Four Simple Steps to Make You More Secure
Make your digital life safer in 4 quick and easy steps
Make your digital life safer in 4 quick and easy steps
If someone gets into your email, they could reset your other account passwords and even access information you have saved about yourself or your business. The 1st and arguably most important step is to make sure your email password is strong and different to all your other passwords. This will make it harder to crack or guess.
One popular suggestion that’s easy to implement involves using 3 random words is a good way to create a strong, unique password that you will remember. Horse-SpaceShip-Dog-88 for example is easy to remember and will satisfy even the most onerous password complexity.
When you use different passwords for your important accounts, it can be hard to remember them all.
A good way to create strong, memorable passwords is by using a password manager or by creating a system. For example Horse-SpaceShip-Dog-88 could become Horse-SpaceShip-Dog-FB for FaceBook or Horse-SpaceShip-Dog-Tw for Twitter.
Do not use words that can be guessed (like your pet’s name). At Unmuddled everyone on our team uses 1Password and we honestly can’t recommend it highly enough so you’ll likely see it mentioned in many of our posts. Starting at $30 per year it’s a tiny price to pay for security. There are also free alternatives such as Bitwarden and both Windows and MacOS have a built in password manager.
Two-factor authentication (2FA) helps to stop hackers from getting into your accounts, even if they have your password.
Some online banking uses 2FA automatically. It does this by asking for more information to prove your identity, such as a code that gets sent to your phone.
Out-of-date software, apps, and operating systems contain weaknesses. This makes them easier to hack.
Companies fix the weaknesses by releasing updates. When you update your devices and software, this helps to keep hackers out. Turn on automatic updates for your devices and software that offer it. This will mean you do not have to remember each time. Some devices and software need to be updated manually. You may get reminders on your phone or computer. Do not ignore these reminders. Updating will help to keep you safe online.
Backing up means creating a copy of your information and saving it to another device or to cloud storage (online).
Backing up regularly means you will always have a recent version of your information saved. This will help you recover quicker if your data is lost or stolen.
You can also turn on automatic backup. This will regularly save your information into cloud storage, without you having to remember.
If you back up your information to a USB stick or an external hard drive, disconnect it from your computer when a back up isn’t being done.
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