How To Protect Your Online Identity With Easy Steps
As our daily encounters continually shift towards the online world, protecting your online identity is of paramount importance. Our digital identities have become just as important as our real ones; they are the same after all. Protecting your online identity has never been more critical than it is today, and with everyone spending more and more time on the internet over the past couple of years, it’s time to start paying attention!
With that in mind, we’ve come up with a few easy steps you can take to confirm your online identity is safe and not owned by some disreputable hacker.
Clean up your browser and prevent future scams
Employ a Password Manager
When we find a great password, we tend to overuse it, and by that, we mean to use it for every password we have. Using a password management tool can help you create, manage and store complex passwords. They can also look at your current passwords and determine whether they are strong or should be replaced. This is a surefire way to get your personal identity stolen.
Use Multiple Identities
Do you use your private email to write to customers when you’re at work? How about setting up passwords for your work computer? You don’t because you wouldn’t want unwanted emails in your personal account. You should manage your online identities the same way. All your official business accounts should be built using your confidential email but for bills and other such information, try using a secondary email instead. For social media, use a third email address to build another identity. By keeping your primary email for only official business, there is little chance it can be stolen for nefarious purposes.
Seek Out the Small Print
We do it all the time. In our effort to try out the newest app or service, we bypass the small print and click “OK.” This is one of the worst things you can do to keep your identity safe. By clicking on that button, you could be giving away access to all of your private data and allow yourself to be consistently tracked, even when your not using the app in question. Social media apps monitor users and document their behaviors and buying habits online. Always make sure to read through the fine print before you give access to an unknown application.
Avoid Public WIFI
Although it can be tempting, it’s best not to connect to that free WIFI signal you’ve come across while having coffee. These free WIFI signals are infamous for allowing serious cyber security attacks. Suppose you find yourself in a situation where you must connect to one of these signals invest in a Virtual Proxy Network to protect yourself. A VPN can help protect your online identity and offer many more security features to help guard your identity when you have to connect to a public WIFI signal.
Protecting your online identity is no joke, and it only takes one breach to experience financial ruin or worse. By enacting the four tips we’ve highlighted for you today, you’re taking the first vital steps to protect your online identity now and well into the future.
