We practice safety in every aspect of our lives. We make sure our food is safe to eat. We add safety features in our homes and businesses like smoke detectors and hand rails. Our cars are filled with features that promise our safety and the safety of others on the road. These practices are tangible ways to practice safety, but many people are not taking proper measures to ensure they are practicing online safety.
The average person will spend up to 11 hours a day online with an average of 3-5 hours on a mobile device. If you’ve got a smartphone, laptop, or tablet, you are most likely included in this statistic. We want to help keep you safe with these online safety tips.
Top tips for online safety
- Create complex passwords – This is the first step in protecting your information and is often not taken seriously enough. A strong password can prevent identity theft and financial fraud. Keep in mind that the longer your password is, the less likely you are to be hacked. LastPass is an excellent tool that creates strong passwords and keeps track of them too.
- Keep your devices upgraded – Hackers can obtain access to your devices through the operating system. The simplest way to protect your data is by regularly updating to the latest software version. Here’s information on how to update most of your devices and if you can, enable automatic updates on your devices.
- Be careful where you visit – Only share personal information (such as registering or purchasing something) on websites that begin with “https”, instead of “http”, and has a padlock in the URL field, usually shown on the left. This means that the websites use encryption, which translates information to a code that only authorized users have access to.
- Smart phone safety– Usually our phones are the last thing we look at before going to sleep and the first thing we look at when we wake up. The above rules apply to staying safe on smart phones. Additionally, you should turn off the Bluetooth function when you aren’t using it and always backup your data to a computer or the cloud, which has proven to be a very safe method of data storage.
- Use caution when downloading – Only download apps from reliable sources like Google Play for Androids and the Apple App Store for iPhones and Macs.
- Keep passwords private – This may go without saying, but be cautious about giving out your logins and passwords. If this information gets in the wrong hands, it could compromise your personal information. You shouldn’t be using the same password for multiple logins anyway, but if you do and you share one password, it may lead to multiple sites and apps getting hacked.
- Create a plan – Even following all of these online security tips, a cyber security breach can still happen. If it does, you want to be prepared to resolve the issue and manage the aftermath. Implement a cyber security plan to ensure you have defined methods of prevention, resolution, and restitution following a breach. Once you’ve created it, make sure everyone in your organization knows the plan and is held accountable to following it.
Our integrated business security system includes:
We want to make sure your business practices healthy online safety, but we go a step beyond digital and provide safety solutions to protect your physical space. We have been able to save over $3.6 million in potential property losses through our integrated system, which includes:
- Verified audio detection
- Video camera surveillance
- Intelligent access control systems
- Fire detection
Our integrated security system provides tailored, local service across the country. Sign up for a free business security assessment and follow along with our blog to stay updated on all things safety.