Don't Get Hacked!

You’re worth a fortune to cyber criminals, so it’s time to batten down the hatches and make it harder for them to hack you.

- David Ludlow

It’s practically impossible not to get hacked at some point. Your user accounts and data are worth a fortune to cyber criminals – for ransom, for sending spam, for installing malware and more – making the internet a dangerous place to go. It’s nigh on impossible to avoid all threats. As big breaches have shown, such as the attacks on TalkTalk, Yahoo! and Dropbox, even if the security on your PC is top-notch, your details can still get stolen.

Approaching the problem means looking at things in a different way. While it’s still important to have the best security software on your computer (see page 90 for our group test), you need to think about how you deal with anything outside of your PC and, possibly, outside of your direct control. What’s important is that you do everything you can to make sure that a breach in one service can’t compromise every other internet account that you own.

Proper planning, careful thought and quick reactions to any breach can limit any damage done, and prevent cyber criminals from being able to exploit your data. We reveal every tip and trick we know to avoid hackers in the first place. We’ll also show you how to detect a breach and lock your PC down before any serious damage can occur.

CREATE MANAGE SECURE PASSWORDS

HAVING TROUBLE CREATING AND KEEPING TRACK OF ALL YOUR PASSWORDS? HERE ARE A FEW TIPS

Don’t use simple, easy-to-guess passwords (see ‘The dangers of common passwords’, opposite), and don’t re-use the same passwords across every site. Both of these scenarios leave you wide open to further exploitation, particularly for services that don’t support two-factor authentication.

Ideally, you should use long, hard-to guess passwords that are unique for each site. That way, a breach of one password no longer has an impact elsewhere.