5 Ways You Can Keep Yourself Safe Online

Defending your business against cyber threats has to be a company-wide effort.
With cyber threats becoming an ever-increasing problem and threat actors using more sophisticated technologies to target companies globally, staying safe online has become more challenging.

With that in mind, now’s the time to ensure you can keep your company and all its data safe and secure. Strong online safety starts with a well-educated team that knows how to stay safe and avoid threats. In this article, we’ll show you five ways you can keep yourself safe online so you can avoid common online security issues within your company.
 

Don’t Click on Suspicious Links

When you’re online, it’s crucial to avoid clicking on any links unless you’re 100% certain they’re legitimate, particularly when checking your emails. If you think the link you’ve received isn’t trustworthy, you should report it immediately.

Suspicious links are most commonly found in phishing emails. For those who don’t know, a phishing email is an online scam that targets individuals by sending emails that appear to be from a reliable or well-known source. Phishing emails almost always contain links designed to make online users reveal personal information or download viruses.

A 2023 report found that over 560 million phishing emails were sent in Q1 of 2023 alone. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to identify a suspicious email or link before clicking on it. Firstly, most phishing emails contain spelling mistakes that target less observant people. Secondly, hovering over a link lets you see if the URL in the text matches the link address.

You can also use Google’s Transparency Report URL checker to check a link’s safety.
 

Update Your Software

Software updates can be time-consuming and frustrating, but they are essential for keeping your systems safe and secure. Software flaws that compromise online security are not uncommon; unfortunately, threat actors have the tools to target these flaws.

Therefore, software updates—from your computer’s operating systems to your smartphone’s apps—often include security updates. If you don’t update your systems, your device could be left wide open to attack.
Enabling automatic updates on your devices is the easiest way to avoid potential safety issues.

Incredibly, recent research found that 40% of American, British, and German adults don’t update their software when first prompted to, leaving themselves exposed to threat actors. Put it this way: You wouldn’t announce to thieves that you’ve left your windows open for them to get into your house, so don’t do it online by using out-of-date software!
 

Choose Strong Passwords

When it comes to cybersecurity, passwords are often one of the most significant weak spots. Most people choose passwords that are easier to remember and, therefore, easier for hackers to crack using hacking software.

Additionally, many people use the same password for multiple sites, which puts data at further risk. In other words, if threat actors obtain your login credentials for one website, they can potentially access all the other websites you use the same password on.

As such, employees should be encouraged to use strong and unique passwords for every website or system.

A strong password should:

• Be made up of at least 12 characters, preferably more.
• Contain a diverse mix of characters – lower and upper case letters, symbols, and numbers.
• Avoid obvious patterns – date of birth, pet’s names, and numbers in sequential order.
• Be significantly different from previous passwords.

If you need help remembering passwords, use a password manager. Password managers act as a digital vault for all your login information. All you have to remember is one master password to gain access to all your information.
 

Be Careful When Using Public WiFi

We live in an era where working away from the office is becoming the norm. While most people work remotely at home, many prefer to work in public places, i.e. cafes.

In these instances, while it may not be recommended, using public WiFi is occasionally unavoidable. This poses a significant online security risk because you don’t have direct control over public WiFi security, which could leave you vulnerable to cyberattacks.

A 2023 report discovered that 1 in 4 people have experienced security issues after using unsecured public networks. If you absolutely have to use public WiFi, avoid carrying out any personal or business transactions requiring sensitive information, such as online banking.

Alternatively, invest in a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN will protect any data you send using an unsecured network by providing real-time encryption.
 

Don’t Let Browsers Remember Your Login Details

Most web browsers allow users to save their passwords. This is an attractive proposal because it saves us from re-entering our passwords whenever we revisit a website.

However, it poses a significant security risk. As a result, never allow a browser to remember your login details if you want to stay safe online. Unfortunately, one of the biggest issues with storing passwords in browsers is that security is sacrificed for usability.

Most web browsers store passwords in a predictable folder with a not-so-secret path. To make matters worse, although passwords are encrypted, the encryption key is stored close by, making it much easier for threat actors to find your personal data.

Threat actors that steal passwords saved in browsers are called “Password Stealers”. They use malware to sift through folders known to contain browser-stored passwords, find the keys, and decrypt the passwords. Passwords are then uploaded to cybercriminal servers.

All it takes is one web browser breach to potentially expose all your passwords, so take the extra 30 seconds to re-enter your login details.

 

How DIESEC can help You Stay Safe Online

As cyber-attacks continue to grow in number and complexity, implementing DIESEC’s systems can help improve your company’s online safety. DIESEC provides several services designed to improve employee awareness of online threats, identify weaknesses, and test company security. These include DIESEC’s Phishing simulations, designed to test company susceptibility to scams, social engineering services to improve awareness of real-world security issues, and red teaming exercises to simulate realistic cyber-attacks.