Protecting your Personal Data is a big responsibility to take. However, some of us take it lightly. No matter who we are, our personal data is our responsibility. So, whether it is to upload online or to share it with others, we are responsible for the state of privacy of our confidential data.
Every year, several cyber security units organize cyber awareness programs to teach students and locals how cyber security works for their benefit. Most people take it lightly and become the victim of cyber attacks involving millions of people each year.
If you want to become part of people Protecting Personal Data against cybercriminals, this article is for your help and support. Let’s talk about the ways you can use to protect your data from being breached by unauthorized access.
Well, there are a lot of definitions for data protection. But if we speak in simple terms – “It is the practice of securing confidential information from unauthorized access.” In this process, you’ll learn about the following things:
It’s essential for us to protect our data against online threats because it supports us in securing individual and organizational privacy. Also, one can protect the data against malicious attacks while there are many misuses of the breached data for impure reasons.
Following are some of the types of personal data:
Following are the 10 things that you can do for Protecting Personal Data against online threats:
Strong & unique passwords are hard to guess. So, make sure to pick a unique one to protect your accounts from surprise attacks. With the help of unique passwords, one can secure their accounts.
After gaining one account’s password and hacking it, the adversary can go for other accounts too. Having a different password for each account will make it hard to guess for the hacker. One more thing a unique password can do for you is it can make your account hard to compromise so that other accounts won’t be impacted.
This is a kind of security layer over your database so that one can never break down the security measures you prepared for your protection. It helps in protecting your network from unauthorized access.
To use this method, the legitimate user has to provide two credentials such as
With the combo of these two factors, an adversary won’t be able to access your account. In order to access your account, attackers need both your passcodes and the device in hand. It’s like double secure protection for your accounts and data.
Firewalls block unauthorized access to your devices/ networks. It is designed to prevent unknown users from accessing private networks. Moreover, it comes in both formats as a software and as a hardware device.
Each & every message leaving the intranet passes via the firewall. Firewall checks messages and stops communication that doesn’t fit the criteria of a legitimate conversation.
This technology helps prevent data leaks or modification attempts from unknown users. End-to-end encryption technology is found to be one of the best techniques used to provide a secure surrounding for users to convey their messages online.
After encryption, one can rest assured that any unknown user won’t modify their data. It will boost the security management for the organization and the consumer accessing the service.
Give access to your personal data to only legitimate users. Organizations have the right to possess the consumers’ credentials only for registered users. That’s to validate the user for the services offered to them genuinely.
In this case, the services and data should only be shared with legitimate users and not with unknown users via unknown sources. You should limit the access of personal data to others to protect yourself from online threats.
Make sure that none of the transactions on your credit report should be suspicious. That’s because any activity as such can cause a huge dilemma for the person using the services. Every year we hear of credit card frauds happening that can make losses for the huge amount of people living in society.
Sometimes, it can be too harsh on the person bearing the loss. That’s because it could be life-saving for the person bearing the loss. So, you must check your credit reports from time to time to protect yourself from online fraud.
Securing your Wifi network with a strong password with a WPA2 encryption-enabled feature would be a good decision. That’s because a weak wifi network can become the passway for illegitimate users to get into the networks and steal the credentials from the webpages where the legitimate user has been for a long time.
Using the credentials, adversaries can attack the accounts with malicious software to get access to the data saved on the cookies and whatsoever. Thus, make sure to use WPA2 for your wifi network.
Don’t surf on the internet for sensitive content over public Wifi networks cuz that is insecure. In terms of public decency Indian government has put a lot of restrictions on some NSFW content to keep it away from the eyes of local users online.
However, several ways have been found to get to the content indirectly. You must not get to that content if you don’t have a secure way to go to those sites and search for the content. Thus, you will be able to protect yourself from online threats.
Installing antivirus software in your devices would provide you with a safer region to surf online while preventing unknown connections. That means the antivirus detects any suspicious activity over the network/ device/ system so that the malicious software can be stopped while it can.
Some malicious software is capable of hiding itself in a way that even the antivirus software cannot detect with ease. Use the best antivirus software to detect the malware faster.
You should be more considering while posting anything online. That’s because there are a lot of indecent skilled people wanting to cheat people for their confidential data. As you know, now that the internet is available in every household, one needs to be more careful about using online platforms for sharing information. Only after learning about how to use your services you can surf the internet without any worry.
If you are working remotely, you should use a secure Wifi-connection, and those connections should be password protected. Encryption could be a good idea to secure your communication with other people communicating from another side.
Information sharing should be done with more consideration. Confidential or sensitive information shouldn’t be shared online/ via email. If possible, don’t use public systems cuz they could be vulnerable to malware & other security threats.
Update your software daily with the latest patches for utmost security. This will make sure that your device must not be left without a security flaw check-in.
| S.No. | Data Protection | S.No. | Data Privacy |
| 1. | It’s a set of policies, processes, and tech which is used to secure data from misuse, unknown access, and intended damage. | 1. | It’s a subset of data protection focused on securing individuals’ confidential data from being distributed without their consent. That is to maintain the usage, storage, and sharing of one’s data. |
There are several methods you can use to protect your privacy online. How would you do it? You can do that by following these steps:
First, you can start by creating strong passwords so that guessing your passwords would become tougher for the cybercriminal. Moreover, you can use two-factor authentication if available.
This online service allows you to hide your IP Address and access your desired data while encrypting your conversation.
Regular updates will keep your software unharmed from unknown threats. You must ensure that your devices, OS, and apps must be updated regularly.
Web browsers with the facility of private browsing and browser extensions that block ads & tracking can be helpful too.
Only in real need the personal information should be shared. Other than that, if you share your personal data, you will be responsible for your security.
There could be suspicious links in your emails. Try not to click on those links, as it could result in data breaches or malware spreading.
Privacy settings on social media accounts could reduce the chance of personal information getting leaked.
1.What can you do to safeguard your account and protect your data?
If one wants to protect their accounts and data can follow the following steps:
2.What is the best way to protect personal data?
To protect your data against unauthorized access, there are a lot of things that you can do. However, one can use strong passwords, antivirus software, encryption, and storing data on a secure cloud/ offline location to ensure the safety of your data.
Moreover, you should avoid phishing emails. One should never give confidential data online/ on call. Make continuous checks on your security settings & privacy policies to ensure data security.
3.How can GDPR protect personal data?
European Union created a set of rules to protect the confidential information of people known as GDPR. It sets the bar of standards for the organizations to maintain the process of their store and protect the EU Citizens’ sensitive data.
These T&Cs need organizations to follow the rules so that the collection and processing of data can be used only for a specific purpose. Moreover, it demands that organizations ask for consumers’ consent for access to their data to maintain data privacy.
The organization also needs to install security measures to protect consumers’ data. Ex – Encryption and Pseudonymization.
4.How to protect personal data online?
There are several means by which you can secure your personal data online. Some of them are as follows:
5.What Is Data Privacy and Why Is it Important?
Data Privacy allows individuals/organizations to manage the gathering, storage, use, and disclosure of confidential data. It is necessary so it could help in protecting personal information from getting into the hands of an unauthorized person. Companies can easily comply with data protection laws & regulations due to data privacy.
6.What systems can you use to protect customer information?
One can use the following things to protect their data against online threats that are dangerous to one’s privacy:
7.Why is it important to protect customers’ personal information?
Organizations’ first priority is to get their customer’s assurance on them so the organization can provide a healthy atmosphere for shopping or services to the customers. Moreover, it supports the maintenance of privacy & security of customer data.
It raises customers’ trust in the company they are receiving services. Also, it’s necessary to comply with data protection laws in any condition to maintain the regulatory bodies. Other than that, it helps in the
