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In the wake of the recent iCloud hacking scandal, where hundreds of celebrities had their privacy breached and risqué photos leaked onto the internet, it is no wonder that Internet security is on people’s minds. It is especially worrying for those who may have personal photos of their own that they want to make sure are safe, along with important documents that need protection too.

Passwords

First of all, having a secure password is key. The most common way that someone’s personal information is revealed is through having passwords cracked. Use a unique password for each website, cloud, or service that you use. The best login will be something that is not personal to you and contains numbers, lowercase and uppercase letters.

Don’t reveal too much

Making yourself more difficult to find on social media accounts is another good way to protect yourself, add in a fake middle name, or use a pseudonym, or simply change your privacy settings so that people cannot find you so easily. When people have access to your social media accounts they can use that information to easily hack other accounts. Another good idea when using social media accounts is to not over share. People don’t need your email, hometown, pet’s name, family’s information and date of birth. This just makes it more likely to have that information misused.

Keep anti-virus software up to date

A key to using the internet safely is to have your computer protected from viruses. Investing in good anti-virus software is crucial, particularly is you are using a Windows machine. Free versions of many anti-virus programs are available online, and paid versions are even better. Running a scan of your machine once per month will be more than enough to stop hackers reading passwords when entered.

Only enter details on secure sites

Only enter extremely personal information on secure sites, which can be identified by the prefix ‘https’ and a small padlock icon in the address bar of your browser. These sites encrypt all of the data that you enter, so it is completely secure.

Don’t respond to suspicious emails

Beware of fraudulent emails. It is extremely rare that your bank, or email provider will email you advising you to re-enter all of your information for security reasons. This will often be a scam to make you freely give information over to scammers. If you are worried that the email may be real, simply call up your bank or whichever company the email claims to be from and ask them to verify it.