10 ways to assess if you are safe online

Social Media

The name itself has ‘Social' in it. But that does not mean you cannot have more control over who sees your activity on your favorite social media pages. You can control who can post messages to you and tag you on Facebook. You can also lock your Twitter and Instagram accounts so only people you want to can follow you.

VPN

VPN creates a secure, private connection between you and the VPN provider's servers. This ensures that no one can see your internet traffic.

Anonymous browser

Anonymous browsers like Tor allow you to use your Internet anonymously by routing your traffic through the onion network. Most popular browsers like Chrome and Firefox collect a lot of information.

Stolen data

You can check to see if you've fallen to a prank by signing up for a free service like Have I Been Pwned.

Antivirus Software

An antivirus software is very important to ensure that your data remains safe and protected from malicious factors out there. Windows users who aren't satisfied by Windows Defender have always had to look elsewhere for protection. There are a lot of Mac and Linux users who believe they don't need to use an anti-virus app, this is not the case as both of these entities are vulnerable to malicious attacks.

Open-source software

Opting for open-source software makes sure that a wide community of users will constantly be finding solutions to problems and vulnerabilities in the code. Subscription-based productivity services like Office 365 and Adobe Creative Cloud have code that cannot be tracked or recorded. Even if you do not have the technical know-how to understand what's going on inside, you can make use of the knowledge of a wide community of users.

Data backups

Despite the number of precautions you take, there are a lot of things that could still go wrong. It is wise to make regular backups to make sure that you do not end up losing your data.

Public Wi-Fi Networks

Hackers can make use of lax security policies in public Wi-Fi networks since these are the most insecure. Checking your bank balance or logging into your email account while on a public network is a bad idea.

Password Manager

Using a secure password is very important. But people often go for easy-to-remember passwords because they're easy to remember. Instead of settling for less secure options, you can use a password manager to remember your passwords.

Physical precautions

Although being safe online is important, it is equally important to make sure that you do not take risks that might make your devices or equipment damaged or susceptible to theft.