Ways to Fight Common Data Breaches
Data breaches occur when valuable information is stolen from a system. Many businesses of all sizes have experienced data breaches, and these attacks are becoming increasingly more common, thereby putting customers’ information at risk of being stolen and used by criminals. But in addition to businesses, individuals can also be impacted by a data breach. For example, a hacker might gain access to your network at home, and they might steal data about you and your family, such as financial data and other personally identifiable information.
What can you do to fight common data breaches? Below is a list of tips that you can implement easily in an effort to protect yourself and your data.
Install High-Quality Security Software
One of the first things that you can do to help reduce the odds that you will experience a data breach at home is install a good quality security program that will monitor your system at all times and provide you with notifications if anything is amiss. That way, as you surf the internet and get things done, you can rest assured that you have something running in the background to protect you against hackers, viruses, ransomware, malware, etc.
Take Your Information Off of People Search Websites
People search websites are easy to find these days, and they all act as databases where you can find information on just about anyone. Go to Nuwber and type in your full name to see what information shows up. Your contact details might be on full display, which means strangers could easily access this information. Want to do something about it? Just go to the Nuwber opt out page to request removal of your listing.
Another people search website that you should check is Instant Checkmate. If you’re on there, just let them know that you don’t want to be by going to the Instant Checkmate opt out page.
And yet another one of these sites is Been Verified. Once again, you can just follow the Been Verified removal instructions if you discover that your details are listed there.
Always Set Strong Passwords
If you want to prevent data breaches, you need to make it hard for strangers to access your accounts. And one way to do that is by always setting strong passwords. Use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, along with various numbers and symbols, when creating a long password that is hard to guess.
It might seem a hassle to come up with a unique password for every account that you create. But this is the smartest way to go. If you use the same password for all of your accounts, and a scammer were able to figure out that password, they’d be able to get into all of your accounts surprisingly easily.
Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN)
Also referred to as a VPN, a virtual private network can be used at home and at work to protect your data and reduce the odds that someone will be able to steal it. In addition to protecting your network with greater security, a VPN can also provide other benefits, such as encryption that makes it impossible for hackers to figure out what information you are sending online.
As you can see, there are several ways that you can fight data breaches. So there’s no reason to not take steps to protect yourself.