Compared to ten years ago, the internet is far safer now than it was. Now that doesn’t mean you’ll never get a virus again, but it is much less frequent. People are more aware of what to not click on as well as which information you should give out for the most part. In reality, No one is safe including the huge corporations that are spending millions of dollars each year to protect themselves. Just last year Citi Bank lost almost half a million card numbers.
Hide Your IP Address
Hiding your IP(Internet Protocol) Address has its benefits. First thing is that no one will be able to track you. You also avoid leaving a digital footprint which is how the hackers are getting some of your information. You can use a service that can easily hide your IP Address. An IP address that is always the same can allow someone to figure out your physical location almost exactly, which obviously can post a huge risk for your security.
Data Backup
Make sure you have everything backed up on an external hard drive. For most people their computer has everything on it and if you were to lose it, most of the information is unrecoverable and can be emotionally traumatic. If your computer is how you make your living than you need to make sure everything is backed up.
Password Protection
Please, for the love of god do not use the same password for everything! Have atleast three passwords in your arsenal. There are also random password generators out there that make it easy to have an unhackable password. Those passwords are impossible to remember, but there are services out there that automatically remember the passwords and keep them in a virtual vault.
The most important takeaway from this is that you will never be 100% safe, but there are steps you can take to get close to it.
