Online safety is one of those things that everyone knows they should take seriously, but tends to get lost in the day to day activity. But with one in five people in the UK having had at least one online account hacked, it really is important to make sure that your online persona is safe, especially if you run a business associated with it. Here are our five tips for keeping your online persona secure:
1. Use good passwords.
Common sense, we all know — but the five most commonly used passwords in the world are still 123456, password, 12345, 12345678, and qwerty. Coming up with good passwords is a hassle, but not nearly as much of a hassle as cancelling a hacked account.
Take a look at this SplashData article on the Worst Passwords of 2015
2. Or skip the password thing altogether and use a password manager.
Programmes like LastPass, Dashlane, and KeePass can let you manage all your passwords from one source, monitor your online safety, and even keep an eye on your credit.
3. Think about what you’re sharing.
It’s easy to get caught up in sharing things to social media platforms without remembering exactly who can see them. Even if you’ve got your privacy settings in place, if there’s something very private or personal — your address, phone number, anything like that — you should think twice about sharing it. Basically, if you wouldn’t shout it out in a coffee shop, you probably shouldn’t be sharing it.
And speaking of privacy…
4. Have a look at your privacy settings every once in a while.
These things can go a bit strange with updates, even if you have them set properly to begin with (Facebook is especially associated with this.) So make it a point to go through and just check on your privacy settings from time to time — you might be surprised at who can see what.
5. If you run an online business, invest in some security.
Your business’s online persona is just as important as your own, so make sure that you invest in some online security for your website. There are lots of free plug-ins that you can use with WordPress sites, as well as paid services that back up your site regularly, monitor suspicious activity, and even recover your site if hackers do get to it.
Similarly, if you’ve got a team accessing your website or your social media profiles, make sure that they know not to share passwords or leave your accounts open on their computers. All straightforward stuff, but very important for avoiding big headaches.
How about you? Share your best tips for keeping your online persona secure with us in the comments below!
