The real
security emergency is online. According to some estimates,
cyberattacks grew by 38% in 2018. In the vast majority of cases (4
out of 5), hacker attacks aim to extort money from victims: this
is the case of computers “locked” by ransomware, which are
only unlocked for ransom or secret information captured without their
knowledge. Of users, and that could end up on the web if the victims
do not pay large sums of money. However, phishing, which aims to
steal the victim’s data, and attacks on the world of health data,
are also growing (+ 99%).

How to defend
yourself? Assoprovider offers you ten tips to start from.

1. Watch out
   for emails and private messages.
   

It may seem
trivial to repeat it, but it is essential: NEVER click on links and
attachments that seem suspicious to us. NEVER. Always check who the
recipient is: sometimes, in emails, the so-called phishing is
practiced when a user pretends to be someone else in the hope of
getting “bitten”. It often happens with banks or post
offices: they tell you that they had to block your card, they invite
you to enter your access data, and they steal your credentials
(and therefore the money).

Always pay
attention to the sender, therefore. Sometimes, hackers also
exploit your friends’ identities: on the web, so don’t trust anyone.
To get an extra clue as to the security of the message, analyze
the link you were asked to click on: if the address starts
with Https (where the s is essential), then it is probably a safe
site.

This applies to
the messages received. For those sent, there are other risks such
as sexting: always pay attention to the images you send. If we
shoot intimate photos in private, the risk is that they will go
public without our consent.

1. Select
   friends
   

Friend requests,
followings, Skype contacts, emails: the web is now THE place to
connect. But just like in reality, people who approach us online
don’t always have the best of intentions. The rule is not to
accept invitations from people we don’t even know “live”
or who don’t come with a presentation message explaining their goals.

1. Browse
   safely
   

As in a city,
even on the web, there are safer areas and others less so. There
is particular content online in which cybercriminals prefer to
lure users into a “trap”: porn sites, for example,
or the platforms where it is possible to download copyrighted
content for free ( films, TV series, and so on).

To avoid
problems, it is always better to surf safely, staying away from this
type of portals: sometimes, just one “wrong” click is
enough to unknowingly share all your data.

1. Deep Web,
   the dark power of online
   

Speaking of gray
areas on the Internet, the dark web is
certainly the most famous. It is a real-world of its own,
which can only be accessed using special software (such as the Tor
browser). Its reputation as a “dark” place is certainly
deserved (just do an online search to understand what you can find
here), but the dark web is actually also used for many
legitimate and legal activities, which, however, need real
connections—Anonymous and communications protected by encrypted
codes.

However,
given the predominantly illegal nature of what happens here, it is
good not to go into it, not without full awareness of the
software and dynamics that take place here.

1. Check the
   connection
   

If you don’t
want to be hacked, beware of public Wi-Fi connections: at the
airport, at the coffee shop, or in other public places, Internet
connections are not always checked as carefully as private ones.
Avoid using them if you can, or be careful when you do it: it is
better to avoid, for example, accessing your online banking app when
connected to a public network.

1. Doxxing
   risk: pay attention to what you post.
   

The Net does
not forget. If you think you have complete control of what you
post online, you are wrong. Even when you delete a photo, your
personal data, or a comment from a social network, in fact, it is not
certain that someone has not already “stolen” it: a few
moments are enough to take a screenshot.

The rule is:
don’t share anything you don’t want your mom or employer to see.

In this way, you
will avoid the so-called “doxxing”, when friends or
complete strangers steal your private information.

In this
sense, it is important to pay attention to the privacy settings
you have set on your different profiles, choosing, for example, not
to automatically accept the “tag” of other people to your
photos that they publish online.

1. Apps are
   not a game.
   

Due to the
overwhelming success that some of them have – especially the gaming
ones, think of Pokèmon Go or Fortnite – the apps have become the
favorite target of some bad guys, not necessarily hackers in this
case.

For example,
there are apps that have poorly transparent payment and subscription
systems: never reveal the data of your cards and accounts online
when you are not sure who developed the game.

1. Filter and
   limit
   

Today’s
children and young people are born with a smartphone and a tablet in
hand. They often know its “secrets” better than we do,
but are we sure that it is a perfectly safe tool?

The best
approach for adults is to have a calm conversation about the subject
with their children or other minors for whom they are responsible. It
is good to illustrate to them the risks of some activities (such as
sexting, which we have mentioned) and to guide them to greater
awareness, also to limit their use during the day.

An additional
possibility is to select for them the so-called parental control,
software that limits access to certain sites and content considered
unsuitable for too young an audience.

1. Update
   everything
   

First of all,
you need to have a good antivirus (there are many, even free) and
to update it periodically. It is then appropriate to provide for
regular scans of PCs and smartphones to identify any viruses and
malware. However, the advice to update everything also extends to the
operating system used (Windows, Linus, iOs, and so on) and the
applications and software that we use most often in order to improve
the overall security of our devices.

1. IoT: if
   “things” become gateways for hackers
   

That of the
Internet of Things, the Internet of Things, is a great opportunity,
which, however, can prove to be a threat. Today almost all the
“things” we have connected to the Internet: from the oven
to the thermostat. However, this makes our online security more
vulnerable: every connected device is, in fact, a possible
gateway for a hacker also, because some manufacturers have not
implemented the necessary safety measures.

It is
possible to defend against whoever wants to hack you, of course.
Mainly in two ways. First of all, by installing a good firewall,
a barrier is placed between the different segments of the network,
which helps protect your data. The best are equipped with systems for
encryption.

The second thing we can do – which applies to all of our devices and network logins and not just the IoT – is to use really strong passwords. They must always be different, not postpone to important dates (data that could be easily found on Facebook, for example);
they must be complex and therefore contain letters, numbers, special
characters. If they then form (complex) sentences with complete meaning,
even better.

Author bio: 

Basit Ali is a Digital marketer and developer at Cognizantt work on many projects like Research Prospect,
famous for his dissertation writing services in the UK. He specializes
in SEO, SMO, SEM. Avid football fan and sports enthusiasts. He also
loves to read and write about new things and trends.