Tips to Secure Your Identity Online

We live in a world where identity threats are more dangerous than any road thefts. If someone steals your wallet, they will only be able to get money, but if someone hacks your system, your whole life with what you do and where you go will be in front of him.

Cyber threats are real things and are way more dangerous, as most of the people store all their information online these days, and hence, it is very crucial to know how you can delete all your digital footprints and save yourself from identity theft.

What Can Be Done with Stolen Identity?

It's essential to realize what someone can do with your stolen identity. A stolen identity can completely ruin someone's life. It can transfer someone's property documents or make someone's bank balance zero, or can even send someone to jail if the hacker committed a crime using your identity details. Hence, it is important to guard yourself, especially in today's times where every other person knows how to hack things on the Internet.

How to Secure Your Identity?

Here is a list of tips that will help you secure your identity, but none of these can guarantee 100% security. You have to be alert all the time while browsing online −

• The most common and basic way to protect your identity online is by using strong passwords and something that is not easy to guess and belongs to you only. It is preferred that you use a mix of characters, numbers, and special characters in your passwords to make it more complex.

• Always change/update your password regularly and never shares that password with anyone or even never write your passwords in notes or somewhere else where people can easily access it.

• Always use safe and secure websites while making online transactions; that is, before making any transaction check whether the website has HTTPS present in its URL or not. Also, there will be a lock symbol on the right side of the address bar. This makes sure that the website you are using is encrypted.

• Always have anti-virus and anti-malware software installed in your system and keep them up to date. They will save you in blocking all the pop-up ads, which may redirect you to some suspicious websites.

• Protect yourself from all phishing scams.

• Never enable cookies while you enter your personal data like bank account number or your mobile number as cookies can save your details onto your computer, which hackers can easily access.

• Never refresh sites where you are filing a form or your details. Either press the submit button or press clear before leaving that site.

• Don't be fooled by fake tech support scammers.

• Never share your OTP with anyone, as none of the banks/hospitals/companies will ever require your OTP to do some work.

• Always have your phone and PC strongly protected with your fingerprint or face recognition, as that is the place from where all your data can be stolen. Don't just keep a simple 4-digit pin or swipe-up pattern which is too easy to guess. Some even keep double authentication on their devices to stay extra secure.

• Use a virtual private network or VPN when you visit any suspicious sites, making your online actions virtually untraceable, or even when you are using a public network; it's always safe to browse using VPN.

• Also, have all your sensitive data encrypted through various apps available on the Internet and have a backup of all files stored at some safe place like your clouds on the Internet so that no one can get access to it.