Itās not for nothing that cyber crime and hacking was considered 2019ās number one āmajor riskā by the worldās largest insurer, Allianz, in their latest Risk Barometer Survey. These days, itās not if the security of your electronic identity and assets will be tried by a criminal, itās when.
While no one is completely guaranteed safe from a cyber attack, these seven habits will mean that youāll be a harder target than someone else and so, by default, cyber secure.
1. Cyber secure people never use free WiFi
South African speaker and social media legal expert named Emma Sadleir has a wonderful saying: āwhen something is free, you are the product.ā Donāt ever use a network that you donāt need a password to log onto, or even one thatās free. Hackers often either set up their own (very legimate-seeming) hotspots or sit in an existing one waiting for prey.
2. Cyber secure people use two-bit encryption
The more encryption you can use, the better. People who are secure online use systems where they will be told of logging on to banking and all banking steps via email or SMS and get One Time PINS (OTPs) for everything. OTPs make use of two-bit encryption and if you donāt have the code, you canāt complete the transaction. This sort of security is far harder for a hacker to hack and so, usually, they wonāt go near a bank account with two-bit encryption.
3. Cyber secure people never, ever, ever give someone else their login details
There is a chilling tale of a savvy business woman who was called by her ābankā. They had her ID number, they had her card number. They just needed her PIN, please. They even had a call-back mechanism which directed her to her bankās authentic call centre. She almost fell for it. Hereās the thing ā no bank will ever, ever ever EVER ask you to type in your PIN, say your PIN or write your PIN down. The same goes for your username and password. It doesnāt matter if youāre in the bank itself. Never write down, say or otherwise disclose those three things.
4. Passwords are never easily guessable with the cyber secure
Anything that could be guessed at by someone who isnāt your spouse or mother isnāt safe for a password or PIN, including your birthday, anniversary, year you were born, address or ā1234ā. That goes for your security questions that the bank asks you too. Donāt just put your high school or first job ā someone could stalk you on Facebook and find that out. In fact, criminals use this trick all the time.
5. Cyber secure people have varying, different passwords
This one, many of us are guilty of. Not many of us have unsecure passwords like our birth dates, 1234 or the word āpasswordā anymore. We have one strong and hard-to-guess one with upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols in it ā but only one. Itās so much easier to just remember one password, isnāt it? But cyber criminals know that too, and so they know that they just need to get your details off one not-so-secure site and then itās open sesame for everything else. So, use different passwords ā completely different.
6. Cyber secure people are wary of personal info on groups
Those not-too-safe sites we just mentioned? Well, few are as unsafe as groups on WhatsApp, Facebook and Telegram. Especially not those really large ones where you donāt know each individual on there very well. We donāt care if itās the church group or the over 70 year-oldsā group – donāt send any personal info including bank details and your address. You never know who is part of the group and looking for information.
7. ā¦ Or Gmail
This may come as a shock, but some cyber experts consider Gmail accounts easily hacked and not too safe. The extreme popularity of them might be one reason but, just to be safe, do not send sensitive information over Gmail if you can help it.
Remember, we canāt be 100% secure online as new hacking techniques are being unceasingly developed – but we can be mindful of our online security. If you are ever in doubt, update your passwords.