In this article, I will help you learn how to protect your personal information from hacking and spying by a set of principles and practices to ensure that personal data is protected, used and protected in a manner that takes into account the privacy of individuals and any risks they may face as a result of not adequately protecting their data.
The prevalence of personal information hacking
September 16, 2020/People's Daily Online/ The "Forty-fifth Statistical Report on the Status of Internet Development in China" issued by the China Internet Information Center showed that 43.6% of Internet users in China had encountered Internet security problems during the past six months, to as of March 2020.
Theft of personal information is the most widespread and worrying problem among users. This calls for concerted efforts to protect personal information and provide a secure Internet.
In order to spread awareness of internet protection, China annually organizes the National Cybersecurity Strengthening week, and this year's awareness week falls from September 14 to 20.
Risks of hacking your personal information
Personal data is any information about you, whether it is related to your private, professional or public life.
In the online environment, where huge amounts of personal data are exchanged and transferred across the world, it becomes difficult for people to control their personal information.
Therefore, it has become necessary to ensure the protection of our personal data.
If the hacker succeeds, this means that in a few moments all personal data and information will be transmitted to the hacker, and this is the highest risk, you will become subject to extortion, leaking photos or personal data, losing your own accounts, hacking your bank accounts, and experiencing financial loss and other disasters that you will suffer if the hack succeeds.
How to protect your personal information from being hacked?
Here are 10 tips that will helps you to protect your personal information from hacking and spying.
1. You should make sure to use well-known protection programs that automatically update continuously.
2. Avoid using public computers, and if you have to use one, be careful because all data is at risk.
3. Use a different password for each of your different accounts, such as Facebook and email.
4. Use the phone confirmation service, which sends you a code to activate your account each time you decide to log in
5. Use a message and email encryption program like PGP or Pretty Good Privacy.6. Avoid sending important and sensitive information over the Internet in order to preserve personal data.
7. Be careful with the operation of the "direct payment" service (without a password), or set time or ceiling restrictions on the service, to reduce losses as much as possible in the event of a security violation.
8. When turning on the face verification service, choose as many verification methods as possible.
Improve your vigilance in protecting your facial information, and immediately reject applications that question its trust.
9. Do not open links, emails and attachments easily from unknown sources.
Do not fill in personal information as some people want, do not easily click on links from unknown sources in social programs, and do not erase QR codes whose security you are suspicious of.
10. If you have been subjected to a money transfer via the Internet, and you are still able to access your account, modify the payment service and password features and transfer the remaining funds.
If you are not logged into the account, immediately contact the financial institution to request temporary account supervision.
If the bank card information is leaked, you should apply for a temporary account freeze or report the loss, and a comprehensive virus scan on the computer and phone.
And reset passwords related to registration and payment after confirming security.
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