Cyber Security: 9 Initial Steps to be Taken
When Cyber Crime is taking a toll on the users Cyber Security measures are the answers to protect yourself from such attacks. Here are a few steps that can ensure you Cyber Security without much effort. Read on to know more.
The Threat
The urban lifestyle is growing towards globalization and the dependence on the cyber world is increasing. And whenever such dependence increases, the associated threats, and fear of loss comes hand in hand. Yes, of course, we are talking about the most important topic of the day "cyber security". As technology is advancing with the internet for the benefit of people, the same advancement is helping the crooked as well. So our daily life, our personal, financial and professional life is at stake if we keep turning a blind eye to the matter.
The topic is running hot everywhere, and a lot of rumor and hype have replaced and covered the truth about the entire issue. People are confused with the myths associated with it and rather than understanding what the real picture is, they are more prone to fall prey in the hands of the hackers who pretend to be safeguarding the users.
The attack can be from anywhere like from an external source or can even be done internally. Keeping beliefs and trusts aside, it is time, that both individuals and organizations start taking the issue seriously and take a few steps towards ensuring their own security.
And here are a few steps you can take as a precautionary measure to protect yourself from cyber security:1. Keeping your Private Information Locked:
Your personal and private information is the key to the hackers' success. The more they get to know about you, the more they are probing into your private place. The hackers know how to act smart and make you feel that they are authorized persons to know your stuff. They will play tricks to leak out the basic information about you like your age, birthday, marital status if not your bank account details. In such cases, you just need to remember, you will not benefit anything by sharing such information to any unknown person, but only be rushing towards a huge loss, if you do so.2. Be Alert While Browsing
It is not only an initiative from the hackers that can pose a threat to your security, your careless browsing habits are no less harmful in today's scenario. As it is evident, that all your important information would be stored on your smartphone and computer, the risk of hackers getting access to them is always prevalent, when you are browsing and allowing a few sites to access your system.
Here's what you need to do:
When you are looking for new websites for a particular information, to ensure your safety, check out a closed lock symbol that should appear at the bottom right of the screen. The Web addresses that start with a "https" can generally be secure, but to be sure, if it is, you need to click on the lock symbol at the bottom right, where it should display the same "https" address.3. Monitor Your Debit/Credit Card/ Internet Banking Statements in Regular Intervals
Keep a regular eye on the bank statements on a regular basis. It is recommended that you check all your bank statements once in a week so that the hackers don't get a month's time to commit their crime and hide.4. Set and Subscribe to Real-Time Alerts
Nowadays almost every bank and credit card company are providing real time notification services to their customers through which they contact you whenever there is any unusual purchase attempt. If such incidents take place, you need to go to your bank or login to your credit card home page and set a purchase limit in your debit/credit card account.
5. Create Strong Passwords and Keep Changing them Frequently
Creating strong passwords can save your hard-earned money. But to make it effective, you need to keep them changing frequently. Avoid creating obvious passwords that contain your or your family members' birth dates or other facts like initials etc. A better option to be on the safe side is not to choose a security question that involves any common information related to you and your family.6. Subscribe to Identity Protection
Hackers are basically sneakers who try to access your private files, obtain your credit card and other bank account details and use them for their own benefit. To stay safe, you can subscribe to the Identity Protection companies who provide services like, monitoring your credit cards and bank accounts, and other data for a fee. 7. Implement an Information Security Governance
You need to stabilize a framework in your organization or even for your individual usage that would assure a proper information security strategy. Unless this is in place, every other tool to measure your security would stand support less. While selecting one, make sure your program has the ability to take up a risk-based approach and is working sound towards investigating and detecting doubtful incidents, and can take quick actions.8. Backing Up Your Data
A habit of time to time Backing up the important files would save you from a huge loss and everyone who has undergone a hacking experience would agree to its importance. This is just to ensure that even if a "data stealing" takes place, you don't end up losing them at your end. It would not only save you from further loss, you can even take the necessary steps so that such occurrences do not recur.9. Protect Yourself from Social Engineering
Hackers would try their best to disarm you from every possible angle. They know that your social media profile would be the best place to know you well. They can approach in thousand and one ways to fetch information that give them access to the data they require. This "social engineering" can ruin all your attempts to protect yourself from cyber crime. So it goes without saying that you need to be extra careful while sharing information on the social media sites. It is always recommendable that you don't accept unknown users' friend request to boost up your social image and bring down your financial one.Wrapping Up
These are the very basic steps you need to take up to protect yourself from the cyber attacks. There are more in the list that would come in your way, which would assure you to protect. But if you understand the way the hackers work, you need to be cautious before you accept them. And caution is the only virtue that can save you from these vices.
