As our lives have moved increasingly online over the past few decades, new risks have emerged related to our cybersecurity. When many of us think about cyber threats, we picture complex hacking schemes undertaken by sophisticated attackers. Nevertheless, according to the good folk over at Hillstone Networks, everyday internet users also face a wide range of potential threats from cybercrime that can compromise finances, data, devices, and even personal identities if proper precautions are not taken.
Using Strong Passwords
Among the most essential aspects of practicing good cyber hygiene involves using strong account passwords. Reusing simple or weak passwords across multiple internet accounts remains one of the most common security vulnerabilities that get everyday users into trouble. Even if one low-value site you rarely visit suffers a breach that compromises your login credentials, cybercriminals can then leverage that information to access more sensitive accounts if you reuse the same passwords.
The best practice is using a unique, complex password for any site where you have an online account. Strong passwords mix upper and lower case letters with numbers and special characters. Having unpredictable letter substitutions within words can heighten complexity against automated attacks attempting to guess passwords through brute force. Using a sequence of common words also remains vulnerable compared to randomized combinations of multiple character sets.
Enabling Two-Factor Authentication
If someone does manage to steal or guess a password, adding a second layer of identity confirmation denies access unless the legitimate users provides some additional factor to authenticate themselves. Text message verification codes and verification app authenticators have added this second factor tool for many major sites providing services online. Always enable this optional extra protection on sites supporting two-factor authentication to guard your accounts in case an unexpected direct password breach provides that first layer of access against your wishes to an outside party.
Avoiding Phishing Scams
Perhaps the most pernicious threat facing our cyber communities involves phishing scams that trick users into compromising themselves. Through carefully crafted messages over email, text messaging platforms, and social media, phishing attacks masquerade as legitimate institutions or contacts to manipulate everyday users into providing sensitive data, account access, payments, or downloads against best intentions. Maintaining constant vigilance against communications urging urgent responses or convey threat remains essential because our natural tendency toward trust and obedience creates intrinsic psychological vulnerabilities readily exploited at scale by unscrupulous actors online.
Risks of public Wi-Fi
Connecting tablets, phones, and computers to public wireless networks offers both conveniences and hazards worth acknowledging, especially when conducting financial transactions or accessing sensitive accounts outside controlled environments. Following basic best practices around ensuring HTTPS protections remain intact when submitting login credentials or other sensitive communications can mitigate inherent risks of open networks.
Conclusion
Basic cybersecurity does not need to overwhelm or intimidate everyday internet users. Empower yourself to take part fully in our increasingly online world by internalizing a commonsense approach to cybersecurity awareness; an ounce of prevention really does prove worth a pound of cure when hardly a week goes by without some new threat posed by ever evolving cybercriminal tactics against people and enterprises worldwide.
But just a bit more diligence around the information shared online and enabling tools protecting access to that data can prevent most users from becoming just another victim statistic. Instead, responsibly enjoy everything the internet offers through a risk aware and balanced approach avoiding most troubles hiding in plain sight for those failing to respect the undeniable importance of everyday cybersecurity consciousness in protecting identities, finances, memories, and productivity from compromise in our intensely digital world.