Five Ways to Protect Your Data Right Now

It seems that the news about data theft appears almost every week - data from leading companies, millions of usernames and passwords, credit card numbers become the prey of attackers. Of course, you as a private person cannot stop hackers or protect the data that you yourself transfer to companies from theft, but even the simplest actions can reduce the potential damage from such hacks.

1. Give passwords to robots

Despite the fact that the human brain can remember quite a few passwords, more often we do not hesitate to use only one. Therefore, we often use the same password on several sites, and this is a very bad idea. Once hacked into a site and stole a database containing email addresses and passwords, a hacker can try to use them for authorization on other sites. This is a huge problem because many of us use the same passwords on Facebook, Google, Twitter, or to online banking accounts. A suitable solution is to use a password manager, a program for a computer or device that will randomly generate long passwords for each site that you visit and synchronize them between different devices. For example, you can try one of the most popular password managers 1Password and LastPass.

2. U2F keys - use two-factor authentication where possible

Another way to protect your accounts is to be sure that if someone recognizes your passwords, they will not be able to log in using them. To do this, you only need to enable two-factor authorization, this additional feature is already available on many popular sites and services . On some sites, this looks like an additional step on which you need to enter the case number sent by the service to your phone, or launch a special application for a smartphone that generates one-time authorization codes. A relatively new and, for the most part, simple two-factor authentication option is the U2F key, a device that looks like a flash drive that you expose to a USB port before logging in to a new computer. Such devices cost about $ 15 and can be used to significantly increase the security of your gmail account. It is likely that in the coming months and years other large companies will add support for u2f keys.

3. Turn on disk encryption.

If you lose your tablet or phone on which disk encryption is not enabled, the finder will be able to get all your data from the device. On iPhone and iPad, disk encryption is enabled by default, and for Windows, Android, or MacOS, you will have to enable it yourself.

4. Seal your webcam

The software used by criminals, stalkers and mostly dark personalities allows them to access your webcam without your knowledge. Of course this does not happen all the time, but scary stories are quite real and scary . One simple sticker allows you to use your webcam when you need it.

5. Encrypt your phone calls or text messages

Voice and text services used by operators are also not safe and may become the target of espionage. To do this, you do not even need to have especially expensive equipment. All this means that your own government, with the same success as criminals, hackers, and stalkers, will be able to listen to your phone calls and read your messages. Some of the mobile applications that you’re used to using over the Internet are safer for private conversations with your lovers or colleagues, and it’s not necessary that you need to turn on something or look for functions to achieve even greater security - Apple FaceTime and WhatsApp on Android both are good. If you need a more serious level of protection, there is a great free Signal app available on the Apple App Store.