Almost every person is somehow connected to cyberspace. If you have access to the internet you have already created a digital footprint. Given the vast, sometimes unknown, platform of cyberspace, how can you best protect yourself against cyberbullies and hackers?
Cyberspace has a low entry barrier, according to Bruce Watson, chair of artificial intelligence for cybersecurity at Stellenbosch University’s School for Data-Science and Computational Thinking. Everyone from teenagers to companies and law enforcement has access to it.
“Once you’re exposed in cyberspace, it doesn’t matter how far you go on the planet. If you are connected in any way via the Internet or to some other kind of network, then you’re exposed,” Watson said.
Exposure can come through online shopping, booking flight tickets, Facebook, Twitter and internet banking.
Watson argues that people are more lax when they enter cyberspace than they are in terms of physical security measures at home. For example, is your home alarm code set as 1234? Most likely not.
Here are some basic tips from Watson and Craig Rosewarne, manager director of Wolfpack Information Risk, to heighten your online security.
- Set a password on your devices. A combination of facial identification and a pin is even better;
- Do not use your cat, dog or family member’s name as a password. Names of family and pets can easily be tracked on your Facebook account, for instance;
- Treat your passwords like underwear. Typically you don’t share your underwear, and you change it often — hopefully;
- Do not use the same password for all your online accounts;
- Just the same as you would not open your front door to strangers, do not accept suspicious friend requests and think carefully before clicking on offers that seem too good to be true;
- For any type of account, whether it’s social media, email or storage accounts, make sure the relevant security and privacy settings are enabled. When doing internet banking, do not only use a username and password but add a one-time password to be sent to your phone;
- Try to avoid using English words as passwords. Consider Afrikaans or Zulu phrases that cannot easily be found in English dictionaries;
- Avoid using words where common letters are replaced with special characters, for example, c@t$andD0g$;
- Consider all of your devices as your digital footprint that needs to be managed and have passwords such as your phone, computer, SmartTV, SmartWatch and Xbox; and
- Secure your online games and yourself. In a gaming environment where communities around the world connect online, make sure before you trust someone with personal information in cyberspace.
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