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How to Secure Your Data - Online Privacy Guide - Cyberops Infosec

how to secure your data

How to Secure Your Data – Online Privacy Guide

By Prempal Singh 0 Comment September 27, 2018

Online Privacy Guide – How to Secure Your data

How to Secure your Data - Cyberops Infosec

Security and privacy: what’s the difference?

Information security and confidentiality are closely related with each other, but still quite different. The service can be very secure, but not confidential.

What is confidentiality?

The essence of confidentiality is that you or others do not have access to your data. You control access to your information.

What is security?

This is the protection of information from third parties. The essence of confidentiality is to keep certain data from strangers, security – to keep information confidential after it is collected.  

How to Secure your Data - Cyberops Infosec

Privacy is in some way related to the personal level of comfort – to what extent you are comfortable sharing data. Security is how organizations store your information and protect it.

How to maintain privacy on the Internet

Use VPN

VPN – very popular tools for circumventing locks and prohibitions. However, they also offer data protection to their users. These tools transfer your Internet connection to a different location, so the sites that track you are difficult to identify you.

By combining proven VPNs with other privacy tools, you will provide greater protection for your information.

How to Secure your Data - Cyberops Infosec

Create and use complex passwords

Your password is the first defense against hackers who seek to access your account. Do not use passwords that are easy to guess (for example, password1).Come up with long passwords consisting of letters, numbers and symbols. Do not enter your name and other information about yourself in the password, which can easily be learned by intruders.

Use Password Managers

When you use unique and complex passwords for all registered websites, it’s very difficult to keep them all in your head. Password managers can help you solve this problem. They can generate long passwords and keep them safe, and you do not need to remember them all.

Good and trusted password managers include KeePass , LastPass and Apple’s Keychain .

Enable two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication means that you need one more confirmation, in addition to the password, to log in to your account. This can be code sent to your phone or email. The second layer of protection will provide greater security for your data if third parties gain access to your password.

Encrypt all

Encryption is very important for the security of data on the Internet. Encrypt anything that you send over the network. So outsiders who track your activity on the network will not be able to see the information that you enter on the sites you visit.

How to Secure your Data - Cyberops Infosec

For private privacy, use incognito modes

Many believe that your activity on the network will remain completely confidential, if you sit in incognito mode. It’s a delusion. This feature is very useful when you enter the Internet from a public computer. So another person who will sit behind the same computer after you, will not be able to see your activity on the Internet.  

Use tracker blockers

Most sites on the Internet use something like tracking or analytical platforms.These trackers allow sites to track the effectiveness of marketing and to receive information about how many users visit their site. Unfortunately, these trackers also collect information about you – for example, IP address, location and device type.

Use ad blockers

Advertisement blockers are similar to blockers of trackers, because they define ads on pages and block it. In addition to protecting your data, they speed up the download time of the site you visit.

Use messengers with encryption support

There are several companies that offer first-class products with a big focus on privacy. ProtonMail and Hushmail offer webmail services with encryption.

Telegram , Signal or Wickr messengers are also considered to be safe.

Use HTTPS everywhere

Encryption in the HTTPS protocol protects the data you enter on Web sites from being transmitted over the network in a readable text form. Check the URL of the sites you visit and make sure that it’s HTTPS before sharing information that others should not access.

https – site is safe

http – site is not secure

Regularly clean cookies

How to Secure your Data - Cyberops Infosec

Cookies are small text files stored on your computer. They contain small bits of information related to your activity on the network and the device. Websites use cookies, so you do not have to re-enter your login and password each time.They contribute to greater convenience and at the same time provide an opportunity for unwanted information tracking.

Carefully read what the application is requesting access to

When you download the application to your phone and open it, it asks you to give certain permissions. Pay attention to these conditions, because the application can request access to your camera or microphone.

Use social networks to a minimum

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social networks seem like a convenient way to communicate with friends, but they collect a huge amount of data.  

Facebook manages one of the largest ad networks in the world and uses all the data you share for targeted advertising. Specify only the necessary information on the site.

Go online via TOR

TOR is an acronym for The Onion Router (bulbous router). Bulbous this network was named because it involves several layers of encryption, protecting the online privacy of users. In fact, TOR offers more security than VPN, because it does not allow any of the nodes through which the signal passes to see your IP address.  

TOR is also available as a browser that already uses the entire technology, and you do not need to install software.

Frequently update applications, operating systems and devices

Updates often include fixing bugs and improving security, so you should download them as often as possible. As the software and device grow old, security errors begin to occur more often. Constantly updating the device and software, you will better protect your privacy.

Online Privacy Guide - Cyberops Infosec

Use Google alternatives

Google offers a wide range of web services, but collects information about you and your use of their products. Here you can read what you can use instead of Google.

Use private search engines

In general, confidential search engines do not collect information about you or your search history. The most popular of them are:

DuckDuckGo

Search Encrypt

StartPage

Use browsers for anonymous surfing

Chrome is great if you need security, but it shares your activity on the Internet with Google. Thus, Chrome is a safe, but not a confidential browser. The best browsers in terms of privacy are Tor, Mozilla Firefox and Brave.

Use the web version of Facebook instead of the mobile application

If you install Facebook on your phone, you provide the social network with more tracking capabilities. If you need access to Facebook from a mobile device, it’s better to log into your account through a browser. So the app will not be able to track your location and other data.

Be careful with devices connected to the Internet of things

IoT devices like Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod are a wonderful and new technology. People buy them like crazy. However, they do not understand how much of their data they transmit to technology companies when they bring these devices home.

Use virtual machines

Using virtual machines is almost the same as using a separate computer, only they are already contained on your computer. They are isolated from the rest of the system, so the software inside them can not affect or control the computer system.

Avoid possibly public Wi-Fi

Public Wi-Fi is very convenient, but it can also damage your privacy.

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    Attack of the reseller – When someone can access the connection between your computer and the website. This allows an outsider to view your activity when you do not know about it.

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    Unencrypted networks – In such networks your information is sent in text, not encrypted form. This means that everyone with access to the network will be able to see what is being transferred between the computer and the network.  

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    Malware distribution   – Since everyone can access these networks, hackers can use public Wi-Fi to install a malicious program on your computer, and you will not even notice it.

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    Sniffing – uses devices and software that will allow someone to intercept Wi-Fi signals. This allows hackers to access your passwords and other information that you enter on the page.

Do not forget about privacy on mobile devices

Some think that privacy threats exist only on computers. This is not true.Because of the complexities and capabilities of smartphones, there are many, if not more, privacy threats on your phone. One of them is tracking the location. Since we always carry the phone with us, companies can collect much more information about us.  

Download files from trusted sources

How to Secure your Data - Cyberops Infosec

Everybody knows about this, but I’ll say it again. Do not download files or programs from unfamiliar sources. They can contain malicious programs or viruses and collect data about you without your knowledge.

What information do you protect?

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    Metadata: In the context of digital communications, metadata is information about messages that you receive and send. These include the topics of emails, the length of messages and the location in the process of communication. Often, metadata is understood as all the information transmitted, with the exception of the content of the information exchange itself. Although they do not disclose the content of the message, they can give out other information about you – for example, the type of device and the location.

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    Passwords: If an attacker gets access to your passwords, he can log into your accounts – including bank accounts and accounts on social networks.

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    Financial Information: If you store your payment information in an unsafe manner, someone can access it. This can eventually lead to financial losses.

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    Medical records: Your medical records may contain personal information, which must remain confidential for your own benefit. If, for example, in the future your insurance company gets access to your medical records, it will be able to charge you more money for insurance if they contain conditions that you did not disclose.

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    Communication: This includes messages from social networks and instant messengers and emails. Your correspondence probably contains personal information that should not fall into the hands of strangers.

From whom are you defending yourself?

Hackers

Hackers are people who try to access information for personal or political purposes. These cyber criminals use a variety of methods, but often they want to get your financial information and passwords. They then use this information to steal personal data or gain access to your bank accounts.

Advertisers

Most of the Internet is built around advertising. To make it more efficient or to learn how you interact with websites, companies and businesses use a large amount of data that is collected.

Google manages one of the largest ad networks in the world. With analytics software and advertising, Google knows a lot about you. If you are confused by the thought that one company knows what you are doing on the Internet, you are not alone.

Internet Service Providers

Internet service providers also monitor what people do on the Internet. They can access a lot of information about you, because they see all your Internet activity.

Is privacy possible on the Internet?

Confidentiality and security on the Internet are constantly evolving. What keeps your data safe today can completely change tomorrow. Since the Internet is an open platform, new threats are constantly emerging.Technologies are constantly changing. It is important to hear a few opinions about the product that you are using, and protection measures.  

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