Safeguard Your Data from Cybercrimes

By 2025, cybersecurity will be a $10.5 trillion business, largely in response to the rampant cybercrime that’s increasing every day, impacting businesses, governments and individuals.1

“The great thing is it’s all 100% solvable,” said Chris Pierson, who runs a concierge cybersecurity and privacy platform and spoke to clients at our In the Lead 2022 event.

Privacy control is in your hands

There are measures you can take today to protect yourself and your devices from cyber criminals.

First, turn off public access to any unnecessary personal information on your devices. On an iPhone, go to settings -> privacy -> and then toggle off ‘Allow Apps to Request to Track’. Toggled off, this setting automatically denies all tracking requests from new apps. This reduces the amount of activity data that is accessible to companies and phone providers and limits the ability of companies to collect your user data and share it with data brokers.

Second, turn off location tracking or set limits on when an app can monitor your approximate location. On an iphone, go to settings -> privacy -> location services and choose ‘While Using’ or ‘Never’ on each app listed below.

You can also toggle off location tracking entirely, but that setting makes it difficult to use maps, ride-sharing and other location-based apps.

Chris recommended assessing the risk of any new app you’re downloading to avoid sharing your details with unsecured apps and developers.

“Furthermore, if you have installed apps you don’t use regularly, you can delete them and be less susceptible to hackers,” he said.

Cyber criminals buy and sell people’s data on the dark web and it’s possible some of your personal information is already available publicly. While you can’t change that reality, you can limit outside access to additional personal information.

Chris recommended setting up dual-factor authentication (2FA) or multi-factor authentication for every account you have on every device. 2FA requires two methods of authentication, such as facial recognition and a text code, to log you in. This security measure adds another barrier for a criminal attempting to hack an account, as they would need your text messages and your physical cell phone to confirm the 2FA code and gain entry.

Guard the doors and windows to your digital life

Implementing 2FA across your devices ensures you’re safer in your physical home as well, since many home security systems rely on digital access to function properly. Your home is a massive computer with numerous digital access points. Those access points, such as your laptop, video doorbell and wifi router, are essentially the doors and windows into your digital life.

This is especially true if you have a smart home, where entire areas are connected through wifi, Bluetooth technology and the Internet of Things (IoT). In a smart home, every object that can operate online is able to “talk” to other internet-enabled objects, including appliances, lights and heating systems. These objects create a central information hub that makes your home especially susceptible to outside interference since it can be hacked from multiple entry points.

You can safeguard your digital home life by checking for any devices in your living space that include camera features. Log in to ensure the cameras are password protected and not openly streaming the live content of your home via the internet.

Chris also suggests taking proactive steps to anticipate security breaches, including:

• Protecting and reinforcing your home networks.
• Checking if your security systems are viewable online.
• Installing anti-malware protection on all devices.
• Securing any of your home’s automation features.
• Disable recording settings on home assistants.

Stay on top of new settings and features

Companies are increasingly aware of consumer’s preferences for privacy — Apple, for example, only rolled out its app tracking transparency in April of 2021 — so make sure you are updating device settings and exploring features to keep your data private.2 This can reduce your chances of experiencing cybercrime, as can assessing the new capabilities of any device you purchase. While there is always risk online, proactive security precautions to preempt any attacks will give you peace of mind and understanding how to protect yourself from external threats is already a significant improvement in safeguarding your data.

1. https://cybersecurityventures.com/cybercrime-damage-costs-10-trillion-by-2025/
2. https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/26/apples-app-tracking-transparency-feature-has-arrived-heres-what-you-need-to-know/