Keep yourself safe from hackers with these cybersecurity tips

Cyber risks continue to proliferate with a worrying increase in online scams and hacking all over the world. Public services, businesses, individuals… everyone is potentially vulnerable.

While online attacks are most often thought of as computer hacking, keep in mind that every device can be affected, from your desktop PC or Mac, to your smartphone and other devices such as tablets.

A lot of the times cyberattacks can be avoided provided we take some precautions. Here are some practical tips for maximizing your IT security.

It is essential to have passwords that are difficult to unlock. Avoid your date of birth and short words written entirely in lowercase letters, as well as any personal information about yourself.

A secure password contains at least 12 characters, mixes lowercase and uppercase letters, and uses numbers and special characters.

Image: Dan Nelson/Unsplash

It’s ideal to have different passwords for your various administrative and personal accounts. Furthermore, it’s best to  avoid saving them online.

The data you leave on the internet can unfortunately be used to access your passwords or for identity theft. To minimize the risks, only fill in the strictly necessary boxes on online forms.

Social media is very fond of your personal data because exploitation is their core business. In order to guarantee your anonymity online and protect your privacy, only share the minimum of personal information on your social networks.

Another way to ensure the security and anonymity of your online activities is to use a VPN (virtual private network). These systems work like a tunnel that conceals your identity through the interconnection of local networks, thus avoiding the dissemination of data.

In order not to lose your documents or personal information in the event of a breakdown of your devices, consider making regular backups and transferring your files to external media, such as a USB key or an external hard drive.

Operating system vendors regularly offer updates to their software, and for good reason: vulnerabilities are gradually detected in systems. Don't play with fire and update regularly.

Keep your devices with you at all times, and do not use public wifi networks that are offered to you if you can’t be sure that they are safe.

Use a screen protector filter if you work while commuting.

Pay attention to your data when you go on a trip. Before leaving, remember to save your information on another device to be able to find it in case you loose it.

Cyberattacks are often carried out via an email containing, for example, a booby-trapped attachment. Don’t open any attachments sent by an unknown sender and never respond to requests for personal information.

Hackers can also try to intercept your bank details when you make purchases online. To ensure the authenticity of the site before making a payment, check that the mention "https://" appears at the beginning of the site address and that the entire address is correct.

The presence of a padlock in the address bar or at the bottom right of your browser window is also proof of authenticity.

Smartphones are often less secure than desktop computers. A good precaution would be to download only necessary applications and checking what access they have to your data before downloading them.

Only download online content from official publisher sites. Once the download is complete, disable automatic opening and open the file only after having done an anti-virus analysis.