Learn how to – The Main Points of Cyber Hygiene That You Need to Follow.

Before we get into the main point of cyber hygiene, let us quickly dig into its definition so that we are all on the same page. Like in every academic study conducted by WriteMyPaper4me, before you get into the matter you need to identify key concepts. 

So what is cyber hygiene? Cyber hygiene is a set of standards and actions that we use or take on a daily basis to protect ourselves while we are dealing with the Internet of Things and when we are online. 

Every hacker is pretty clever. They always have a new way to break a system or software and get access to your device (computer, tablet, or smartphone). And therefore, there are more things that you can do but reality has to set in right? You’re not going to do them all. 

So we really need to be focused around a smaller number of things, establish things that have both high value and are the foundation for more nuanced and complex defenses later. 

Today we’re drowning in data about threats. Attacks are happening all the time. We get an education from bad guys every day so at least we focus on the main points of cyber hygiene that we are going to reveal in this article. 

The Machinery of Defense: The Essence of Cyber Hygiene 

Cyber hygiene is really about discipline, operational practice, putting things in place.

We call it the machinery of defense. Let us explain to you why we call it like that. 

This defense never ends, right? We wish defense was an event where we win or we don’t win. But no. It’s more like a machine that runs every day and some days are better than other days, right?

So the machinery we design for efficiency and success needs to get better over time. Now, let’s dig into some great tips that are going to boost your security and make your cyber hygiene better: 

• Protect your pc and mobile with a reputable antivirus program or patch to prevent any malware from getting to your device. 
• Use file encryption for those files that are of the greatest importance to you. You can even encrypt the whole drive if you feel that way though in most cases it may be not necessary. 
• To practice better cyber hygiene, don’t use the same password for everything. 
• Don’t use simple passwords, names of your pets, birthday date, etc. in your passwords. 
• Make sure you use really strong passwords. Use a password manager tool to manage all the passwords that you can’t remember. 
• Use a firewall to protect your PC while you are connecting to the outside network. 
• Make sure you update your antivirus and operating system regularly for better protection and secure use of your device. 
• Use multiple ways of authentication while logging into your accounts. 
• Don’t tell your passwords to anyone. 

Since we recommend using different passwords for every social media account or every account you may have a question “How do I remember all these passwords?” 

It is becoming increasingly difficult in today’s modern world to remember all the passwords that we need. That’s why what we recommend to people is that they use a password manager that allows them to use passwords as long or as complex as they want. The best part of it is that you don’t have to remember them. And this tool protects you from hackers.  

More Info about Passwords 

Way back in the Middle Ages, passwords were used to grant access to a fort or

castle to only the privileged person. It was simple, effective, and yet extremely vulnerable. All it took was for a stranger with ill intent to overhear the password and

suddenly the fort would be vulnerable. 

It’s no different today where your password is a critical element to your information security. Think of all our personal information like different castles in the land. Would you have a single key that would give you access to your home, office, car? Of course, no.

Our passwords are not only key to our accounts, knowledge of the right password also proves who we are, which is related to authentication. 

Authentication Best Practices

When we’re logging on to a social media account, they are effectively authenticating ourselves. We’re proving that it’s us trying to access the account online. So generally

when we think of authentication there are three different ways that we can do it:

• by providing something that we know 
• by providing something that we have 
• by providing something that we are

Something that we know could be a password or a pin code or even remembering a particular picture or a pattern. It’s a secret that we know that no one else should know. 

Something that we have would be like a physical token that the bank gives us or even our phones can provide something that we have no one else has. So by proving something that you have it you prove that it’s you. 

Something that we are could be something like our fingerprints. something that’s unique to us or even a picture of our face that you know no one else can be like it proves that it’s me trying to log in.

All the means of authentication can be hacked into so our accounts are never 100% safe. Is there a better way to secure these accounts? 

Each of the ways of securing account has its strong points and weaknesses. But what you can do is actually build them up, use more than one at a time. It’s called two-factor authentication. So you could use a password and a fingerprint or a password and a physical token. All of the major social media accounts use two-factor authentication if you turn it on Facebook, Instagram, etc. You can put two-factor authentication on all of them. 

Conclusion

Hopefully, these key points of cyber hygiene will help you boost your security online. Don’t only read them but implement them in real life.