Strategies to Protect Your Data From Cyber Threats

Provided you are using any form of digital technology; your data is not entirely safe. There is always a man-in-the-middle (MITM) waiting to spot your weak links to attempt an attack: which in most cases will be successful. Cybersecurity has been an issue of concern for quite a while now. As technology advances, it comes with new threats.

There is a lot of information that is usually stored in computers, mobile phones, tablets and so on. It is your responsibility to ensure that the devices are inaccessible by the hackers for your data to stay intact. The credit card information, address and bank details could give the hackers what they need to pull off their malicious acts. No one is safe, and your data aces the risk of being attacked by ransomware and malware. This could end up in significant losses.

However, all that can be prevented by employing the following data protection strategies.

1. Manage your passwords

Passwords have for a long time been used to protect various types of data. Nevertheless, they could be rendered useless if you are not able to manage them properly. Proper password management entails the use of strong keywords that are not obvious. Also, you should avoid using the same passwords for different files. If an intruder can crack one, all of your data stands the risk of being stolen or manipulated.

Another trick that will make your passwords more effective is changing your passwords regularly. You can also easily tell if there have been changes that have been made in your data by checking MySQL binary logs. This is to text whether or not your passwords are effective.

2. Update your software

Most people tend to ignore the update software notifications. They are critical, and you need to start giving them attention. Why are updating software and antivirus so necessary? Well, it is to eliminate vulnerability which will make you a soft target to the hackers.

3. Avoid untrustworthy and public WiFi connections

Remember that hackers are always preying. With public networks, MITM attackers are ever looking for new targets. Note that hackers are very skilled and will easily use public connections to access your device. At the end of it all, they will have all your information including your bank accounts.

4. Stay away from untrusted websites

Do you know what happens here? Well, some of these websites are there to expose your devices to all sorts of malware.

For instance, by clicking a spammy website, your device will get attacked by ransomware which will bar you from accessing data or files stored in the device. What the attackers are looking to is making money. At that point, you will be told to give a particular amount of money for you to be provided with a decryption key to access the information.

5. Do regular data backup

You can never predict when disaster strikes. You could lose your laptop to the floods, to a thief or even malicious people in your organization. For your data to be safe, you need always to have a plan b. what happens if someone manipulates your data and you do not have a copy of the original data? It could be catastrophic. For one, you will not have the information you need to conduct business. Also, it could lead to direct losses.

Doing a backup eliminates the single point of failure in case of a disaster.

6. Work with a reliable recovery software

If you have a data backup plan in place, then it only means that you need a plan for recovery too. Luckily for you, there is plenty of software that you could use for that. However, you need also to be careful with this. Ensure that you source your recovery software from a legit and reliable vendor.

It is also vital to put the software to the test to see if it will work as anticipated. Why do you need to test recovery? Well, there are instances that people save data, and when the time comes for recovery, they find that either the software is not working or the data has been corrupted.

The tips above will go a long way in helping you protect your very valuable data from cyber threats.