How to Avoid Becoming Vulnerable Online: Simple Tips From Our Everyday Lifestyle

How to Avoid Becoming Vulnerable Online: Simple Tips From Our Everyday Lifestyle

With the various innovations available on the internet and all the fun one get there, it is no longer uncommon for people to spend a greater percentage of their time online. This could bring certain negativities if left unchecked. Therefore, you should know how to avoid becoming vulnerable online.

The fear of being vulnerable should enable you to put up the needed resistance on the internet. When you hear stories about being vulnerable online and what it does, you will definitely need to step up.

Related: Internet banking security tips in Nigeria

The thing is that it is not necessarily when you get involved with complex situations that you get vulnerable. It is not. There are things, simple things, which we do every day that exposes us to danger.

The things that should bother you which of course we will touch in the course of this piece should include laptop security, website security, how to stay safe online, how to stay safe on the internet, and how to avoid hackers.

Most of the things we will be talking about will be basic but they will help avoid becoming vulnerable online.

Security Tips On How To Avoid Becoming Vulnerable Online

avoid becoming vulnerable online

  1. Use public Wi-Fi networks with care

Most people will jump at the opportunity of using public Wi-Fi. It is true. All the downloads you have been saving your data from will begin to be realized. You will download the normal videos; download porns, documents, audio files and other activities you want to engage in online.

See the risk, when you use this network especially in crowded places, you could be opening your computer to attacks. It is quite easy to spoof and capture your login when you use such networks. The reason is that the security on such connections is generally low.

Therefore, to avoid becoming vulnerable online, it is advised that if you need to connect to such networks, you will need to use a Visual Private Number (VPN). This will help encrypt your data and provide you with the security of your own wireless network over a public connection. By extension, it will keep your information safe.

  1. Filling out online forms could be very exposing

It is one thing to secure yourself by being careful with the connections you use but it is an entirely different ball game when you are dealing with third parties. Your information could equally be stolen when you do that. When you fill out online forms for any reason, you could be handing out certain information that could jeopardize you.

It is in your best interest to be alert and desist from giving out information to websites that you don’t trust. This could lead facebook id hack, they could also hack Gmail account online with the information and other hacks could happen.

Let me bring it to your knowledge that many websites collect your information only for them to go back and sell it to other people and these kinds of deals could have devastating implications.

  1. Be careful with your passwords

Hello, it is your password and it has to be protected. The moment your password is compromised, you cannot avoid becoming vulnerable online. It is quite simple. What you have to do therefore is to find a lasting means of securing your password.

We have got a suggestion. Actually, it is quite basic. You have to use different passwords for different functions online. It protects you from crumbling once your password is breached. There is an analogy I came across; using different passwords is like using different keys for your house, office, car, etc. When one is stolen, you don’t hand over the rest. You are kind of handing over the rest when you use the same password.

More so,  1Password services can help you create unique passwords. It will also help you remember them.

  1. Sharing ­photos on social media

Looking at this point, it looks quite harmless. Everybody does share photos on social media. It was always seen as a no-brainer until recent times especially in Nigeria. The recent kidnapping saga has shown us that we could be tracked and harmed by sharing photos and details about us. The kidnapper used Facebook to track some of the people he kidnapped.

While this may not be a big deal, you can avoid becoming vulnerable online by switching off your location so that your phone does not geotag it. All need to do is to turn off geotagging feature on your phone before posting your pictures.

  1. Blindly accepting privacy policies

I bet we are all guilty of the above crime. It is not uncommon to accept privacy policies when signing up to a website without even reading the content of the policy to understand what we are agreeing to. I do it; you do it if you will be honest.

It is quite dangerous to do that. Given, the policies could be unusually long so we just scroll down to accept and click it. You know, we should make some efforts to read those policies as they will help us avoid becoming vulnerable online.

In the final analysis, you will just need to be smart about how you go about your online businesses. Whatever you do can come back to haunt you if you make unnecessary mistakes. Be wise and you will not regret it.

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