Tag Archives: hacking

The Truth About Internet Privacy

These days it seems as if barely a day goes by when there is not a report of internet accounts being hacked or targeted, and the worrying thing is that it is mainly big corporate outfits that are the victims. Of course, they have more to lose, but shouldn’t they be covered by the very best in internet security? The truth is that, in many cases, they are, which begs the question: if they are vulnerable, how safe are we? It’s a worrying thought, and one that is hardly pacified by the ongoing problems we read about all the time.

How Much Information is Out There?

The Truth About Internet PrivacyIt’s all too easy to adopt the ‘it won’t happen to me’ attitude; most likely it won’t, but what would happen if somebody did manage to gain unauthorised access to your private and sensitive online information? Think about what is on there: no doubt you have bank account and credit card details online; your address and contact information will be on there; your date of birth and further information – all of this can be of interest and use to persons who want to take advantage of your online identity.

Protecting Your Online Data

There are some simple things you can do to enhance your online security: the first is never to give away details of your passwords or even online purchasing activity to even your closest friends. Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites are great fun and useful, but they are also a gold mine for personal information. You should change passwords regularly – it is often nigh on impossible to know that you have spyware on your machine – and make them difficult to crack. If you are a regular user with many instances of sensitive information, invest in a VPN like HideMyAss VPN Pro! This is a virtual private network that encrypts all your information and makes it extremely difficult for hackers to identify you. Ideal, in fact, for when you use WiFi hotspots, which tend to be largely unsecured for convenience.

The trick is, most of all, to be very wary of anything you did not expect, and to be extra careful, as it could happen to you.

What Can You do About Hacking?

The subject of hacking has been in the news a great deal of late, especially in relation to the chaos created on the Xbox and Playstation live networks over Christmas. This act of deliberate sabotage, as well as the alleged attack on Sony by North Korea, has brought to the fore the very real dangers of potential disruption with malicious intent for major corporations, so where do you, the individual, stand? The truth is that you may be more at risk than you think.

Protecting Personal Data

What Can You do About Hacking?Take a moment to think about this question: how much personal information do you share online? We’re not talking only about information you pass to others about your name, address, and other information, but about data that you may share across the internet without a second thought. For example, how often do you shop online? When you do you will undoubtedly use a payment method, perhaps your bank account or a merchant account. Are you certain this is absolutely secure?

The company concerned will make every effort to ensure it is, of course, but you need to make an effort too. Then there are your passwords: how many are the same? Are they identifiable by your name, date of birth, pet, or anything you may share on Facebook, for example, without thinking? You would be surprised how many lax passwords are a direct invitation or a hacker,

Added Protection

You can do several things to protect your information further: use different passwords that are absolutely random and include letters, numbers and both upper and lower case; take extra care when using a public WiFi hotspot as it will be largely unsecured; use a virtual private network, or VPN, when browsing, especially in public. The latter is becoming a popular method of protection as, for a small fee, it provides not only anonymity, but encrypts the information you send and delivers it via secure servers that are far more difficult to hack than those used by the major providers. Most of all, be very careful who you give your personal data to, and never share any of your passwords.