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8 ways to protect yourself from cybercrime

What is cybercrime?

Cybercrime is every crime that takes place primarily through the internet. Cyber criminals use their knowledge and IT skills for attacking computer networks or devices. The aim of the attack is to get their hands on various business information, break into accounts and identity theft. Other cybercrimes are more of a personal nature and include things like revenge porn, cyber-stalking, harassment, bullying, and child sexual exploitation. We've all looked at least once a movie or series in which we've seen everything cybercrime criminals know and are capable of.

Source: pixabay.com (autor: pixelcreatures)

After all the question is what we can do to protect ourselves. Here are some tips that can help us or others.

1) Strong passwords

We are all inclined to repeat the same mistakes and we use the same passwords everywhere. The most common are child birth dates, marriage anniversaries, and similar. This is a crucial mistake because it's very easy to find out the date of birth or pet's name.

To avoid these mistakes, we should use strong or complex passwords using a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. We should also use separate passwords for all our online accounts and change them regularly. There are several password management applications that can help us keep our passwords locked down. We should also be careful with our home network. Next to the strong password a virtual private network can also help. VPN is a computer network that connects remote networks using internet and protecting the user from attacks.

2) Social media

Cyber criminals can easily access our private data via social media such as Facebook, Instagram and others. For instance, if we publish a photo with our pet with the description "Patrick and I", it's very easy to conclude that Patrick is the name of our dog. The same applies for publishing images on our birthday. This way cybercriminals can easily get our personal information therefore it is very important to have locked profiles with as little personal information as possible. The conclusion is the less we share with those outside our circle, the better.

3) Update software

We often postpone updating the software for one reason or another. However, by postponing updates, we harm ourselves. What we should do is regularly update our software on mobile devices or desktop because cybercriminals often use the disadvantages and known damages of our software to enter our system. By regular software updating, we correct these disadvantages and damages. This way we reduce the possibility of becoming a cybercrime target.

4) Antivirus programs

It's very important to use antivirus programs because they help to protect us from malware like viruses and remove them from our PC. It can also protect our financials. It's not an ideal solution but it's a start. We should always update our antivirus programs to the latest version.

5) Back up our data

Always back up the data in another separate system. It is good to have more backups, in this way we will not lose any data in case of the attack. The backups should be done regularly.

6) Talk to the kids about the danger

We have to teach our kids how to use internet safely without taking them off the social networks. They need to know that in any case they can talk to us freely and ask us to help them especially if they come in touch with online violence such as bulling or harassing. Also learn them not to share their personal information with anybody. Identity thieves often use the date of the children because those datas are always clean.

7) Protect ourselves against identity theft

Today we have to be very careful with our personal information. We always think that this couldn't happen to us but actually it's so easy to get to our personal information. Thieves often represent themselves to us as a telecommunication operator or a bank officer and in this way, they can easily trick especially old people or children. The other way is to get to our bank data through our post. We shouldn't leave our data unprotected, be wise, lock the smartphones, don't throw the bills in the trash it's better to burn them, the same goes for the bank statements. Sharing information about our holidays on social networks is not a good idea because identity theft can happen to anyone anywhere.

Source: pixabay.com (author: TheDigitalArtist)

8) Use secure websites

The website we use should start with "https". Watch for the "s" in https because it stands for secure, this means that our data is encrypted. In this way we will have a secure connection. Don't trust the website without contact data. A trusted website We will never ask us for a password. If we notice anything suspicious, we should contact the police and our bank if we think our date or identity was stolen.