How to maintain basic digital hygiene

The coronavirus pandemic has unfailingly made us more hygienic and alert about viruses. We all take extra care to wear protective face masks and sanitise our hands as well as objects we touch. However, there is another aspect of our lives which is infested with viruses and many other dangerous threats that we need protection from. Yes, we are talking about the digital world that pervades our daily lives to such an extent, especially in 2020, that we cannot imagine ourselves living without it. But do we practice enough hygiene digitally as much as we do physically? 100% not. Here is a short list of all the steps you need to take to make sure you are always cyber safe and digitally hygienic.

1. Always use multi-factor authentication wherever possible:
   On top of passwords, this provides an extra layer of security. We have so many accounts that it can be a nightmare to keep strong and hard-to-guess passwords everywhere. Hence, receiving an OTP to confirm our login attempts (or multi-factor authentication as it is called) can come to the rescue here and save us from criminal minds who try to hack into our accounts. CEH course experts recommend that most of the times, 2FA offers crucial protection on critical accounts that would cost people a fortune if they were breached. 
   
   

2. Never use Public WiFi without a VPN:
   We all love free WiFi connections. Whether at a cafe or an airport, free WiFis are a boon everywhere. But they are also a hub for unwanted hackers. Black hat hackers are known to intercept traffic using unchecked public connections. Always make sure that you are using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) application whenever you are using public WiFi in order to browse the internet in a secure way.
   
   

3. Backup your important data regularly:
   People always keep a sanitiser or paper soap with them in case they don’t find a suitable place to wash their hands. Having a proper backup is essential to avoid unwanted situations. Backing up your data is also a necessary part of digital hygiene. Always ensure that you have a working backup of all your important information in case of an emergency or a cyber attack.
   
   

4. Use long and strong passwords:
   This tip goes without saying, yet it needs to be said again and again. Passwords are keys that keep your sensitive and personal information safe and locked. If you wouldn’t trust a weak lock for your jewellery and important objects at home, how can you trust a weak password like 12345678 to protect your digital accounts? Always keep complicated passwords with a combination of numbers, alphabets and special characters. Make sure they are not at all easy to guess, even by someone who knows you closely. You can keep a password manager to remember all your passwords.
   
   

5. Update software regularly and stay away from suspicious ones:
   Just like you would not use a dirty mask or a dirty cloth, dirty or unclean software should also be avoided at all costs. By unclean or dirty software, we don’t just mean cracked, pirated or shady software but also those legit applications in which bugs have been identified. It is your digital responsibility to regularly update all your software so that all the important security patches are installed as soon as they are made available by the manufacturer.
   
   

Let’s hope that everyone follows these tips to the T and does the best they can to stay safe and private in their digital lives. If any of the above tips made you excited about the world of hacking and cybersecurity, you should consider looking into the field from a career perspective and check out an ethical hacking course or a cyber forensics course. After all, it is the cybersecurity experts who make the entire virtual world safe and reliable to use.