Prying Eyes

It’s easy to be paranoid on the web, with hackers on the loose, identity thief’s watching your every move, and  more recently catfishing. When I evaluate my own practices on the internet and compare them to the articles that were assigned, I come to the conclusion that I need to be more proactive in my pursuit of protecting myself from these “invisible” assailants.

In order to protect identity and sensitive information I have created passwords that I deem to be highly secure. I combine different languages and numbers in order to formulate a password though according to the article Why passwords have never been weaker—and crackers have never been stronger programs are making it easier for hackers to crack passwords with the use of programs that combine different words, numbers, and symbols.

I have an antivirus program installed in my computer that alerts me of any fraudulent activity. I have also created to user accounts on my computer, an administrative account and a guest user account–both secured by a password. Although I see myself as a person who is fairly secure on the internet, I do think I should be more vigilant about backing up important files.

Websites like Instagram and Facebook which seem innocent can be a heaven to hackers, since we post so much of our personal lives on there. So, we may think we are safe on the internet but the reality is that we are more vulnerable now than before. It is a time to view our practices online and decide what we are going to change.