With the recent news that TalkTalk data got into the wrong hands due to a cyber attack, revealing customers personal information including credit card details – it’s got me thinking about how to keep my information safe. Information that I control. Here are a few tips on how to keep your information safe:
Top tips for keeping your personal information safe online
- Use passwords that are sentences or a collection of words. Passwords like “This is my password!” < it includes a capital letter, punctuation and spaces. The chances of this being guessed it quite slim. You could add numbers into the password too to make it more complicated.
- Use different passwords for the sites you use. Do NOT use the same password for your online bank, that you use for an online shopping website. I know it is a pain to remember different passwords for everything you do online. Try developing a pattern for your passwords. For example: a shopping website password example you could use is “This is my shopping password1”.
- Keep your password recovery options up to date. This means if you forget your password you can get back into your account easily.
- Use security questions that no one else will know the answers to. Not your birthplace or mother’s maiden name, as these could easily be worked out. For example: your first pets name, type or colour would be something that only a handful of people know.
- Where offered, use a mobile phone as a security recovery method, not another email address. A mobile phone is much more secure when retrieving accounts online, as if you have the same password for all of your accounts then you can quite easily have someone hack into your email address.
- If you write down your passwords in a log, because you have hundreds of them, then make sure that log is secure. Not on a post it note stuck to your PC, or a desktop icon on your machine.
Dell have recently created this useful infographic to help people understand what to take seriously and what mobile malware is. With all these fantastic portable devices that you can buy these days, it is essential to make sure our information remains safe. Click here to find out more about mobile security and Dell’s mobile device management solutions.
Password image by Shutterstock.
