There are several great ways to protect yourself from cyber crimminals. One of these ways is to never use the same password twice on any of your accounts. I know this sounds like a headache to do considering all the different accounts we a required to use, from a work account to a Facebook account. But you have to remember that not every account we sign up for has the same amount of security. If you get into the habit of using the same password on multiple accounts, there is a chance that you account could be compromised by a cyber criminal. This may happen if they have a successful attack on a poor managed and run website that you have an account with. And if you have several accounts with the same login credential, then that means all those accounts are compromised.
Another thing you should do to protect your self is to make sure you change your passwords periodically. This should be done because again, even if a website has good security, there is still a chance that it can be compromised and an attacker can get a hold of its member’s account information. And when this happens they will often times sell the information online. And even though the compromised website owner may make the successful attack public, several months may pass bye before they do it. So, to protect yourself you should always periodically change the passwords of all of your accounts. Again, I know this sounds like a lot of work to do, but it’s for the best and will pay off in the long run.
One of the best ways to help you manager all of your login usernames and passwords is to use a piece of software called a “Password Manager”. Most of these types of softwares not only help you keep track of all your usernames and passwords, but some are able to link to your accounts to make loging in easier.
One of the last and newer ways to also protect your accounts is to use something called, “two factor authentication”. Two factor authentication just means that you are required to use multiple credentials in order to login to your account. The more common way that companies use this for their users to login is by requiring them to not only their username and password to login, but also requiring them to verify their identity through a passcode sent to their phones. This type of security measure should definitely be used whenever possible. Unfortunately, not all accounts are equipped with this type of technology.
There are many more steps a person can take to protect themselves form being a victim of cybercrimes, but if you use these three preventative measure, you will protect yourself from a great many of them.
