The security and privacy of your data is of paramount importance to us. But we also know everyone’s situation is unique, for example you may be a home user or running a business. Therefore giving us a call is the best way to get the protection and peace of mind you need. However, below is some useful general information that might prove useful.
Telephone, text, and email phishing scams.
These are by far the most prevalent ways hackers get your information. In it’s simplest form it is unscrupulous people and criminals pretending to be someone they are not to lure you into giving out some or all of your personal information. In the worst cases they will get you to hand over your bank details or get you to give them access to your computer or online accounts.
Data Hacks
You may have read about large companies being hacked. This means when some of all of their client data has been stolen and released on the internet. This can have an impact on your privacy if you have an account with them, even if it is an old account and no longer used. In the worst cases it may put your other accounts at risk.
Social Media
This can seem innocuous, you may have done an online quiz, or answered a Facebook test or IQ test for example. But Every time you do this you are providing companies with more information about you. Sometimes this is just used to build an online picture of you. This can be serious because combined with other data (e.g. who your friends and family are, which they can deduce by your proximity to them) they can build quite an accurate picture of you. This may even involve very personal information like your health and personal habits.
Browsers and VPNs
Every security product seems to be promoting and selling VPNs, but how useful are these? More importantly how will they impact on your business activity? These can be useful, but more often than not people end up paying for these and then not utilising them properly, so they end up costing you money or slowing your machines down with no real positive impact.
We recommend Brave as the most secure way to access the Internet.
GDPR
If you are the victim of a data breach they are some sizable fines that your business could receive if you have not taken adequate steps to protect yours and your clients data. Or if you don’t have reasonable procedures in place when a data breech does occur. We can advise on the best and most practical ways to do this.
Passwords and Encryption.
Advice for the best way to store your passwords changes over time. Sometimes you might be advised to change your password regularly, others may advise never to change it. You might keep it in a secure place on your computer, but is it at secure as you think? Should you store it in written form or use a password manager app? All of this really depends on many factors ultimately, and so the precise advise would depend on you personal circumstances.
Websites
Criminals and other unscrupulous people are always attacking vulnerable websites. These people view your website as a collection of information and resources they can use. They do this in order to make money. People who attack websites are just criminals with technical skills, skills which they use to exploit any vulnerability that they can find.
Sometimes hackers try to use your website resources for cryptocurrency mining, which is a computationally intense process that puts your web server’s computing power to work on behalf of the attacker. Our security researchers have uncovered evidence of hacks yielding almost $100,000 in just a few days.
As a site owner, this is especially scary, as not only do you risk having your site flagged as malicious by search engines and other blacklists, but your visitors — potential customers and prospects — are not going to be happy with you. Your reputation, both online and with your site visitors, could be damaged for a long time. In addition, a hacked website can have a long-term negative impact on your search engine rankings.