Keep Your Data Safe and Sound

What’s a good credit card APR? How is my old college classmate doing now? And what the heck is a nutria?

These days, it’s easier than ever to traipse through the internet and find all the answers we seek, whether for work or recreational purposes. But as much power as digital spaces put at our fingertips, there’s another force on the other side of the screen armed to take advantage of our time online: fraudsters.

According to a Statista poll, the average American spends over eight hours per day online, which is ample time to expose yourself to fraud risks. Therefore, it’s essential to safeguard your personal data as you use social media, search engines, and other platforms. Follow these tips to protect your information from threats and explore the internet safely.

Improve your passwords

Reflect on the sheer amount of data you store in digital spaces, such as in banking apps, online stores, and internet browsers you use to check your health or tax records. Should criminals obtain this data, they can not only view your personal information but also utilize it to access your funds, open lines of credit in your name, or conduct other forms of identity theft.

One of the simplest ways to protect your private data is to update all your passwords, making them more unique. According to the Federal Trade Commission, safe password recommendations have been updated; rather than long, complicated codes such as “2djklasfu84#$$@q,” the most secure ones are easily memorizable phrases that contain at least twelve characters and would make no sense to another person.

For example, if you were voted “Most Likely to Succeed” in high school and your mascot was a parrot, you could create this password for accessing your email: SucceedParrots. It may seem simple, but it would be more difficult for criminals to guess than a common phrase like “LetMeIn.” To make it even more obscure, throw in some symbols: Succ3edP@rro+s. (Just don’t actually use this example.) Phrases such as these are far more complex for cybercriminals to crack.

Then use your imagination to repeat this process for every other account that holds your personal data. Creating and memorizing several different codes may seem like a hassle, but it’s an essential step toward defending your privacy. You should also set up multifactor authentication, which requires extra credentials for signing in, such as a fingerprint scan or an email confirmation code. This will provide an added layer of security against data theft, even if scammers happen to identify your passwords.

Secure your devices

From there, ensure that any potential route to your personal data is virtually impregnable. Routinely perform updates on your smart devices’ software as well as on your internet browsers, antivirus programs, and any other apps that may hold your data. These tasks help fix weak points and buggy operations that criminals can exploit. As annoying as update notifications may be, always act on them right away, and consider adjusting your system settings so patches download immediately as they become available.

Store data wisely

Many of us save data on the “cloud” without truly understanding what that means or the inherent risks of doing so. This term refers to any digital storage platform, such as Google Drive, that stores your information online rather than directly on your devices. Using such a service means trusting another party with control over your privacy. Because many of these systems are managed by large, highly successful companies, it’s easy to assume they’re secure. But they aren’t immune to data breaches—in fact, they’re major targets. Worse, their internal errors can accidentally reveal an immense amount of personal information. In 2018, for example, Google experienced two separate bugs, the first of which exposed the private details of more than 500,000 users and the second over 52 million users.

To help preserve your privacy in case of such a data breach, never store personal information, including tax forms and medical documents, on any type of cloud service; keep it on a private USB or physical hard drive at home instead. For more details on securing your online files, check out these cloud-safety guidelines from web-hosting service GoDaddy.

Browse carefully

Every time you access the internet, a surprising degree of personal information channels from your devices to the websites you visit, such as your log-in credentials and credit card numbers. Cybercriminals frequently scour these pages to hunt down people’s data. Thankfully, encryption features help scramble your information to keep it private, even when you use public Wi-Fi. To ensure you’re browsing safely, look for a lock symbol next to the website’s address, which indicates that it’s secure.

Even still, you should remain vigilant to prevent sophisticated data theft. When signing into public hot spots, always ask an employee for the Wi-Fi network’s name and access code to verify you’re connecting to the proper network, and never retrieve personal data like bank account information. Also avoid purchasing, downloading, or installing anything via public Wi-Fi—false notifications may fool you into clicking on malware, or malicious software.

As for your home Wi-Fi, you should set up a virtual private network (VPN), which will encrypt your internet traffic and provide added security. For a breakdown of this multistep process, refer to this VPN-installation guide from the antivirus experts at Norton.

Look out for phishing scams

Phishing refers to any method scammers use to earn your trust and convince you to willingly hand over your data. This is one of the most common and, sadly, effective ways online criminals steal personal information—the FBI reported over 300,000 phishing scam complaints in 2022 alone. To avoid falling victim to these cybercrimes, exercise caution at all times. “Don’t click links in emails or text messages,” say the tech experts at PCMag on its website. “Your trusted source might have been compromised, or the message might be fake. The same goes for links on social media sites, even in posts that seem to be from your friends. If a post seems unlike the style of your social media buddy, it could be a hack.”

There are many other common scams out there that can compromise your confidentiality, including Trojan horses and ransomware. Ultimately, the best widespread protection against these multifaceted methods is enrolling in trusted antivirus software like McAfee or Norton. While there is no such thing as guaranteed protection, such apps can help you utilize convenient, engaging, and productive internet services daily—without compromising your privacy or safety.