How to Stay Safe Online: Use These 4 Practices

An issue with staying safe online is the false sense of security that you develop when nothing bad happens for a long time. For the majority of people, browsing the internet, using social media, and chatting online happen without incident.

Because of this, people assume that cybersecurity threats are blown out of proportion and that warnings are nothing more than common fearmongering. For those who fall into this trap, the awakening that happens when something goes wrong can be horrifying.

In the 21st century, your entire life is online: your social correspondences, business data, personal photos, and much, much more. That makes it important to stay safe, which you can do by following a few simple practices.

1. Start Using a VPN

VPNs act as a buffer that protects you from threat actors online who can discover your actual IP address and, with it, your physical location. This is dangerous for a number of reasons, and some of these threats are not limited to the digital world. 

The number of swatting instances that ended in a fatality would shock you. The last thing you want is someone you played a game with (or someone you argued with on Reddit) learning your physical location. Even a minor inconvenience (like a prank) can be incredibly uncomfortable, especially since you do not know where it will end.

Is this doxxing truly over, or is it just a prelude to something worse? Nobody really wants to find out. The best way to protect yourself is to use a VPN to conceal your IP. Explaining how one works is simple enough, and so is picking the right one for your devices. 

All you have to do is download a VPN to drastically increase the safety and security of your online browsing practices. You can have it run in the background. Modern devices have enough RAM, and modern connections are much faster, which means that you won’t even notice it’s there (until you need it and have to use it manually).

A VPN also adds an extra layer of encryption to the communication tools that you already use. Sure, most IM services already have their own encryption, but it doesn’t hurt to add a bit more.

On top of this, you also get the privilege of bypassing geo-restrictions, meaning you can watch all the shows that you’re already paying for on streaming services. Just keep in mind that there are instances in which a VPN might slightly interfere with some of your streaming platforms. 

2. Avoid Leaving Too Much Personal Information

You need to show extreme caution when operating on sites that you’ve never used before. Always check their reputation and verify. Even then, look out for phishing.

Be especially careful when a site asks for information that seems out of place, beyond the scope of what they would need. That includes sensitive things like your SSN number, ID number, passport number, etc. 

While giving out a credit card number might make sense, it is still one of the things that you will (and should) be reluctant to give out. Why? There are ways it could backfire.

At the same time, someone could commit identity theft with your SSN or ID number. Synthetic identity theft is when they craft a new identity but use some data that they’ve stolen from you. They could take a real ID and craft a whole new persona based on it. Since it’s already somewhere in the system, it will be a lot harder to figure it out. 

So, if you want to try out a free platform but they ask you for credit card information, while this is not uncommon, you might want to be careful. 

This is especially the case for sites that ask for your financial information, like retailers or online betting platforms. One neat trick is to go to a crypto betting platform instead. Here, all you need is a crypto wallet, and you do not have to give out your card information. Moreover, due to the increased anonymity, no one will know that you’re a betting enthusiast.

3. Passwords and 2FA Will Keep You Safe

You have to come up with a good password to stay safe. Sure, sometimes the site won’t let you register until you follow some basic guidelines. However, this is not enough.

Sure, the password needs to be at least eight characters long, so you can’t use “pass.” Instead, you have to use “password.”

It has to contain a capital letter, so what if you made it “Password?”

Now, you need to add at least one number, so “Password1” it is.

Ultimately, they ask you to add one symbol, and since they’re really persistent about it, you decide to settle for “P@ssword1.”

Now you’re done, but is “P@ssword1” really a decent password?

Of course not!

Then, you have the password strength evaluation that merely tells you if your password is strong or weak. However, in most cases, this can be safely ignored.

The bottom line is that you don’t want the site to tell you that you need to use a strong password or 2FA. You need to do this for your own sake. This is about protecting your own identity and assets, and you have to be serious about it. You have more at stake than the site, so don’t let them bear all the responsibility. 

4. Don’t Overshare on Social Networks

If you don’t try extra hard to stay safe, there’s nothing that will do this for you. 

Let’s say that you hate coming up with passwords. After all, there are so many passwords you need, so you pick the same password for everything, such as your birthday. How hard would this be to guess?

Imagine someone sending you a random friend request. It doesn’t even have to be a clearly fake profile. It could be someone you have mutual friends with or someone who follows the same pages you do. Maybe they saw your comment, liked what you have to say, and now want to follow you.

You accept, and they go straight to your posts. They scroll a bit, and they see a photo of a birthday cake — your birthday cake. They click on the post and see the date it was published and the number on the cake. They do some quick math, figure out your date of birth, and try it out. 

There you have it!

They have access to your social media account and all your accounts since you always use the same password.

They could do the same with your pet name, your kid’s birthday, your anniversary, etc. This is what makes sharing this information dangerous.

It can get even worse.

Here, they can see where you like to go out, when you like to go out, or when you’re on vacation (so that they can break into your home). They can see where and when you pick up your kids from school…

Just be careful on social media. Spending less time online can be great for your work-life balance, to begin with. 

Taking Care of Your Cybersecurity Is Your Responsibility

At the end of the day, the war on your cybersecurity is yours to lose. While Hollywood likes to represent hackers as all-powerful, the truth is that they’re more like vampires: they have to be invited in. As long as you’re using encrypted channels, avoid oversharing personal info, and use strong passwords, it will be a lot harder for them to penetrate your defenses. 

On top of this, avoid downloading suspicious files, learn more about phishing, and keep your antivirus software up to date. This should keep the majority of your problems away for a while.