The internet is now a massive presence in our lives – at home, at work, and in public. Children in the modern era need to be educated about the dangers of the internet, as they will be using it throughout their lives for pretty much everything. Teaching your kids about cyber safety from a young age is crucial in the modern era. Here is everything you need to know about keeping your family safe when surfing the web.
Have Different Passwords For Everything
Your passwords are a crucial part of cyber hygiene. Your passwords need to be strong and have a lot of different characters in order to make them harder to guess. Furthermore, if you use the same passwords for all of your accounts, you put yourself at a very high risk of a cyber attack. This is because once a cybercriminal gets into one of your accounts, he’s got into them all if your passwords are all the same. Make sure to create different passwords for everything to protect your data.
Teach Your Children Cyber Safety
One of the best things you can do in order to prepare your children to use the internet is to teach them cyber safety from a young age. Making sure that your kids know that they shouldn’t share their personal details with people online is crucial for keeping them safe. They should also know never to share their passwords or anything like that with people online. Now that many of today’s kids will end up in careers in web design and SEO, they should be aware of cyber safety from a young age in order to prepare them for the future.
Use A VPN
Installing a VPN on your devices is one of the best things you can do to protect your children when they’re surfing the web. A VPN stands for virtual private network and securely connects your devices to an internet server meaning that no one can hack into your devices to monitor your activity or steal your data. This is completely legal, and one of the best ways you can keep your internal network safe. There are many VPN providers on the market that provides excellent protection without breaking the bank, so make sure that you start comparing providers today!
Backup Your Data
If a cybercriminal or virus infects your home devices, you could find that all of your data is lost. If your kids regularly use your personal computer that has work on it, you need to be backing up your data. If your children accidentally download a virus, all of your precious data could be lost. Make it a habit to regularly back up your data on a pen drive or the Cloud, so that you have a second copy of your precious data. You should also teach your kids about the importance of backing up data, so they will continue the good habit into adulthood.
Install 2-Factor Authentication
2-Factor Authentication is one of the best things to install if your home has a lot of smart devices. Smart devices could include a smart thermostat, smart fridge, speaker, and much more. 2-Factor authentication would require both a password and a code that will be sent to an external device every time you want to log in. While this seems long-winded, it could protect your home devices significantly as it will stop cybercriminals from getting into your devices if your passwords are compromised. If your home is powered on smart devices, this should definitely be something to consider.
Make Sure You’re On A Legitimate Website
Teaching your children how to recognise legitimate websites is a key part of cyber security. Unfortunately, cybercriminals are very clever in their methods to scam people. They can duplicate websites to look like already legitimate websites, and only small changes like the URL structure can reveal this trick. These scam websites will then steal your data. Teaching your kids to recognise scam websites by teaching them the importance of URL structure and web design is essential if you want to help your kids have great cyber hygiene whilst surfing the web.
Install Cyber Security Software
Taking the time to make sure that all of your home devices are adequately protected by installing cyber security software and making sure it is all up-to-date is essential for keeping your kids safe online. There are many cyber security services available that provide great software and training that will help you protect your home’s devices from malware and hacks. Some of these services can even provide internal tracking, so they can see any attempts to infiltrate your devices. Now that cybercriminals are getting more savvy in their methods to steal from you, you need to protect your devices by installing fantastic software.