3 Redundant Cybersecurity Practices You Need to Stop Following Now
If you think that your online privacy is secured just by setting a stronger password that’s difficult to guess or by not clicking on suspicious links, then you might need a reality check on how to really up your game in the cybersecurity arena.
Things like brute force computing, MITM attacks, and spear phishing have made it a lot easier for hackers to get past those basic cybersecurity practices you currently follow pretty easily.
Modern day hackers are smart and sly and they are consistently looking for newer, more innovative ways to outsmart you and get into your system to get their hands on all that valuable information. So you better remain a step ahead of them, if you really want to remain safe in the online domain.
The current crop of cybersecurity threats are more nuanced and subliminal, so you probably stand a high chance of falling prey to them if you try to stop them from harming you by following those age old tips and tricks that every novice on the internet knows by now.
Modern problems require modern solutions and your old cybersecurity practices just won’t stand a chance against the barrage of cybersecurity threats being hurtled your way by hackers, malware artists and scammers.
To ensure a better level of online security, here are 3 redundant cybersecurity practices you need to stop following now:
Waiting for Security Patches:
Most of you might believe the notion that installing updates and patches as soon as they are due is the way to go when ensuring that hackers don’t find any zero day vulnerabilities. But as evident from the Wannacry ransomware attack 2 years ago, even the bigger firms don’t often offer the right patches at the right time, leaving enough space for hackers to exploit the loops.
Yes, updates are important but relying on them solely to protect your system and data is not the right way to go.
A hacker might find out the zero day vulnerability before the team of developers behind the proprietary OS you are using does, and from thereon, every single piece of data you have stands the risk of being hacked.
The best way to circumvent this problem is by way of acquiring Open source programs and software that are much less likelier to have zero-day loopholes in them. This is plausible because Open source software is already being checked for zero-day problems and breaks and most of the existing ones have already been patched.
Most businesses involved in cybersecurity industry follow this rule of thumb. The VPN industry uses and recommend the OpenVPN protocol which is an open source connection tunnel and till date, has proved to be more effective than its contemporary protocols like L2TP and PPTP towards guaranteeing lesser problems of this kind.
Trusting “Trustworthy” Apps and Services Blindly:
Facebook is used by over 2 billion people worldwide but just does that make it secure enough for you to put your trust in it without thinking twice? Do you know that the Facebook app requires “inappropriate permissions” to run like requesting to access your camera, microphone and contact lists?
Most internet users don’t usually read through the app permissions that pop up on their screen during an app download and install process. By doing this, they unknowingly hand over the whole control of their device to the invasive app that can siphon off valuable information for its own use.
Just because an app is popular and is being used by millions of people, doesn’t give it a credibility warrant. Even the most popular of apps can come with a ton of insensitive and invasive app permissions so stop trusting and start reading things through.
Go through the app permissions, read the privacy policy of a firm/app before you take a dive and download it on to your device. This way, you won’t be seeing your personal, valuable information being used inappropriately by the service or being published on the internet when the app goes through a data breach.
Leaving Your Data Security in the Hands of the Network:
Most workplaces have a robust and powerful IT infrastructure with elaborate firewalls and personal VPN systems to keep them from suffering a data hack. There is nothing wrong with it unless you start the habit of not watching your back yourself and putting all of your faith in the system.
Your office might have the best in-class systems but hackers, sometimes need just a small window of opportunity to sneak in and wreak havoc. So it’s better for you to get your own cybersecurity game than to be left ruing like others when the whole system gets exploited.
Having a strong anti-malware software or your own personal VPN connection goes a long way in not just doubling up your own defense mechanisms but it will also help your workplace out in keeping threats at bay.
Most users don’t do this because of the costs involved, but mostly the idea that cybersecurity tools cost a fortune is simply not right. If you look closely enough and do a bit of research, you can secure tons of discounts and ensure that you don’t go overboard with your budget. For e.g. if you go for Avira Prime, you can get a bunch of cybersecurity and software tools in a single suite for around half the usual price or you can acquire such tools through the exorbitant discounts offered on internet shopping holidays like Black Friday or CyberMonday.
Investing in your own cybersecurity might seem like a bit unusual if your workplace is already doing it for you, but the efforts and costs involved will offer you an extra defense against the online threats and Trojan viruses looking to harm your data.
Wrapping Things Up:
The mainstreaming of two-factor authentication made everyone realize that how relying on just keeping stronger passwords were a job half done. In the next couple of years, as threats from hackers grow more complex, users will be required to think outside the box and be innovative in how they commit to protecting their systems and data.
And the first step towards doing so is to always do a scan of your current cybersecurity practices and think of how there might be chinks in the armor. No matter how wacky those chinks sound, they will most possibly be targeted as ingenuity is on what a hacker survives and thrives.