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While you can’t always control what happens with your data that you entrust websites to secure, there are five simple steps you can take to secure yourself at home that can go a long way to preventing hackers from gaining access to your financial information.
Last year brought an unprecedented level of Internet security breaches and the accumulation of stolen data that hackers are freely distributing on the dark web in the amount of 2.2 billion unique records.
Now that cloud computing is ubiquitous, more people’s data is stored online than ever. This has definitely drawn the attention of hackers and other nefarious types who relish in stealing, blackmailing or just causing chaos.
A new federal law has made it free for consumers to freeze their credit at all three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union.
One of the most significant things threatened by security breaches of personal information is your credit. Someone with your personal information can try to impersonate you and open new lines of credit in your name.
The best way to prevent this type of identity theft is to place a freeze on your credit, which allows you to prevent any new credit accounts from being opened in your name while the credit is locked.
If you need to apply for credit yourself, you can temporarily unlock your credit long enough to complete your credit application, then freeze your credit again once that has transpired.
Some of the credit bureaus freezing your credit easy by providing you with a pin number that allows you to go online and lock and unlock your credit at will using that pin number.
The primary thing hackers exploit is the simple fact that most people, for convenience sake, use the same email and password combination at most of the websites they use.
Therefore, once a hacker gets their hands on an email and password combination from someone at one site, they’ll take those and go to all the most popular sites on the web and see if that key will unlock the door for them at that site.
The best insurance against this practice is to use a different password at every different website you visit.
Which brings us to a solution that makes handling a multitude of passwords easier…
A password manager allows you to use a single password login for your password manager, and it will help you create and remember strong and secure passwords, assigning a different unique password to every single website you visit.
There are a number of popular services such as Lastpass, 1Password, Dashlane, Keeper, Password Boss or EnPass (which has a very good free version).
Generally, because the password manager resides on your home computer or smartphone, it greatly reduces the likelihood that your password manager itself could be hacked.
Two-factor authentication, in addition to requiring your username and password at the website, will send you a message either via a text or email, that requires you to input the verification code that it delivered to you as a second level of authentication.
Another promising method of two-factor authentication is the use of a hardware plug-in device (a.k.a. dongle) that you plug into a computer or your smartphone that provides the additional layer of authentication. Google uses this method for all of its employees.
All routers come with a default password. And because many people don’t bother to change them, it makes it easy for hackers to come right in through your router and into your computer or smartphone, as the list of these default passwords for routers is readily available on online forms.
Therefore, as you are setting up an internet router in your home, once you have it up and running, make sure to give it a new, unique secure password that includes a long string of letters and numbers, at least 16 characters are recommended (and write it down so you aren’t locked out).
DNS, or default name system, is an address given to your computer by your Internet service provider. However, these are not as secure as they could be. There are a few acceptable names that you can change this to, with a few simple clicks, that will make your computer more secure.
Google, Cloudflare, and Quad9 DNS services are all free and you can change your DNS address to one of theirs.
Alternatives to reset your address to are: Google, 8.8.8.8, or Cloudflare 1.1.1.1, or Quad9, 9.9.9.9
Mac users can change their DNS by going to system preferences> network settings> advanced> select DNS. Make the necessary changes and click save.
Windows users can take similar steps by going to “Control Panel.”
