Data Privacy Day - Simple steps to secure your online world.
It’s the start of a new year coming back to our work desks, and clearing out emails and notifications. It’s a perfect time to tighten up your data security and privacy so you’re not at risk of any data breaches and security threats.
Imagine you’re sitting on the train, enjoying your commute and working on your laptop before you get into the office or attending a client meeting. As you’re typing away, engrossed in a project, someone casually glances over your shoulder and starts reading your emails and personal messages on the screen.
You’d be angry, upset and frustrated that your personal space and privacy have been violated. Something very similar can happen online.
Personal information such as email addresses, passwords, and digital footprint is shared or stored online.
Data Privacy Day exists to remind everyone of the importance of how to keep our personal data safe and protected. Held every year on the 28th of January, it brings people together to reassess their data privacy and to help tighten parts of their digital footprint that lack security features.
So what is Data Privacy Day?
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe initiated the day in 2006. It is celebrated worldwide and helps people understand how their personal data is collected and shared and how it can sometimes be misused. It is also an important reminder to businesses to take care of the information they store about customers and clients.
Four reasons why you should care about data privacy?
You might think what's the harm in someone knowing my birthday or email address? But even the smallest bits of personal information can be used in ways you might not expect.
- Prevention of identity theft
If personal information is in the wrong hands, hackers and scammers can use it maliciously. You could be at risk of identity fraud, theft and/or harassment.
- It helps protect you and your loved ones from security attacks.
- It gives you the power of how organisations can use your personal data.
- You will be complying with regulations
In the UK we need to adhere to strict protection laws and regulations. The data protection is governed by the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). This is in place to ensure the privacy of people’s data.
As we are an accredited Cyber Essentials Plus company, here are a few tips to take control of your data:
- Strong passwords
It may be cliche and something you hear all the time but It is very important to frequently update and strengthen your passwords regularly for an extra layer of protection. Use a mix of letters, numbers and symbols to create something unique. Top tip, consider using password managers to manage your digital footprint (LastPass or Norton for example)
- Turn on the two-step authentication.
Enable this feature to add an extra barrier to unauthorised access. This important factor provides an extra layer of security by asking for a second step of authentication to verify your identity, such as a PIN code sent by SMS or email.
- Stay alert
Avoid clicking on suspicious links as scammers often send fake links pretending to be from trusted businesses. Never share personal information unless you’re certain it’s safe. Learn how search engines work, how they handle your data and what rights and responsibilities you have as a user.
- Keep your devices up to date
Update your devices frequently, software updates aren’t just about new features, they fix security issues too. By updating your devices you are keeping up to date with the latest security features for those devices.
What about businesses?
As we have touched upon individual data security, Data Privacy Day is also a wake-up call for businesses.
At Hive IT, we take cyber security very seriously. That's why we submit for our Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation each year, a government-backed certification scheme that helps keep businesses and customers safe.
It has been reported that businesses experienced 7.7 million cyber crimes over the past year which is around half of all businesses in the UK.
The Cyber Essentials accreditation demonstrates as an organisation that we are implementing the most important security measures to prevent security threats. We go a step further and accredit in Cyber Essentials Plus each year, which is a technical audit of our systems and devices. The audit covers our devices, all Internet gateways, and all servers with services accessible to the Internet. We do this to ensure that our systems, business and employees are secure.
By auditing and assessing our systems each year it benefits our employees as it gives them an increased awareness of possible cyber threats which can help us reduce risk levels. It makes sure that our employees are able to work in a more secure environment with improved security measures and makes sure all their systems and devices are always kept up to date.
This Data Privacy Day take some time to assess and check your digital security. Are your devices up to date with the latest security updates? Have you been using the same password since high school and use that password for every online account you have?
Implementing these small security measures will make your digital and online presence much safer for yourself and others.