When it comes to keeping your data secured and preventing it from being stolen, keeping your email secure and choosing strong passwords are a vitally important, yet often overlooked aspects of data security. Many people simply gloss over many of these aspects. This is especially true for passwords where it is disturbingly common to hear it suggested that an individual or group should change their password to a certain easy to remember set of letters or numbers such as 'password' or 123456. This is rather disheartening because it shows how so many people put little stock in something as critical as password security.
Password Security
A secure password is one of the most vital aspects of ensuring your data security as the password serves as the first line of defense for your data, so having a strong password is especially important for anyone who wants their data to remain safe and secure. Some important ways to keep passwords secure are:
- Use different passwords for each account
- Make sure nobody watches you enter your password(s)
- Log off whenever you leave your device
- Only enter your passwords on computers you control
- Avoid entering passwords when using unsecured connections
- Don't tell anyone your password
- Change your password regularly
Following these tips and others like them will help you to make sure that your passwords remain secure and prevent your accounts from being hacked because of weak passwords.
Email Security
Email is a vitally important tool for everything from business to casual conversations between friends. Unfortunately, the security of email is often severely neglected to the point where it is virtually nonexistent as this form of security is usually seen as far less significant than other forms of internet security. It is a fact that information stored and sent by email is vulnerable. There is, sadly, no way around this. That said, it can be mitigated by following these practices:
- Don't open attachments from email addresses you don't recognize
- Do NOT click on suspicious links
- Pick a strong password and change it on a regular basis
- Don't check your email when using unsecured WiFi
- Don't send personal information except when absolutely necessary
If you have any questions about e-mail security and password security, then please contact us.