{"id":208,"date":"2017-01-09T18:45:17","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T23:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smartsimpledigital.com\/?p=208"},"modified":"2017-09-06T19:43:29","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T23:43:29","slug":"4-tips-protect-online-accounts-mobile-devices-lower-risk-personal-cyber-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartsimpledigital.com\/blog\/2017\/01\/09\/4-tips-protect-online-accounts-mobile-devices-lower-risk-personal-cyber-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Avoid Being Hacked: 4 Ways to Protect Your Mobile Devices and Online Accounts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><b><\/b><span class=\"s1\">Today our mobile devices and online accounts host everything from family photos, to private conversations, to information about our finances, and everything else in between. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Sadly, that data can often be targeted by cyber hackers. \u00a0We\u2019ve all heard those unfortunate stories of individuals\u00a0or companies who\u2019ve had their online accounts compromised, their data stolen, and then publicly exposed or used in other malicious ways. \u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">The good news is that there are steps that we can take to help protect ourselves against this. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Here are 4 tips to protect your online accounts, personal devices, and other precious data stored online:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RA2QyMcLzVg\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>1. \u00a0Use Strong Passwords for Your Online Accounts<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Create passwords that are at least 8-10 character long, and contain a combination of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. \u00a0Avoid using common words, names, places, and numbers that can be easily guessed or associated with you (i.e. birth dates, street names, nicknames, etc.). \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">It&#8217;s also a good idea to avoid using the same password for multiple accounts. \u00a0<b>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">In the event that a cyber hacker gains access to the password for one of your online accounts, it\u2019s a logical next step for them to check if that password also works for additional online accounts that may be associated with you. \u00a0If you have the same password for all of your online accounts, this means that they too can be compromised if a hacker obtains just one of your passwords. \u00a0Use different across your online accounts whenever possible.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>2. \u00a0Use Two-Step Authentication Whenever Possible<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Two-step authentication is a quick and easy way to add an extra layer of security\u00a0to your online accounts. \u00a0When in place, it requires the account owner to enter a special passphrase or pin code in addition to their username and password. \u00a0The passphrase or pin code is randomly generated, and is sent to the account owner through email or text each time they attempt to access their account. \u00a0Entry to the account is denied if the passphrase or pin code is not entered. \u00a0Two-step authentication has become increasingly available in recent years, and is available on most social networks and email services, to name a few. \u00a0Check your account settings to see if it&#8217;s available. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>3. \u00a0Password Protect Your Mobile Devices and Computers<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Although it\u2019s a touchy subject in some circles, there aren\u2019t many good reasons not to have some layer of password or password protection on a phone, tablet, or computer today. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">These devices can contain also sorts of personal information our contacts, credit card information, conversations, photos, and other bits of our personal information. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">In the event that your phone is lost or stolen, all of those things could be accessed if your phone isn\u2019t password\/passcode protected. \u00a0Setup a passcode, password, or other available security measure (i.e. fingerprint scan, touch id, etc.) on your phone to prevent unauthorized use. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>4. \u00a0Stay Mindful of the Data That You Store in the Cloud<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p3\">Although we can go to great lengths to help ensure the security\u00a0of our personal devices, we don&#8217;t\u00a0have that level of control over the online services that\u00a0we rely on to preserve our data. \u00a0For this reason it can be a wise choice to remove your sensitive data from\u00a0remote\/online storage locations (e.g. iCloud, email, Dropbox) and transfer it to storage locations under your direct control (e.g. secure, non-network hard drives at your home, etc).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today our mobile devices and online accounts host everything from family photos, to private conversations, to information about our finances, and everything else in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,12],"tags":[27,30,28,29],"yst_prominent_words":[157,152,148,155,158,160,154,147,142,144,143,149,159,153,151,161,145,156,150,146],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-techtalks","tag-cyber-security","tag-online-accounts","tag-security","tag-social-media","post-item","post-even"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartsimpledigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartsimpledigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartsimpledigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartsimpledigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartsimpledigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/smartsimpledigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":433,"href":"https:\/\/smartsimpledigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartsimpledigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartsimpledigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartsimpledigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartsimpledigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartsimpledigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}