Now we’re more connected than ever. Whether you do your online shopping for groceries, pay your bills, bank, communicate with family and friends, or simply work from home – the Internet has taken over our daily routines, making our lives more convenient than ever.
However, with more and more connections being made every day after day, more threats lurk in the World Wide Web. As the technology evolves, there are more and more innovative ways the hackers come up with to attack their victims and steal their personal information, such as using the latest technologies such as AI and social engineering to obtain login details, debit or credit card numbers and other sensitive information that could lead to serious problems on the Internet.
The Internet is no longer something that we go on in order to download music or movies and pass the time. The Internet is the backbone of everyday life for billions of people all over the world and has become an integral part of shopping, work and finance on a global scale. For this reason it is no longer sufficient to rely on basic Internet Intuition when it comes to staying safe online and therefore a robust line of defense is needed in order to ensure that our online experiences are not affected by Cyber Crime.
The Evolving Threat Landscape
There was a time when a computer virus would come into your computer and lock you up for a short time, or it could fill up your desktop with a bunch of popup ads and banners that you had to delete one by one. This would be somewhat of an annoyance, but you would never lose any financial loss or any legal trouble. There are now many more ways that you can lose money, be subjected to identity theft and even be prosecuted for something online that you did not do.
Ransomware: The Worst Type of Computer Virus: Ransomware is probably the worst type of computer virus out there today. It locks up the user’s computer or files and demands cash in return for the “key” to unlock the files and restore them to their former state. Such information as tax returns and family photos that have been encrypted by a hacker could cost the owner a lot of money to get back.
Phishing Scams: Many phishing scams are done by email or text message. These scams may also be done by using fake web sites that are created to look like a real web site. Some examples of information that hackers try to obtain from phishing scams include login information for online accounts and credit card information.
Spyware and Keyloggers: These are programs that secretly track what you do on your computer including the typing of passwords and online banking details.
New threats and attacks on online security are appearing by the day. Therefore, it is not enough to rely on the security of your operating system’s default settings, which are often designed for the average user and are not sufficient to protect more advanced users and companies from cyber attacks.
The First Line of Defense: Smart Security Tools
Take Your Home Computer Security to the Next Level. With the amount of time we spend today on our computers in the home, it is essential to have Smart Security Tools installed on your home computers. These programs, will work around the clock for you to scan for, recognize and to neutralize any computer threats including computer viruses that could compromise your personal computer systems and endanger your files. In addition to scanning your hard drive for viruses, these tools will also work to protect your personal files, e-mail and your on-line browsing activities in real time.
The first step to protecting your computer from evolving cyber threats is to purchase a high-quality software package that provides the best antivirus protection. A good computer virus protection package not only can scan your computer for viruses, spyware, and other types of malware, it can perform real time cloud-based scans as well. It can also monitor all of the running applications on your computer, monitoring their behavior to see if any of them could be performing something malicious. It can also install web browsing extensions that can block any malicious scripts from loading on web pages that you visit.
Multi-Layered Defense for Total Peace of Mind
However, as more devices are connected than ever before including all of the Smart Home devices available on the market today there are also more opportunities available for a hacker to gain access to your home network through just one of the devices. This could include a single compromised computer, a smartphone or tablet for example, and once a hacker has gained access to one of your devices it is very easy for them to then move on to access the rest of your home network through the other devices that are connected to your Wi-Fi network.
Did you know that one compromised computer on your home network could give the hacker access to all the other computers on your network!
You also need to bear in mind that there is a large variety of malware out there and a simple scanner is not enough to protect all your devices. You will need a multi-layered solution that can securely close all the possible entry points to your computer. And that means more than just protecting the operating system of your computer, also your privacy while using your webcam, your online purchases, etc. And it is also important to have a VPN solution to encrypt your data when you use public hotspots to surf the internet.
Simple Habits to Complement Your Security Software
Additional practices that can be implemented in order to help protect your digital life, in addition to installing security software are referred to as digital ‘digital habits’ or ‘hygiene practices’. These simple practices that are put into place, help to protect against emerging threats, and also offer additional malware protection in the event of a security breach occurring.
Use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): By enabling the MFA option on accounts that support it, any subsequent login – even correct – login attempts will trigger the account to request further verification, of a secondary nature (sent via SMS to your mobile phone for example, or by way of fingerprint reader etc.). The above types of login methods are notoriously difficult for cybercriminals to breach, since even when they manage to retrieve the account’s password, they’ll also need to access your secondary verification method.
Keep all your Programs Up To Date: All your programs like your web browser, your operating system and other applications you use will from time to time require updates. These can be requested to be installed immediately and will usually be offered to you as a dialog box requesting permission to install them. The majority of updates are critical and must be installed.
Strong and Unique Passwords for All Online Services: The worst-case scenario is that your main password for all of your online services will be compromised, when one of your online services will get hacked. A password manager will help you in generating and managing all of the strong and unique passwords required for all of your online services.
Backup your important files: If you have critical files on your computer, make sure to have a current backup of them on an external hard drive or on a very secure online cloud storage service. In the event of a ransomware attack, you could potentially recover from a backup within a few hours, rather than being locked out of your files for months or even years.
Conclusion
So there you have it. The internet today is a very high risk place for everybody, not just big corporations. There are many threats today that are becoming more sophisticated by the day. Learning about the threats to your online safety and then using the right tools to protect yourself will give you the confidence to go online for work, work online and to play online. So start securing your digital life today.