How to secure yourself online?


As we buy bigger and more expensive cars in India I always wonder that for most people their car insurance costs would be a significant amount. On an average every car owner in India spends 5,000 to 20,000 rupees on insurance. This expense is governed and necessitated by need to offset the damage by regulation to your vehicle in case of an accident and also by regulation. Similarly there is a need to wear helmets and have cars with Airbags and ABS to prevent injury to the passengers.
Now when we look at the large number of transactions we do and money we spend online do we similarly try to protect ourselves or offset our losses in case of an accident involving theft, impersonation or attack. As online sales and banking, transactions rise the probability of theft and fraud is increasing rapidly. However at the individual level most people are not concerned with the protection of their online transactions by taking necessary safeguards and countermeasures.
Most individuals in India do not follow the basics for computer security. I am listing some basic mistakes made by people while using devices online
  1. Work on Administrator account - Most devices come preconfigured to work on the admin account by PC sellers and users continue to work on this account thereby exposing themselves to a bigger threat.
  1. Work without an antivirus and firewall -  These are two basic software which every PC should have but are unfortunately not installed or have expired.

  1. Have no backup strategy - We store huge amounts of valuable data online and on our PCs and most of us have no backup strategy for the same,
  1. Never update software - Software are updated to remove bugs and loopholes which attackers may use to get in your PC.

  1. Use pirated software -  Understand that nothing comes for free and be aware that most pirated software come with malware.

It is only a matter of time that we in India experience the same level of attacks which individuals in developed nations face. Therefore it is imperative that individual PC users secure their home PCs and online activities by taking a few basic simple steps.
  1. Work on normal (not Administrator) account - The first step towards securing your PC is not to use an administrator account for your daily work. As the name suggests it for the administrator to install or remove software or diagnose and troubleshoot your PC. Create a local account with limited privileges in which you do your day to day tasks. For this I do blame the PC manufactures like the HP, Dell, Acer for not ensuring basic security by creating two accounts one admin and one normal user by default when a PC rolls out of factory.
  1. Purchase a good Internet security solution (it costs less than car insurance) and invest time to learn to use it (more important than the time invested on Facebook). If not use a free antivirus. This should be done immediately on buying a new device not when the trial version expires after a few months.
  1. Take a backup regularly both online (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive) and offline (Hard disk or CD). Have a backup strategy for your documents and files.

  1. Educate yourself about Security - Like you learn to drive a car learn how to navigate safely on the internet. Read about online security from the internet or do an online course (Introduction to Cyber Security by Future Learn) to educate themselves on basics of Cyber Security.
  1. Update software installed on PC regularly (Upgrade to windows 10 and see it do it automatically by force). Use a software like Heimdal or Secunia Personal Software Inspector to update all software. Also remove unnecessary software which you are not using.
  1. Stop usage of pirated software, Use open source software instead -  Use Libre Office for making documents offline or Google Docs online or buy Office 365. Do not use pirated MS Office or any other pirated software. There are number of open source software which do an equally good job and are free.

  1. Use a password manager such as Kee Pass (Free) or Last Pass
    (12$ - Rs 720 /-) cheaper than a meal outside to secure your passwords and not re use on multiple sites.            

Considering the time we spend online it is essential that we spend some time securing ourselves by taking basic security precautions. Here in this short post I have share few of the critical steps you can take to secure yourself online. These are not comprehensive but give you a basic standard for having an effective cyber hygiene.

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