Follow these vital tips to keep your laptop data safe
Your laptop is your life. It may carry your pictures, videos, school work, business data, and important login credentials. That's why it’s critical to keep it safe, especially in the modern age, where various threats can breach your laptop's security in seconds.
According to research by Gartner, a laptop is stolen every 53 seconds. What's more, statistics from Datalocker.com suggest that 97% of stolen laptops are never recovered. Most laptops are stolen on public transport, cafes, airports, and shopping malls.
Then, there are the cyberthreats. As the COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to become more dependent on our computers, cyberattacks have risen alarmingly. Your laptop might suffer from malware attacks, phishing attacks, Trojan horse attacks at home. Outside, your laptop may face man-in-the-middle attacks, fraudulent WiFi network and access point scams, worms, endpoint attacks and more.
Fortunately, there are some precautions you can take to stay safe:
Stay Prepared for Theft
Your first step is to encrypt your storage drive. If your laptop is stolen, it will be incredibly challenging for thieves to access your data if your storage drive is secured correctly. Visit the website of experts like Security Picks to learn more about how you can encrypt your hard drive.
Once your hard drive is encrypted, take a few minutes to enhance your laptop's security in order to make it more challenging for thieves to break in. Take advantage of your laptop's biometric security features to strengthen security. Also, set a long and complex password that’s difficult for thieves to guess, even if they use Brute Force attacks.
Remember, a good password should be at least 12 characters long and feature capital letters, lower case letters, numbers, alphabets, and symbols. In addition, it should be devoid of common words like ‘password’ or your date of birth. Thieves will use the information you share publicly on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and other social media pages to customize a list of possible passwords to try.
Keep a Low Profile
It’s essential to keep a low profile whenever you’re travelling and avoid attention. If you use a premium laptop like a MacBook or an Alienware, then avoid advertising this to the public by carrying it in a nondescript bag.
While an official MacBook looks cool, it also attracts the wrong type of bag. For added protection, keep your laptop in a shock and waterproof sleeve, and then keep this inside your bad. Also, secure your laptop bag with a lock designed to shield laptop bags.
Use Cybersecurity Tools
It’s best to avoid public WiFi networks because most of them aren’t secure and are often targeted by hackers. On an unsecured network, a crook can break into your computer quickly and steal your valuable data. Either that or they may install spyware to stalk you.
Use a good Virtual Private Network (VPN) service to encrypt your data and secure public WiFi. Also, keep your operating system updated and use the latest anti-malware tools to stay safe from malicious software attacks. With the right precautions and tools, you can keep your laptop data safe and secure.
