Every year, millions of people fall victim to cyber scams and attacks and with this figure growing, it’s essential to learn more about how to stay safe online and keep your family protected. With apps now forming an almost integral part of everyone’s daily browsing habits (it is estimated that the average person uses 10 apps per day), it can be safe to assume that these formulate fewer risks than browsing on websites.
However, criminals and hackers can still access personal data from these apps and then use this to cause damage. Unsafe browsing habits can lead to other threats, from embarrassing social media exposure to unsecured wifi networks, which can all put you and your family at risk. If you have a family, then you’ll likely already know that children’s exposure to the online world now starts at a much younger age, meaning that it’s more important than ever to ensure you are passing on safe browsing habits. Let’s take a look at some ways in which you can protect your family online.
Be Careful With Downloads
With cyber criminals, one of their biggest goals is to get people to download infected files and malware which they can then use to access your network and device. Although this is something that mostly affects businesses, with business cyber security services best placed to tackle these threats, infected downloads can also wreak havoc on your personal home devices.
These malwares can often be disguised as apps that look appealing, especially to children who will download them unsuspectingly. You can add restrictions to your devices and browsers that restricts download, but you should always avoid downloading apps or files which look suspicious.
Choose Strong Passwords
Passwords are perhaps one of the biggest weaknesses in internet and cyber security. The issue with passwords is that people tend to choose ones which are easy to remember and then use these across numerous websites. It’s important to remember that, if your password is easy to remember, then this means that they’re also easy for cyber criminals to figure out.
As well as ensuring that you have strong passwords to login to sites and apps with (a complex password should be around 15 characters, with a mixture of letters, numbers and characters), if you have younger children, then ensuring that you have passwords on devices can also deter them from using them without supervision.
Keep Your Antivirus Protection Up To Date
Your internet security can’t protect you from every cyber threat, but it can identify and remove most malware. You need to ensure that your antivirus protection is up to date and, for just a small monthly payment or initial cost to set up, it can keep your devices and personal information safe.
One thing to remember is that, whilst businesses often have cyber incident response plans in place, this is because they will likely have a team who regularly monitor and manage their cyber security. With antivirus protection for home devices, it is your responsibility to ensure this is implemented correctly and that your devices are kept secure.