Online_accounts_safety

In present if you are person who is spending more than three hours online, so definitely you will fed up with so many online accounts and different passwords. No wonder, its good opportunity for those software’s and apps who are providing password storage service. But these passwords managers are not less than gaming tool for hackers as they can easily access them. If hackers will get your master password, so they will have an opportunity to access your all accounts. However; recently, LastPass, which is one of the premium password service manager detected suspicious activity last month. Here are some tips to avoid these issues;

All accounts are not equal and easy to crack:

Instead of remembering dozens passwords, maybe there is way to remember only half-dozen. Focus on only those accounts which are important.

Always remember the passwords and details of Bank accounts, credit card information for shopping services and never forget to remember the email info. E-mail accounts are very important, because after losing the passwords with e-mail you can reset the passwords on other services such as; social media, shopping sites and more. Try to remember the information for social media accounts because you need to use them regularly however; you can avoid the discussion forums information because they have less important. May be you will not mid if someone will post on behalf of you in discussion forums, but if someone will do it on your social media platform, so it can make harm for you in professional or personal life. Try to prioritize online accounts.

For highly sensitive accounts, use unique password and remember then or keep it on the hard copy and place that paper on safe place. Never use auto-generated or electronically generated passwords.

Lower priority:

For rest of the accounts which are not important for them you can use password manager, but in certain cases it could not necessary.

Web browsers of Apple and Google have in-built mechanisms to store the passwords for different accounts and they also update your passwords when you update your password on those sites. Even you have to sync all those to use them on multiple devices. However; in this domain the Google’s new Smart Lock feature for Android apps are very much useful if you are not limited to the web browsing. Most of the other services allow you to sign-in with Facebook ID and other social networking IDs, so instead of generating the new passwords you can use them.

Mobile phones and Fingerprints:

If you are not protecting your phone with pass-code, so someone can easily swipe your phone to get into your social media accounts and email accounts. Whereas; some of the latest iPhones, Samsung Galaxy and other high segment phones making it easier to use the phones by offering fingerprint option as the pass-code instead of four digit passwords or pattern lock. Now Apple is allowing the other app developers to use that fingerprint ID and through that you can unlock the banking apps by just tapping your figure. In upcoming Android update which is known as the M, Google is planning to make it easier for app makers to use fingerprint ID. However; Microsoft also planning to include the biometrics such as; fingerprint or iris scan in upcoming Windows 10 system.

Double layer of security:

Major service provider such as; Apple, Dropbox Google, Microsoft and Facebook are offering the second layer of security in cyber space by authentication in the form of numeric code, which send as the text messages on mobile phones. After entering the regular password you can type in the received code to verify it’s you not the hacker. To avail this service you need to go into the settings of your account where you need to activate the two-step verificationauthentication.

If there is way to sign-in through mobile number instead of e-mail address, so use mobile number for sign-in process. But you have to trust the service provider that they are not going to use them for marketing purpose.

1. Set your profile in private mode:

This is the best and most important security feature which everyone can access in secure way. It can prevent your personal information if anyone will try to peep into your profile. In the simple words Facebook and other leading social media networks will provide you enough option to get into invisible mode from those to whom you want to be invisible. You can update and hide each detail of your profile as per your comfort level. You can choose to whom you want to share your personal and professional details such as; your posts, friends list, events, your pictures, your shared content and more with different options such as; with friends, friends of friends and everyone. Ideally you should set it to your friends’ option. Of course, you will be visible on the social media platforms, but after privacy settings they will be not able to access any of your personal information.

2. Experiment with your own profile name:

IF someone has your name and other details so simple he will type it into the search box and he will get the direct link of your profile, so first of all try to hide all of your personal and professional details such as; email address, phone number, work information, address and more from everyone else. Once you will cover this area, so you need to do some experiments with your profile like; you can add some symbols or font or other language in your name because these things will make it difficult to find you on social media networks.

3. Use smaller pics in your profile and make your photo album private:

All the photos which you are sharing on online should have limitation from the visibility of everyone; it means it should only visible to your friends. It is advisable to upload smaller pictures and images, for that you can use some online tolls of you can crop them. There are cases when strangers will randomly click on your profile and download your picture for further use. If you will use the small pic, then people will avoid using it.

4. Avoid tagging and linking of the profile:

Tagging photos is one of the privacy loopholes as it will divert the stranger to your profile as the people who you have tagged can be the friends of stalkers, so better to be carefully with your privacy settings. It is highly recommended to avoid the unnecessary tagging of photos. Whenever you will tag someone, the other people will get the notification as if you want to tag, so click on yes and share it on your timeline.  Most of the time whenever you will visit on websites, so they ask you to log in through the Facebook or other social media platforms, it is advisable to avoid doing that because this process will provide them your email for such purposes.