10 Steps To Avoid Being Hacked This Holiday Season

The season of warm hearths and hearts can be ruined by one security event or Grinch like attack on your systems. In order to prevent this you might want to think about doing the following ten things:

10 Steps To Avoid Being Hacked This Holiday Season

The season of warm hearths and hearts can be ruined by one security event or Grinch like attack on your systems. In order to prevent this you might want to think about doing the following ten things:

1) Update and patch all of your systems and applications. Hackers can't take advantage of vulnerabilities that no longer exist.

2) When traveling don't use public wifi for anything that you wouldn't want printed on the front page of a newspaper. Just don't. The risk of MITM attacks is to great. Even great VPN solutions on the market can get hacked. Your phone may reach out to any hotspot where it thinks it recognizes the SSID for without you even knowing it. WAPs that spoof common SSIDs can trick your device into thinking that they are at home or a known safe location. It is best to just turn off your wifi when not in a safe environment.

3) Back up all of your data. You can mitigate the damage of malware simply by having a secure backup of your documents.

4) Make sure that you are following best practices when it comes to password security. No password reuse, long passwords with upper/lower case characters with numbers and special characters, and the use of password vaults can keep any one cracked password from exposing everything you have on the net.

5) Use payment vendors like Paypal when purchasing from a site that you are not 100% sure of. This level of separation will keep your credit card information out of any transaction and secure.

6) Track your packages. It is easy to lose track of what you may have ordered in the mail and what is still pending. Hackers know this and will spam you with fake package tracking emails to lure you into clicking on a malicious link.

7) Just because a site uses httpS doesn't mean it is secure anymore. Many malicious pages now use https as way to mollify users.

8) Any computers you have at home should be turned off if you are not there or don't need to access them remotely. Why leave a target open while you are away?

9) Track your bank account. Many banks have alert systems to keep you informed of transactions. Take advantage of these services when available.

10) Don't tell people when and where you are going to be on vacation. Why inform a thief that you will be away and how long they have to break into your home? Post the holiday pictures when you get back home. That picture of you and aunt Eunice having the time of your lives in Disneyland will still be a great memory to share after you are back.

If you take a minute or two to act upon your own security. Then even the Grinch can't stop Christmas from coming.