Data security has been a major problem in the whole world since the introduction of computers. The developed counties have come up with various mechanisms and measures to curb the people involved in cybercrimes, but they have not all succeeded. Online criminals have very little regard for how they get data and for how long it will take them to acquire that personal information to use it in various malicious and harmful activities known to them.

Hackers use several methods to get information including social media to grasp people’s sensitive information, hacking tools and software activities to access people’s and organization’s systems to get sensitive information. This problem has been common to those individuals and organizations who in one way or another transact through the internet. Various sites are created each and every day by imposters purporting to be international based companies selling their products and services online, but in real sense they only need access to one’s personal and very sensitive information to use for personal gain.

Measures and penalties may be put in place to curb these activities but no one will be charged or arraigned in court simply because they will never be implemented all over the whole world. Security for one’s personal information starts with the individual themselves. One is supposed to protect his/her information with a password which should be private and confidential.

There are various ways of how one can protect his/her information online, and make sure that we don’t expose our sensitive and personal information to other malicious individuals around the world. The guidelines below should therefore help you to protect your information online;

• Check for trusted web certificates. Before giving out your sensitive information to any site, check whether a website is viable by trying to verify their list of trusted certificates of security and properly Secured Sockets Layer technology on the website. For any legitimate business selling online, there must be proof of trusted certificates. If none is found then you should be suspicious and skeptical in providing your private details.
• Take care of your social profile. Most people will open their profiles to anyone. Anyone who leaves his/her social profiles open, are inviting possible threats from cyber criminals who upon getting your close information can easily invade your privacy and your information taken without your consent.
• When you want to buy any product or service online, make sure that the contacts of the customer service of the given site is given and that one can chat online with them and ask a few questions to be given some assurance. If you find the contacts given are not genuine or no customer service then do not give out your personal details at all.
• Regularly check firewall status. Before going to the internet, confirm your firewall from your machine as well as installed antivirus software such as Norton or MacAfee is on. Firewalls are important in preventing any malicious software that intends to access information without any consent.  There is a number of fake software which is meant to steal people’s sensitive and more personal information. Most people complain that browsing on an open firewall is slow. If you fall into this category it is wise of you to know that prevention of risks associated with lack of firewall are more serious than most people think about.

Author Bio: Article was provided by Kate Pirs, who is working in a team of mobile phone spy software developers. You can learn more about web security on our site!