5 Tips For Online Safety

Last week we went over how to create a strong password, and why you should. But strong passwords are only one part of the online safety puzzle. Staying safe online gets trickier all the time as both technology and scammers get more sophisticated.

We’ve talked quite a bit about online scammers at this blog – in fact, here's a handy roundup of some of those articles. These scams range from surprisingly complex to dead simple, but in every case, these tips will go a long way to keeping you safe online.

Make strong passwords

We’ve gone over this recently but it never hurts to emphasize it: Make your passwords as hard as possible for other people to guess. That link has lots of good tips for making hackers irritated at your passwords.

Log out from financial websites

This simple tip could literally save you a lot of money. When you’re done with your online banking, sign out of your online banking account and close the browser. Seems simple enough, right? Just logging out of your online banking can greatly prevent what are known as “forgery attacks” (people using your login to siphon money from your account.)

Update everything

Software updates are often released specifically to fix security issues and vulnerabilities. Is Chrome asking for an update? Update it. Your computer, or your phone, or an app needs an update? Update it! Aside from getting a more stable version of the software, every update makes it that much harder for your security to be broken.

Don’t click on links in texts or emails

Another thing we’ve talked a lot about here is “phishing” scams – attempts to get you to offer your personal information through fraudulent means. The number of phishing scams exploded during COVID, and they’re not going away anytime soon. Put simply, if you get an email or text out of the blue with a link in it, don’t click on it. Read more about phishing scams here.

Back up your information

A fresh new wave of ransomware attacks has been going around – that's when a hacker takes your information and holds it for ransom. A simple way around that? Backup your data regularly. Schedule regular backups on your computer and phone. You might never need ‘em, but if you do, you’ll be very happy with yourself.

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