As a business owner I truly appreciate the opportunity to have this Password Safety information handy! Definitely great to review this if you have many passwords to keep up with.
- Use Very Strong Passwords
One of the most important things you can do to improve your internet safety is to use better
passwords. You need to use a complex password. It needs to be difficult to guess and
something unique. Don’t reuse passwords over and over again. This is an easy way to get
hacked. If one account gets compromised, you don’t want your other accounts to be vulnerable
because of it. You want to try to use a password that is a minimum of (8) characters. It should
have a mix of numbers, letters, and symbols. Try to use different IDs and passwords for every
account, but especially for your bank accounts.
An example of a strong password is mpYzxPir2W6f@6
It’s best to use a password manager when you are looking to secure your online accounts. If
you need to remember the password, try to use the letters of a phrase that you can easily
remember. Don’t choose passwords based on your personal life like using your children or your
pets. These can be social engineered and cracked.
- Protect Your Personal Information
One of the things that you want to do when you are trying to protect yourself online is to protect
your personal information. This is a very important thing to do considering all of the information
that is out there. Never respond to an email that is asking you to input personally identifiable
information. If a bank or a government agency is requesting this information, go directly to the
website to input it. You can call them too. However, you’ll want to go directly to the agency’s
website and call the number that’s displayed on their website. Don’t go directly from an email
because it could be a spoofed website or it could redirect you to a bad actor’s site. If someone
gets access to your personal information, it can open the floodgates to your accounts.
- Lookout For Suspicious Emails
Hackers and bad actors are getting better and more sophisticated with their email phishing. You
need to be wary of any emails you get. Try not to respond to any emails directly from a financial
institution or a government agency. They aren’t going to ask you to input sensitive information
through email. You want to take a peak at the sender’s email. Typically, their email will be listed
on their website. If the email is not listed on the site, it’s likely a bad actor. You can also check to
see if the email is misspelled. A lot of phishing attempts will use fake emails that will either be
misspelled or the email itself will have a lot of spelling errors.
- Verify Attachments
You don’t want to click on any email that contains an attachment unless you knew the email was
being sent. It’s best to avoid clicking on any email that contains an attachment sent from an unknown source. These attachments can have viruses or malware attached to them. Even if you get attachments sent from a friend, verify them with your friend or family member before opening them. They could have been compromised themselves.
- Watch What You Share
It’s best to avoid oversharing on social media. When you are posting on social media, you could
make yourself an easier target. Try to avoid posting anything that can be used against you. This
includes not posting your driver’s license, your vaccine cards, your health care information, or
anything else that contains a lot of sensitive information about yourself. Try to maximize the
security settings across all of your social media accounts too. Gaming is another area that is
easy for cyber criminals, ensure that you are always using a safe site like www.mtame.com.
- Protect Your Internet Security
Whenever you are browsing the internet and when you are shopping, you’ll want to ensure that
you are securely connected. The best way to do this is to ensure the website is using a secure
protocol. Look for “HTTPS” when you are browsing. This means that the website is taking extra
security precautions to ensure that the information that’s being transmitted is secure. This is
very important if you are going to be inputting any sensitive information and if you are making
any sort of payment. Any request for personal information is typically a scam. If you suspect that
a link is going to take you to a bad site, it’s best to avoid clicking on it entirely.
