You have unprecedented data breaches occurring in this year. Some of the major victims of 2018 were T-Mobile, Orbitz, Quora, British Airways etc. Even Facebook dealt with several breaches and incidents in this year.
But, how does it happen?
Data breach can occur because of several reasons such as hacking, mishandling of data or holes in the security system of the site. So, how can you keep your personal information safe? Well, there are several ways which you can use to keep your personal data and record safe and avoid all type of data breaching. Take a look at some.
1. Opt for a reputed password manager
If you still use “password” or “123456” as your password, then get over with it. A lot of people are using these passwords over and over on almost all their accounts. Make sure you choose a healthier and stronger password for you. Choose reputed password manager such as 1Password! or FirstPass. You can also go for 2F authentication or choose a text code to access your account to keep your data securer in 2019.
2. Do not reply to all the emails
Often people click on the links which come on their mails. This comprises of phishing mails. Data breaches in 2018 majorly occurred from clicking on phishing emails. A lot of criminal activities take place because of this. So, do not reply to all the emails you receive.
3. Update your programs and software, more often!
Check the right hand corner of your laptop and see the notifications popping up. Though it is annoying, but it will be better for you, if you update all your software. The more updated they are, the better protected they will be! 15 minutes of update may protect your software from data breach.
4. Delete unrequired documents
Get rid of the dining bills, travel expenses, credit card statements pay stubs if you don’t need them anymore. As some of these bills whether online or offline may have your confidential information, it is better that you don’t keep them for too long. Gather all the documents and find out what needs to be kept for tax purpose and then shred the rest. Go through your computer files and purge the document files which you don’t need.
5. Keep your confidential documents secure
Once you have wiped out all the unnecessary files and data from your laptop or computer, take time to organize your documents. You should make categories of different files and store accordingly. Segregate the healthcare, legal documents, financial papers and other vital documents in different folders. You can also separately store files depending on long term or short term use. Protect them documents which are important with the help of a password.
And, in case if you accidentally lose data or files which you need later, then you should choose data recovery services. By this way of data recovery services, you can actually recover all your files and data quickly.