Safeguarding your online accounts against cyber criminals: Part 1

     It is very likely that you or someone you know has had one or multiple of their online accounts hacked into. It happens to everybody: individuals, small and big companies alike, can have disastrous consequences and makes you feel extremely vulnerable. In this three part post we will talk about some tips to give cyber-criminals a hard(er) time in their inevitable quest for easy money or their five minutes of glory.

     While no security solution will ever be perfect and cyber-crime will always exist, each individual plays an important part in helping or hindering the act of cyber-theft. We will take a look at the most common and efficient ways to safeguard your information and identity. If you want to share some of your own tips, please feel free to leave a comment.

Keep a malware-free system

     One of the easiest ways to get your credentials stolen is by typing them from an infected machine. There are countless banking trojans and other key-loggers whose main goal is to capture logins and passwords and send them back to cyber-criminals.

     The best defense against malware is a defense that consists of multiple layers rather than one that relies on a single solution. Keep in mind that having the same type of product multiple times (for example having several antivirus products) may result in your computer freezing or behaving poorly. Rather, you want to make sure each product covers a different area (i.e. virus/firewall/browser protection). By the way, we do sell security products on our site. The links are on the left hand side of the screen.

      An extreme solution to having a malware-free system is to use a Live CD where nothing is stored permanently and can be booted off the same every time. It is obviously a very inconvenient solution but some people do use it when banking online.

Use a secure Internet connection

     It goes without saying that logging into your account should be done through a secure connection. While most (if not all) providers support HTTPS which encrypts your connection, hackers love to setup rogue WiFi access points where all your computer’s traffic will be sent through them. It is trivial to redirect you to a fake login page that looks like it is encrypted but really isn’t. You type in your password and it is sent in the clear right to them.

     To increase the security of your connection when you’re on the go or even at home, you can use inexpensive VPN services that essentially encrypt your data and also guarantee your anonymity.

     If, like most people, you have your own WiFi at home please take a few minutes to ensure it is not wide open to intruders. If your are using an old router, it is quite possible the technology it came with is now completely outdated. For example, the WEP encryption still in effect on many models is so weak that anyone could break into your network with ease. Your WiFi network must be locked with a strong password and have a good encryption standard such as WPA/WPA2. To access those settings, look on the actual router for the default link and password (there’s usually a sticker with this information).

That's it for today! Part two and three will be coming soon. Part two will go over two-factor authentication and phishing. To take a look at part two click Here.

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-Zach