The internet has provided each and every individual user the flexibility and mobility that were previously non-existent. These days, you can see numerous people who have their lives dependent on their online connection because this is where they do most of their everyday dealings for instance communicating with friends and relatives through email, ordering pizza or shopping for home requirements.
With flexibility, however, comes great risk because as more and more persons share their online identities, so do more and more identity theft criminals and computer hackers prowl the World Wide Web for gullible targets. Here are some guidelines on how you can protect your password from being hacked, and yourself from being a victim of identity theft.
Choose a secure password
- People often choose the name of their partner, kid, and pets as well as their birthdays or something equally as obvious.
- Having obvious passwords is not only easy to guess by humans, but easy to crack by computers. What many password cracking programs do is guess your password from a list of frequently used words.
- When creating a password, you should mix lower case, upper case, numbers and symbols. This creates the most secure password possible. Furthermore, you should make your password no less than ten characters long.
Change your Passwords regularly
- Choosing the best and strongest password is not enough. You should always make sure that your accounts remain safe and protected. One way to secure your password is to change them frequently.
- There are sites online that would need you to change your passwords after every three months and they will not allow you to use the same password that you have used before. Nonetheless, there are sites which do not have this security feature but it would still be recommendable to change your password particularly.
- Before you enter your username and password, ensure that you are on the genuine site because there have been numerous fake sites that offer links or services in big deal.
Whenever possible, avoid using public computers
Such computers include those that you share with other people like those in computer shops or internet cafes as well as those in your home but you share them with other people for instance your roommate. In case you do not have a choice; it is very essential that you protect your password during these circumstances by:
- Signing out of your accounts and closing the web browser after you are done surfing. This would prevent the next user from retrieving your account and making any unnecessary changes.
- You should always clear the computer’s cache before you leave the computer. You can easily do this by clicking on tools option in your internet browser and on the general tab, click on “delete all files.”
- Do not click on the “Remember My Password” box because people might be able to access your account.
- Do not save your passwords when you key in your password in any site that you visit. Even though you are well acquainted with the site, you still need to keep your private information from the public.
- When using public computers, you have to be very cautious of other individuals who might be looking over your shoulder when you enter your password.
If hackers get access to your account, they could change your payment information and have payments sent to their address rather than yours. Or even worse, they could steal your identity and start getting credit cards in your name. If you want to get more information on other ways of protecting your password in a particular browser, simply call the Norton phone number. They will provide you with the given browser’s customer care number.
