We live in a world where almost everything is digital. To manage the digital world, we need digital accounts. It can be an online bank account, an online wallet or even a Facebook profile. When it comes to online systems, we need to pay close attention to its security and safety, but no matter how secure the system is, its weak point will always be the user.

I will teach you how not to be a weak point in global systems and how to secure your online accounts.

I have outlined 4 security steps to protect our digital world.

Use Safe Passwords#

You need to take care of the safety of your password.

First of all, you need to have a separate password for each account, so that if one account gets hacked, all of your vital information is not vulnerable.

Safe password should:

  • Be long (min.: 8 Symbols);
  • Contain upper-case and lower-case letters;
  • Include one or more numerical digits;
  • Contain special characters, such as @, #, $, !, &

Safe password should not:

  • Contain your personal information (Name, Surname, Date of Birth);
  • Include words found in a password blacklist (password, 123456, qwerty, iloveyou);

Creating such a password is not easy. I recommend using a password generator that will generate a complex password in a few seconds, which will take several years to hack.

Update Passwords Regularly#

It is important that you do not use old passwords. Cybersecurity experts recommend changing passwords once every 60 or 90 days.

Use Password Managers#

As I said, we need to use separate and generated passwords for each online account and change them often. So we can have dozens of passwords that are not so easy to remember. There are password managers to solve this problem. They can store thousands of passwords and provide it to us when we need it.

Here it is important to protect the password manager, because if hackers catch it in their hands, they will have full access to all your passwords and will be able to use them.

Use Two-Factor Authentication#

One method is good, but two are better. For more security, we must use two-factor authentication: SMS or Auth programs such as Google Authenticator.

2FA is an extra layer of security used to make sure that people trying to gain access to an online account are who they say they are. First, a user will enter their username and a password. Then, instead of immediately gaining access, they will be required to provide another piece of information. This second factor could come from one of the following categories:

  • Something you know: This could be a personal identification number (PIN), a password, answers to “secret questions” or a specific keystroke pattern
  • Something you have: Typically, a user would have something in their possession, like a credit card, a smartphone, or a small hardware token
  • Something you are: This category is a little more advanced, and might include biometric pattern of a fingerprint, an eye scan, or a voice print

Resources Used#