Checking in on socials or ordering stuff online has become second nature for most of us. And while being able to learn or acquire anything at the tap of a screen is awesome, it also makes us less wary of the dangers that threaten our peaceful online existences. Here are the five common ones you shouldn’t dismiss and what you can do to prevent or neutralize them.
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Weak Passwords
Passwords should be a good security measure, but if not taken seriously, they can actually make your accounts less safe. The average person has to handle an increasing number of passwords, yet our memory isn’t getting any better.
So what do people do? They use passwords like “QWERTY” or change a number in an existing password and call it a day. This is ineffective since short and well-known passwords get cracked in no time. Worse yet, once that password starts floating around on the dark web, someone will eventually try it with services like TikTok or Slack. If the passwords match, that unimportant account you’d forgotten about becomes the cause for a major headache.
Password managers do the remembering for you. They’ll come up with long, one-of-a-kind passwords and safely store them. Better yet, they can autofill those annoying input fields across all your devices, making password management set and forget yet secure.
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Going Online on Unsafe Networks
You’re on vacation or out with friends, and there’s free Wi-Fi in every café and bar you pass. Convenient, but also more risky than you realize. Public Wi-Fi networks aren’t as secure as mobile internet or Ethernet back home, so they’re easy to compromise or even fake. There’s a real possibility that connecting to one could let someone track what you’re doing online or even intercept messages and data if you’re not sending them securely.
For example, NordVPN’s threat protection addresses this glaring security gap by enveloping your connection in an encrypted tunnel. A snoop monitoring the network might still register activity, but they won’t know whether you’re chatting with friends, shopping online, or playing a game.
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Old Devices and Software
Every product has a shelf life, tech included. Developers might keep your phone or favorite game alive longer than a jar of pesto sauce through regular updates, but once these run out, it’s best to look elsewhere.
For example, Windows 10 officially ends support in October of 2025. No new features will be added, and security patches will stop after a year. That means hackers are free to discover and exploit vulnerabilities we don’t know about yet, and no one will fix them.
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Not Backing Up Your Data
What do treasured photo albums, important work documents, and save files for that game you love that’s too obscure for Steam have in common? They can all disappear just like that if a virus erases the data on your device or malware locks it up.
Get into the habit of creating and updating backups of the important stuff. Keep one in the cloud and one on an offline physical drive. That way, you can easily restore everything even if your devices get damaged or stolen.
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Falling for Social Engineering Scams
Social engineering is perhaps the most dangerous risk on the list. Whether through good old phishing or social media, it’s becoming more frequent and harder to spot now that cyber crooks are augmenting their scams with AI.
Knowledge and some common sense still go a long way, though. Email urgently asking for your password or credit card details to restore an account? Most likely phishing. A once-in-a-lifetime crypto investment opportunity just for you? Yep, another scam. Keep an eye on new social engineering tricks and trust your gut if an interaction feels off.
Sometimes that’s not enough, especially if you believe compromising information about you might already be out there. You don’t want an overdraft notice on your bank account to be the first news you hear in such situations. Luckily, there are the coolest identity theft protection services that offer peace of mind.
They’ll monitor the dark web for any mention of info like your login credentials, SSN, etc., and alert you if any of it is used to open new accounts or gets leaked on shady underground websites. Identity theft protection services can also help with recovery efforts and setting the record straight.
