Data security and reputation protection on the Internet: how to ensure

Today the world Internet has about 4.5 billion active users. Each person spends about 6 hours online every day. For many, the Internet today has become a place for permanent work or occasional income. Most often, modern users visit social networks, YouTube and other video hosting sites. Why are we saying all this? To show how closely the life of a modern person is connected with the Internet.

But at the same time, you must understand that the World Wide Web — It's not just funny stories, chatting with friends, movies. This is also a space for collecting data, with constantly high risks for both personal and corporate security. What can a modern person do in this situation? How to ensure an adequate level of protection for yourself? Now let’s look in more detail at the key rules for using the Internet, and provide a number of recommendations that will allow you to minimize overall risk indicators and ensure functional, but at the same time safe work on the Internet with a tool such as mobile proxies.

Why is internet safety so important?

At all times, information has been one of the most important and valuable products. And if we talk directly about the Internet, then in this case we are talking about the personal data of users. Have you ever wondered what will happen if your personal information ends up in the hands of criminals? That these not particularly conscientious individuals will be able to make inquiries with her. Here are just the most likely possible options:

1. Transfer to advertisers, as a result of which you will be sent a stream of, frankly, garbage advertising, which will interfere with not only your enjoyment of entertainment content, but also your work on the Internet.
2. Use the information received to analyze the user audience, building a strategy for the subsequent promotion of your own business. In this case, your age, preference, income level, as well as many other parameter criteria are assessed.
3. Sending blackmailing and compromising messages for the purpose of extortion. Fraudulent spam is also quite common here.
4. Sale of collected data on one of the fairly numerous black markets today to criminals. We will not assume what they will do with your personal information.
5. Use of the obtained data to hack personal accounts, including all these social accounts, banking services, etc.

These are not all the threats that a modern person may encounter when working on the Internet. But, as you can see, some of them actually pose a very serious danger. Yes, the use of personal information to create a portrait of the target audience — not a particularly pleasant, but at the same time not a critical situation. The same can be said about advertising: it will annoy you and interfere with your full work, but it does not pose any serious threat. But gaining access to bank details, hacking of personal accounts, fraudulent spam and data getting into the black market — This is clearly not what a modern user expects when connecting to the Internet. All this poses a real threat to your financial condition, peace of mind, and reputation.

But, despite all this, not all Internet users think about providing themselves with a sufficient level of security when using the Internet. And this mainly happens due to the fact that people simply do not know how to increase their own security when working on the network. Now let's look at this issue in more detail. We will also give you a number of recommendations that will help protect not only you, but also your children from various modern cyber threats.

TOP 5 dangers for modern Internet users

There are a lot of options for how attackers can obtain your personal data. In addition, their ways of working are constantly improving and becoming more sophisticated. But we can still identify 5 most important threats:

1. Hacking an account for the purpose of provocation and personal gain. This is most often observed in social networks, online banking, when a user tries to connect to a particular site.
2. Infection of a computer with malicious software This can happen in cases where attackers want to simply harm you by blocking the operation of the device. And with this step, they can take control of your computer and use it for their own malicious mailings, etc.
3. Interception of personal data when a user connects to public user networks. In this case we are talking about free Wi-Fi, which today is distributed everywhere in cafes, restaurants, hotels, many shopping centers, etc.
4. Cyberbullying. It is most often observed today through social networks and involves spontaneous or systematic and organized moral humiliation on the network.
5. Copyright violation. This may include theft of content, its appropriation, theft of important corporate information, etc.

Now that you know what risks and dangers you are exposed to when working online, it’s time to move on to learning how to protect yourself from them. Now we will consider in detail each of the threats, as well as possible ways to prevent them.

How to prevent the most dangerous threats when surfing the Internet

Now we will present a number of recommendations that absolutely every user can use in order to provide themselves with a sufficiently high level of protection against the main threats that we encounter on the Internet every day. It is noteworthy that for this you do not need to have any special knowledge in the field of Internet technologies. Basic concepts in such an area as digital literacy will be sufficient.

We ensure the protection of your online payments

Use of electronic money, online fund transfers — This is a very convenient and effective solution, which is widely used today by millions of people around the world. But the more popular the tool, the higher the interest in it on the part of the attacker. So, if you are not ready to give up online payments, but at the same time do not want to expose yourself to additional risks, use the following recommendations:

• Create a complex password to log into bank accounts payment system. It is optimal that it consists of uppercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols. In addition, it is not recommended to use it when authorizing in other systems or services.
• Do not give anyone your password, access key, code or other data with which a third party can gain access to your account. This is also true for cases where you provide information to people you know well.
• Enable two-factor authentication using a fingerprint, mobile phone, or any other option that the IT technology market offers today. In this case, even if an attacker manages to find out your login and access password, he will still be able to connect to the services.

Protecting yourself from virus software

A virus is a single code or an entire program, the actions of which are aimed at establishing spy surveillance over your device, destroying the information stored on it, or blocking your access. Unfortunately, today the Internet — This is one of the main sources of virus software distribution. To avoid encountering such a problem in practice, it is recommended:

• use exclusively reliable operating systems, regularly monitor their updates and install them for yourself;
• use only licensed programs and operating systems, because any pirated copies can carry a potential danger: practice has repeatedly shown that questionable copies very often initially contain viruses;
• do not use third-party and unverified external storage media: use your own flash drives, disks, and if this is not possible, be sure to check them before connecting;
• for all programs that you use in your practice, enable automatic update mode: this way you will always have an up-to-date version that will take into account the latest trends in the field of cybersecurity;
• do not download files from dubious sources, never click on links that you do not know;
• connect to a reliable, time-tested anti-virus program, set up automatic database updates.

Protecting ourselves when using public Wi-Fi networks

We would like to immediately note that the use of public Wi-Fi networks today is highly discouraged. This is something that poses a serious threat to your personal data. Therefore, take into account the following rules:

• Even if you need to connect to a public Wi-Fi network, under no circumstances use them to access sites or services that require you to enter a login and password. This applies not only to banking and other financial institutions, but also to social networks and email. It was not possible to avoid this, immediately after completing the operation, change your password.
• Forcibly disable sharing of your device or at least check its activity. As practice shows, for some folders in Windows this function is activated automatically.
• Turn on your antivirus software and activate your firewall. This is a fairly effective way to protect your device from malicious software.
• Turn off the option on your phone that allows you to automatically connect to public Wi-Fi networks.

How to protect yourself when working with social networks

Today, social networks are extremely popular among users of different ages and interests. They are actively used in practice by business representatives for its promotion and promotion. But for all its popularity, social networks can be considered a fairly serious source of potential data leakage. Unfortunately, this is largely due to the dishonest work of the platform administration, which does not provide additional measures to protect personal data. But this is a factor that you, as the end user, cannot influence in any way. But you can take care of additional protection of your personal account using the following measures:

• make your account private, unfriend all those people you don’t know;
• publish provocative posts so as not to spoil your own reputation or cause a negative reaction from other users of the site;
• close important personal parameters such as mobile phone number, email and home address, date of birth from public access;
• When registering, use unique, complex passwords, as well as two-factor authentication;
• do not bring up your plans for discussion on social networks, especially those related to leaving home or making financial profits;
• do not upload photos that can easily be used to determine your place of residence.

Protection measures when working with email

As social networks began to actively develop in the market, and along with instant messengers, e-mail has somewhat lost its original significance as the main communication tool, including in the commercial sphere. But today it is still used in the registration process on certain sites and services. This is relevant even for the same social networks. This means that if an attacker manages to gain access to your email account, then all your other profiles registered to this address will be subject to him.

To prevent this from happening, you need to:

• use exclusively proven email services: choose those that are among the top ten in the world ranking;
• use a complex password, two-factor authentication, and it would also be a good idea to choose an unusual question and a specific answer to it in case you need to restore access to your mailbox;
• never indicate your last name and real age during the registration process;
• do not open emails from unknown recipients, especially the links they offer or attached files;
• carefully check letters from financial or any government agencies or institutions for their originality before opening them.

Protecting ourselves from online bullying

Ensuring sufficiently high information security when working on the Internet will automatically extend to protection from insults, harassment and other violations of human rights. In this case, you need to follow these recommendations:

• do not provoke other network users: do not publish posts, video and photo content that may cause an ambiguous reaction from the audience and have a negative impact on your reputation;
• refuse conflicts with strangers: do not simply respond to insults or comments that have provocative overtones, that is, be smarter and more restrained than your opponents;
• Ignore cases of aggression, especially if these are isolated events, but at the same time block the instigators: if you suspect that you are facing a planned mass action, then a more reasonable solution would be to temporarily freeze the account and delete the material that causes controversy, and in some cases it would be a good idea to contact law enforcement agencies.

Effective ways to protect against phishing

Phishing — This is a type of fraud aimed at obtaining user logins and passwords. Today it can be called one of the most used methods of identity theft. To achieve their goal, attackers use a fairly large number of different tools. They are all being improved and updated. To minimize such problems, use the following recommendations:

• always check the link before clicking on it: this is especially true for accounts on social networks, banking, and utility institutions;
• ignore attachments in letters received from an unknown sender: just don’t open them, or better yet — delete immediately;
• if the site you want to visit does not work with the security protocol https that you do not enter your personal data on it;
• do not respond to messages from your friends written in a manner uncharacteristic for them: offers to follow this or that link, a request to watch a video, transfer money to some account, etc.

We provide protection when using mobile gadgets

In this case, we are talking about minimizing the likelihood of your smartphone or tablet becoming infected with virus software, as well as blocking access to the device by third parties in the event that you lose the same phone. If you lose your phone, which does not have such protection, that is, access to the content is free, then attackers can easily gain access to your accounts on social networks, email services, pictures, accounts and wallets.

To minimize, and ideally even eliminate, the possibility of third-party access to your smartphones and other mobile gadgets, it is recommended:

• regularly update the mobile platform using official releases from Android and iOS;
• set an additional access code, use Face ID or fingerprint unlock;
• never install applications from unofficial sources, ideally — give preference to paid software;
• turn on wireless modules only when there is an urgent need for it and turn them off immediately after use;
• do not leave your phone number on dubious services, especially if you also need to enter other personal data.

We protect copyright and reputation on the Internet

Today, the concept of copyright on the Internet has become somewhat blurred, because for the most part everything that is in the public domain can be used by other users. But still, there are a number of legislative norms that fix actions in this area. Thus, it is officially prohibited to download pirated music and films, use unlicensed programs, and also use copyrighted content for personal purposes. These are the offenses for which you can run into serious problems and large fines. Therefore, if you want no one to use your content for their own purposes, you need to register it with specialized authorities, thereby ensuring a fairly good level of protection.

Another point that is important when working on the Internet is digital reputation. We are talking about the opinion that the user audience develops about a particular person based on data obtained from open sources. In order not to harm yourself and not cause a negative reaction from other people, it is recommended:

• carefully consider and check each publication before posting it;
• do not post material that may offend any other network user, do not write insults in the comments;
• think ahead: everything you wrote and then deleted can be restored, because anonymity — this is a rather conventional concept for today.

Providing personal protection in online games

Those who are interested in online games today may in practice encounter aggression, tracking, bullying coming from less successful players and rivals. Also in this case, you can easily fall into unauthorized transfer of your personal data to third parties. The last aspect is especially relevant for free online games. To ensure your protection, you must:

• block everyone who behaves provocatively and creates problems in the gameplay;
• take and save all screenshots containing facts of insults in correspondence, general chat and file complaints with the administration;
• use exclusively licensed software;
• When creating an account, do not use real personal data;
• never disable antivirus programs: this is true even in cases where the application itself urgently asks you to do so;
• create a complex access password.

Additional tips and tricks

Regardless of what devices you work with, what tasks you solve and what you want to protect yourself from, it’s a good idea to use the following recommendations:

1. Do not use file hosting services. Practice shows that the vast majority of all virus applications reach user devices simultaneously with free torrents.
2. Do not leave your personal information on dubious sites. Avoid tests, lotteries and competitions that require registration.
3. Set to hide the display of email, phone number in profiles on websites, social networks.
4. Before checking the box that you agree to the user agreement, be sure to read it. Do not participate in discussions related to political, religious views or other controversial issues that may cause subsequent conflicts.

A little about Internet safety for children

Modern children use the Internet as actively as adults, if not more. Therefore, it is very important for you to explain to them in simple and reasonable language about all the threats that await their networks. But there are still a number of points that you can establish yourself to ensure more reliable protection for your children:

1. Set rules and restrictions for network use. Both you and your children must clearly understand what they can do on the Internet and what — No. And these rules should be strictly followed.
2. Use parental controls. We are talking about using a program that allows you to monitor children’s online behavior, regardless of whether they want to go there from their smartphone or any other device. In this case, you can see what sites they go to, who they contact, and block malicious portals. In addition, these applications will provide you with information about unusual online activities.
3. Install anti-virus software on the devices your children use. Children, in their curiosity, can go to different sites, including not particularly reliable ones, follow malicious links, and download video games from unknown resources. Minimize the risk to them by installing a reliable antivirus program with automatic updates.
4. Constantly update the software of the devices your children use. Cybercriminals take advantage of security weaknesses to gain access to smartphones, tablets and other gadgets. Each new software update already includes protection against most current threats.
5. Secure your home Wi-Fi and prevent children from connecting to public networks. In the first case, you need to set a strong password. It is important that not only intruders, but also neighbors do not connect to your internal network. The fact is that Internet criminals can monitor traffic, obtaining confidential information or using our internal network to launch attacks. Also explain to your children what the risks might be if they try to connect to Wi-Fi networks in a cafe or even at school.

Universal rule for everyone

All the recommendations we have given are truly reliable and effective. In addition, they do not require any complex settings. This means that each of you can implement all this in practice on your own. But we would like to draw your attention to one more solution that will be universal for use in any conditions and is guaranteed to provide the highest level of security and confidentiality of online actions. We are talking about connecting mobile proxies from the MobileProxy.Space service.

In this case, you get an intermediary server that will replace the real user data of your device with its own technical parameters, thereby ensuring reliable concealment of your real IP-addresses and geolocation. Thanks to this, you are not only guaranteed anonymous surfing on the Internet, but also protected from any unauthorized access, including hacker attacks.

Follow the link https://mobileproxy.space/en/user.html?buyproxy to learn more about the functionality capabilities and features of this solution, as well as take advantage of a free two-hour test. This way you can see how effective, convenient and functional, and how safe your work on the Internet can be. We also suggest that you carefully study payment methods and current tariffs for your region. And remember that a technical support service is at your service, which works 24/7, promptly solving any difficulties that arise when working with mobile proxies.

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