Hacking is one of the greatest concerns of the digital world. It has become amongst the most lucrative jobs in the world, despite it being illegal. Globally, organizations and businesses spend millions of dollars yearly to combat hackers and to ensure stealthiness of their valuable data.
There are numerous ways your data can be stolen or your systems can be hacked. You need to make sure you have secured your data at all ends using different techniques of hacking prevention.
Below we have discussed the ways you can be hacked and certain proven techniques to avoid it.
What are the Ways You Can be Hacked?
Hacking systems have advanced with the advancement of technology. Hackers are always coming up with one trick or another and it sometimes becomes increasingly difficult to gain over them or outsmart them as they devise innovative evasive techniques to do Phishing or hacking your system.
Below we have listed down numerous ways you can be hacked:
Weak Passwords: Did you know that 85% of the hacking occurs due to weak passwords. Hackers and bots are always crawling the internet to hack accounts that have weak passwords. Your credit card information and personal information are always at stake if you haven’t set a strong password.
Always create long, strong and unique passwords that can be easily memorized by the users as well.
Online Behavior: We have developed a bad habit of clicking at everything which piques our interest without making sure from where it is coming. Phishing software and hackers use clickbait headlines and messages to urge you to click on them. And it transfers all of the valuable private data to them in a matter of seconds.
Malicious Software & Unknown USBs: If you are habitual of sticking any USB in your laptop then beware that it is a sure-fire way to compromise your data. Always make sure that your firewalls are activated and your antivirus is updated before you insert any USB into your laptop.
Likewise, malicious software can play havoc with your data. Do not download games or data from unknown sources, especially in your office equipment. Be wary of the links, games, and any such source which is undisclosed or appears suspicious.
Lack of Patch Management: Software updates are there to ensure our systems are secured. Lack of patch management and updating software causes many problems for businesses and individuals.
It is highly recommended to patch systems and act on all update notifications as soon as they arrive to protect your data to save yourself from getting hacked.
How to Protect Yourself
Getting hacked is nasty. It takes a toll on your mental as well as physical health. It can also make you lose your business. Hackers can go to any lengths to steal your data. You need to protect your data on all fronts and give hackers no chance to breach your accounts.
Upgrade Software
Many organizations don’t pay attention to upgrading software when required. They ignore the constant notifications until something dark happens. But usually, it is too late, and the damage is done.
Software upgrade at the correct time is extremely important to protect your data. And avoiding it can be criminal for your business and employees’ safety.
VPN
VPN is Virtual Private Network to protect your IP address or Internet Protocol. It is used as an IP disguise while web surfing. VPN is one of the surest ways to prevent hacking. It masks your identity and allows you to conduct your business under complete protection. VeePN encrypts your data and enables secure data sharing within the organization. Encrypt your data with a good VPN to keep the hackers away from sensitive information.
You need to make sure your employees use VPN IP hider every time they are working whether from home or the office. They should not connect their devices with your organization’s VPN to avoid any data breach.
Training the Employees
Organizations should train their employees and instill in them the habit of not using personal devices for their office work. Keep their official and private devices separate.
They should also make sure not to share their VPN outside of their organization. Because your data may become vulnerable to hackers. The employees should also be careful about clicking on unknown links or opening messages from undisclosed sources.
These small habits can result in data protection and a secured environment where you can share information without any fear.
Multi-Factor Authentication
Nowadays, multi-factor authentication is commonly used in phones. It is a highly effective way to ensure data safety. Multi-factor authentication makes it extremely difficult for hackers to break into your accounts by creating multiple layers of protection. This method involved two code systems from the user to log into the account. It is usually a code sent to your phone or email provided by you.
Data Encryption
Data Encryption is another way of protecting your data. Organizations have come to realize that data encryption is beneficial for them as well as their customers. Therefore, WhatsApp and Facebook provide end-to-end encryption on their messages, calls, and voice notes.
iOS and Windows also provide encryption on your systems. In iPhone, the encryption is turned on by default, and your data is secured even from certain non-official iPhone software that tends to break into the system to acquire or gather basic level information.
In Windows, you can turn on data encryption by going into your settings. It is good to follow the practice of encrypting your data so that it is secured even if your devices are stolen.
Conclusion
We are sure that following these guidelines plus changing your online behavior will solve a lot of your data breaching problems. The sooner you learn these tricks, the better you will be able to protect your precious data and businesses.