systems and networks through various methods, such as malware, viruses, phishing attacks, trojans, spyware, etc., to gain access to your data. With the help of anti-virus software and firewalls, your system will be capable of defending itself against these attacks. You need to ensure that your firewall or the software that you are using is updated regularly and prevents such cyber threats before they occur.
8. Avoid Online use of Debit Cards
One of the most useful Cyber Security measures that you can take is regarding online transactions and payments. When you purchase services or products online, try to avoid paying through debit cards or any other payment method that is connected to your bank account directly. Rather, you can make use of applications like PayPal or credit cards, which will provide more protection to your bank accounts.
9. Learn About Phishing Attacks
In phishing attacks, hackers assume a different identity in order to trick you so that you provide them with your credentials, click on a malicious link, or open files or attachments that can attack the system with viruses or other malware. This can lead to a ransom attack. Some of the tips you can use in order to prevent this from happening and avoid getting caught in a phishing scam include:
- Do not open emails from unknown people or sources
- Hover over the links before clicking to figure out where they direct and if the link seems unsafe, do not click it
- Check for any type of grammatical errors and the id of the sender
- Educate your friends and family about such types of errors so that they avoid opening such emails or forward them to you without any knowledge
10. Avoid Unfamiliar Websites
When you come across new sites shared by your friends or even strangers online, be cautious of visiting them because some of them may contain drive-by download attacks that can attack your system data.
This type of attack does not require you to click on anything in order to get the computer infected. It attacks your system by injecting malicious code as soon as you click on the link of the website. So, it is recommended to steer clear of such websites and visit only well-established websites that you are familiar with.
