Complexity of cybercrime rises: Keeping yourself safe online

Cybercrime has been ramping up over the last decade. There has been a big influx of cyber scammers who want to take advantage of the increasing number of internet users around the world. This is an obvious side effect of the increase in popularity of the internet. In general, it isn’t something to worry about as long as you are careful. To help people keep themselves safe when playing online, we have put together a list of top tips to help you to keep your data protected.

Only use sites with an SSL certificate

An SSL certificate is vital when it comes to being safe online. It essentially provides encryption when you connect to the website and when the website connects to you. It’s such an important security aspect for the website itself that it’s been adopted as the industry standard for any site that takes financial information from you. An example of this would be a top-quality online casino which you can find on casino comparison sites such as Vihjepaikka.com, which is a Finnish example. If you’re looking for an online casino to play at, then it is vital you play at a secure one. The first sign that you should look for as a clue to the site is secure is that it has an SSL certificate in place. If there isn’t one, then you should instantly think about finding somewhere else to play.

Use a secure password

Passwords are one of the most important aspects when it comes to keeping yourself safe online. All too often, people use a very weak password which can be easily cracked. Even big companies and sometimes governments can struggle with passwords being cracked, so you shouldn’t feel bad if it happens to you. There are some steps that you can take in order to keep yourself safe when online though.

Firstly, it’s important to make sure that you don’t use a common phrase for your password. This will often be one of the first things that hackers try to use. It’s even more important if it is linked to you in some way, such as using your surname for example. In order to avoid these issues, you’re best to use a nonsense word that you have made up. It could be an amalgamation of three different words or even just some selected letters. Whatever you do, don’t use a common word. It’s also a good idea to mix up capital and lowercase letters within your password, as this makes it even harder to crack.

You should also consider using symbols and numbers within your password. By incorporating these elements, you will be able to add even more possible combinations to the password, which will make it even harder to crack. Of course, when it comes to passwords the absolute top cybersecurity tip is to always keep it a secret. Don’t tell anyone else your passwords, make sure that they are yours and yours alone. By doing this, you will limit the ways for your password to be discovered and make it much harder for anyone to access your information.

In addition to this tip is to make sure that you don’t write it down anywhere. Remember the password in your head. This will make it less likely that your password can be uncovered by anyone else. This will keep your accounts much safer and more secure.

Use prepaid cards

Using prepaid cards is a relatively new innovation, especially on a widespread scale. Prepaid cards for use online allow users to pay for things online without having to enter any personal payment details onto the website. It means that even if the account does get compromised, then the worst thing that can happen is the money that’s on the card will be stolen. While this is obviously not a good outcome, it’s a much better outcome than your bank accounts and e-wallets being drained of their funds.

What is very good about prepaid cards is that they don’t link to your bank account in any way. Even if you do have to fund them using your bank account, the details used to fund them are not stored on the prepaid card at any stage. This ensures that your bank details can’t be compromised even if the prepaid card itself is compromised. Another big positive is that a lot of these cards allow you to use cash to fund them. This allows you to enter a store and fund the cards in person, so you can avoid an internet connection until the moment you have to make the payment. This limits the potential ways that any hacker can gain access to your prepaid card details and makes it much more likely that you will remain safe.

(Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)