With all the iCloud hackings and celebrity nudes floating around these days, everyone is taking extra steps to protect themselves and their information. Here are a couple tips for the collegiettes out there who want to do the same.
Passwords and Usernames
Your login information is very important. You should always be very protective of your passwords. Once a hacker has this, there’s no telling what they’ll do with it. A way of protecting your various accounts is to change your passwords every once in a while. To make your passwords extra strong use a combination of numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters, and if possible special characters such as an exclamation mark or a question mark. But try not to make it too complicated; it still needs to be something you can remember.
Be careful of what you give others access to.
Some things are only meant to be seen by a select person or a select few (whatever floats your boat), but that doesn’t always turn out to be the case. Whether it’s a person you trust or an unknown hacker who decides to make your private images or information public, it is always a possibility that it can happen. Yes, there are apps and tools like Snapchat that make the saving and sharing of images easier to monitor, but nothing is ever guaranteed.
Adjust your privacy settings.
Creepy Facebook friends are not fun. Neither are overly friendly Twitter followers. So get rid of them with just a couple clicks of the mouse. Every social media platform provides users with customizable privacy settings. Become familiar with these and test them out. Find a setting you feel will give you optimum security.
Avoid interactions with sketchy emails.
We’ve all gotten them. One day you’ll be filtering through emails and BAM, there it is. “Bob from Sweden understands your college struggles and wants to send you $10 million!” All you have to do is click that link at the bottom and the money will be deposited in your account. All of your problems will disappear with this money. You can buy those boots you’ve eyeing for weeks, and you can finally eat something besides Ramen noodles! But wait…who’s Bob? As much as we’d love for you to become a millionaire overnight, please don’t click that link. Unfortunately, it’s just too good to be true. The link is most likely a virus that’ll have your computer acting funny for weeks. So instead of just deleting the email, make sure you report ‘Bob’ as a spammer. That way he’ll never play with another college student’s emotions again.
Be a smart online shopper.
There are tons of amazing sites out there that offer some pretty great deals. But how many of them are really legit? There are a couple ways to know which sites are reliable and which aren’t. One way is to check for the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)-encryption. You’ll know a site is secure if it has a green padlock icon in the address bar, just before the URL.
You can also search the company’s on the Better Business Bureau’s website. You’ll be able to see reviews, complaints and even the grade the BBB has given the company.
Protect yourself and be aware while you’re online. Let’s face it, there’s only one you. We’d hate for someone to even think they could pull off pretending to be you.