How to keep your online accounts secure

Today’s era is a digital era where everything is advanced and online. We are dependent on the internet for many things. The Internet is a boon for information sharing, which now made information available to everyone. Anyone can access your information and data if they know your account login details. We are using many web applications today and it is important to keep our personal data safe and secure from hackers and scammers.

Here are the 9 tips and tricks to keep your online accounts safe and secure.

1. Strong Password

The first and most important initial step to secure your online accounts is to make your login password unique and strong, in case you did not you can do the same now. What I mean by a unique password is like your password should be unpredictable by anyone and it should also be at least 12 characters long so that it is more secure. Now how to choose a unique password for your online accounts which is strong to break. Never set passwords with common words or meaningful words.

Your password should be out of the box so that no one ever can think that it may be your password.

1). Your password should be a minimum of 12 characters long.

2). It should contain words, numbers, and unique characters(symbols %, $, #, etc.).

3). It should contain words with at least 2 letters of the word should be in uppercase letters. Eg: AukQsi

This is all you can do in login details to make your account secure .

Note: Try to remember your password and do not write it down anywhere on paper and also do not save it on the internet.

2. Login verification 

You can use login verification to keep your account safer and more secure. There are many login verification methods like verification through e-mail where you will get an email on your registered email id which contains a confirmation link that you need to follow in order to verify your login credential or you can also use the OTP method through your phone number or email where you will get 4 to 8 digit code number which you need to enter in order to verify your login. This provides double-check security to your online account.

3. different login passwords for different account

You should use different login passwords for your different accounts so that in case if your account got hacked then your all other accounts will still be at the safe side.

4. Check URL of the website

Your should know the correct URL address for the web page you use and login in. You should cross check once that your are at right URL or not before entering login details because it might be happen you enter your login details elsewhere and not at the official web page where you have account. Because they may have exact same looking web page. It is easy to make any duplicate webpage which looks exactly same as that of original one but it can not have same webpage URL. You should always check the web URL  if you enter your login details to the duplicate page which is same looking as original page then your account could be hacked . In fact this practice is done only for this purpose hackers spams the link of the webpage and if you open and login through it your account will be hacked

5. Do not use auto generated password 

There are many web application which provide user the facility to generate a random password and ir is generated every time you login, people use this so that they do not need to remember their password. But this practice is risky for security of your account. So do not use auto generated passwords for the login.

6. Check connection status of the webpage

You should check the connection type of webpage you are using. If the URL contain [HTTPS://] with green it is the secure connection type and it is safe to use.  (While using net banking you should always see for the SSL certificate of the website which is [ HTTPS ] and it stands for secure connection, if your URL starts with ‘HTTP’ then it is not risky but for net banking you should only go with[ HTTPS ].  Secure account URL starts with HTTPS and in green colour. Website with HTTP and black in colour is not secure and website whose URL is in red colour is danger and there is also written [DANGER] in red.

So you should also go check for the connection status of the webpage by seeing its URL.

7. Use virtual Keypad

Many net banking accounts are providing  the virtual keypad which is a keypad on your screen which you need to click to type letters. This keeps your account safe and secure from the person sitting near you as they can not see what letters or words you are typing on your mechanical keyboard. In virtual keyboard the letters are arranged in random and in not specific order as in mechanical keyboard.

8. ignore spam emails

Never click any link in your email inbox until you are not knowing about the link and why that link is for. And also the same way never download or open any attachment in email until you know what is the attachment for. Their are many spammers who spams unsecure website links which can harm your web security if you click and the unsecure attachment can bring malicious to your system and also can hack your online accounts.

9. Change your password

You should change your password once in a year or any time. It is a good practice to change your login password once in 6 month or 3 month. It maybe your password is strong and next to impossible to break it but it is a good to do that.

This is all about  how to keep your online account safe and secure from the scammers. If you follow all these steps you will always be safe.