We’ve compiled a few data protection tips to help you protect your passwords, financial information, and identity online.
Keep your data, passwords and other personal information safe from intruders.
It’s increasingly critical for consumers and individuals to heed data protection advice and use sound practices to keep your sensitive personal information safe and secure at work and home.
- Encrypt your data. Don’t forget to encrypt your data, especially if you have a laptop. BitLocker is a Windows security feature that provides encryption for entire volumes, addressing the threats of data theft or exposure from lost, stolen, or inappropriately decommissioned devices.
- Backup your data. It’s one of the most overlooked tips. Backing up your data means you wont lose your information if your computer is lost stolen or compromised.
- Make your old computers’ hard drives unusable. There are many ways to do this, but the best method, if you are holding very sensitive data, the best way is to have them securely shredded after wiping or magnetically cleaning the data.
- Don’t use free Wi-Fi. Free Wi-Fi is considered an insecure offering. This is potentially so at airports, shopping centres, and in most public places. Most mobile plans have a significantly large data allowances. You can set up your own Wi-Fi using your phone’s hotspot. If you use your cable from your phone to the laptop, you can secure the data all the way to its ultimate destination.
- Maintain clear separation between personal and work devices. The temptation to use personal devices for work purposes (and vice versa) can be much higher for employees that work from home, and that’s why keeping them separate is key to reducing the risk of being hacked through your personal computer to gain access to your business data.
- Implement a cyber security policy. It is essential that a cyber security policy be implemented that extends outside the company walls to remote workers and operations. When creating the policy, you need to not only outline the range of security protocols and how they are to be complied with, but also the reasoning as to why the policy is in place, how the company will help employees comply with the policy and have the employees commitment to the policy.
