How Hacking Works and How to Protect Yourself

A Day in the Life of a Hacker

Hacking isn’t as simple as Hollywood would tell you. In reality there are a lot of different ways that data can be compromised – and it’s happening all around you.

Use Stronger Passwords

The easiest way to protect yourself is to have strong passwords. Mix uppercase, lower case, numerals, and special characters. And avoid words that can be found in a dictionary, or that have a significance to you someone else could guess!

Don’t Use the Same Password Everywhere

To make matters more complicated, you need to use different passwords for different services. That way if one login is stolen it doesn’t work for a criminal everywhere.

Watch Out for Third-Party Authentication

You may have given social media services like Facebook or Twitter permission to share your credentials with other services, like Klout. Review this list, and remove anything you’re not currently using.

Your Phone is Your Biggest Risk

Think about all the data on your phone. It has access to your email and social media, contains your contacts, photos, maybe even an unencrypted list of passwords. Keep it locked down and make sure you can remotely wipe its contents if you need to.