5 Ways to Better Control Your Data in an Online World

According to a new report from the United Nation’s International Telecommunications Union (ITU), 47% of the world’s population is online. However, as the number of internet users increases, so does the number of cyber criminals. It is safe to say that the number one concern of individual users and organizations alike on the online world is cyber safety. Most everything we do daily connects to the Internet. This convenience of being online has become so ingrained in our lives that we have become a bit contradictory in the way we think about the security of our information.

In our physical world, we keep a close eye on our purses, wallets and tangible possessions in the real world, so why don’t we do the same in our digital one? While we password-protect our PCs and apply codes to unlock our mobile phones, we prominently leave sticky notes with the computer passwords above our desks and rush to click “remember me” when logging on to our various accounts. What we forget with living in an online world is that our data, everything from personal to financial, lives online as well and is easily accessible to fall into the wrong hands. The time has come for us to take some responsibility for our data and better behaviors to keep it more secure. Below are some tips on help you get started.

1. Set data permissions:  Learn how to set up permissions on your data to keep others out of it.You ultimately have responsibility for your data. If your bank account is hacked, you may need to prove your password was protected and you did what was necessary to guard against a breach.  You must also be careful of the apps you download and if these apps do require a password, where else have you used the same one? Cognizant of this, we decide to pick a new password and check “Remember Me.”  This makes it easier for us, but doing so gives the site or application a cookie that is open to misappropriation.
2. Less is more: Keep your most sensitive information on the fewest number of different computers or cloud-based tools as possible. Having fewer copies of your most sensitive documents helps keep it more protected. While the cloud provides convenience and ability to access information from multiple devices, are you really going to need to access all your bills, bank accounts, investment statements from anywhere? Disable Remote Desktop (RDP) unless you require these features. Additionally, it is best not to enable remote connections to your PC unless needed at the time. Instead, enable the remote connections when needed, and disable them when you’re finished
3. Be conscious of where you access your data: Online tools and mobile device give us anywhere, anytime accessibility, but far too often, we don’t think too much about where we are accessing our data from. For example, by using public Wi-Fi, it’s rather simple for someone to intercept your data in a man-in-the-middle attack by first setting up a network and naming it “Free Wi-Fi;” Instead of simply connecting on, ask the restaurant or airport staff what the name of their network is. Better yet, learn how to tether your phone and turn it in to your personal hotspot to keep other prying people out.  Also keep in mind when traveling —if you sync your phone to rental car system, did you remember to wipe it before returning the car rather than trusting that the rental company will do it?
4. Do you know your network?: Think about who you share your data with.  Be conscious of who is on your same network and what you share. An email sent to your HR person with personal information can easily be shared whether intentionally or accidentally—we’ve all done reply all when we only meant to reply to the sender.
5. Encrypt your data: Add an extra level of security to your sensitive data. In our mobile world, this will especially help as your data goes back and forth in the cloud. While encrypting files can be a little difficult, it’s like anything else —practice makes perfect, and once it becomes a habit, it is easy.  Better yet, automatic authentication frees us from even thinking about it. Full data encryption solutions encrypt the entire hard drive from the operating system to all applications and data stored on it.  As information is read from the disk, it is decrypted and then any information written to the disk is encrypted in turn.  Without the encryption key, the data stored on the disk remains inaccessible.

While the Internet opens up endless possibilities to make our lives more convenient, it also can bring unwanted attention from others. Hopefully the above tips will help you fight off some of the tricks many cyber criminals use and enable you to take measures to keep your personal data protected.