In an increasingly online world now, safety and security have become more critical than ever as stories about hackers stealing passwords, credit card information or personal information keep breaking. Here are some important tips for you to be 'Safe & Secured' Online:-
- Always use long passwords for your email accounts and online payment gateways. The recommended minimum is eight alpha-numeric characters. Though some services have character limits for passwords, you can still opt for maximum 14 to 25 alpha-numeric characters.
- Use both upper and lower cases for every password with special characters (like &% etc.) also.
- Avoid words that are in dictionaries as there are programs that can crack passwords by going through databases of known words.
- Character substitution is also one of the best ways while choosing the passwords like using 'Zero' in stead of the letter 'O' and a '$' sign for the alphabet 'S'.
- Do not use easy to guess names like your name, your company name, your date of birth, your hometown. Even pets and relatives names should be avoided.
- Never re-use passwords on other accounts unless you use the same user ID and passwords for sites that do not link to credit card or other personal information.
- Apart from above, use a good basic anti-virus software
for your laptop / system to prevent virus and to be safe and secured online.