New Year’s resolution: 12 months to fix your online security

Everyone loves the New Year. It is a chance for everyone to celebrate another year past with friends and loved ones, look towards a fresh start with a fresh calendar

Everyone loves the New Year. It is a chance for everyone to celebrate another year past with friends and loved ones, look towards a fresh start with a fresh calendar year or everyone’s favorite – setting a New Year’s resolution. You know the thing you say that you will do, but sometimes forget after the second week of the new year?

This year, our team at Kaspersky Lab will challenge you to forego a resolution to lose 20 lbs. or to go back to the gym. Instead, we’ll challenge you to improve your cybersecurity habits. And look, we know resolutions are hard to keep so we offer a single task per month to help you improve without being overwhelmed. Ready? If so, read on and make sure you bookmark the article or share it with your Facebook friends to challenge your friends to avoid becoming easy prey to cybercriminals.

January: let’s start using proper passwords

In the first month of the year you should focus on the first security rule: use unique and reliable passwords for all of your accounts. This simple measure significantly improves your online security. In this post we explain how to invent and memorize good passwords. If you like the combinations you’ve came up with before, don’t forget to check them with the help of our Password checker.

February: adjust the privacy settings for all your social networks

In this cold and gloomy month everybody misses coziness and comfort. The holidays are over, weather is bad, people stay at home and surf Internet. It’s high time to look into the privacy settings of your social networks. We can help you with proper adjustments in Facebook, VK.com and Google+.

March: fortify the security of your online banking

The first quarter comes to an end. Companies file accounts, while ordinary people try to save some money for their summer vacation. It would be nice if nobody steals your savings, that’s why you should secure your online finances.

Here are some recommendations to keep your money safe. Some tips include: why you should use a virtual keyboard when entering passwords and how to distinguish a real online banking site from a fake service. All in all, in a month you should learn how to use your online money securely. This new habit is going to be useful in the rest of the year.

April: adjust privacy settings on your smartphones and tablets

It’s finally sunny!!! Everyone wants to go out but has responsibilities back at the office. That’s why many people work on the go with the help of their mobile devices. In April you’d better make sure that your gadgets are secure. Here you can find our TOP 10 tips how to protect Android devices, and here are our tips for iPhone users.

May: use public Wi-Fi properly

Everybody walks, enjoys warm weather at the newly-opened summer patios and more than likely uses public Wi-Fi. You need to learn how to do it the right way, or you risk leaking your personal data to cybercriminals. In this post we offer some secrets for you to use free Wi-Fi securely.

June: ensure cybersecurity for your vacation

Before going on a vacation, you need to know what you shouldn’t do during a trip. Of course, you’ll need to study laws of the country you are going to, but this is only the beginning. You should also remember not to post the dates and places of your destination and photos of your boarding passes on social networks and don’t brag on the expensive things you’ve bought during the trip. You need to consider every bit of information that you publish on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and all other social networks.

July: use credit cards the right wayCredit cards are vital to our every-day purchasing. They provide comfort and secure access to your purchasing power. The only thing is that fraudsters have found numerous ways to access their victim’s’ credit cards. Before going on a vacation you should find out, what are the main rules of safe credit card usage. Then again, you’ll appreciate these rules everywhere: both at home and on a trip.

August: time to secure your data

Summer is almost over and you come back from holidays with bunches of new photos. If you don’t want to lose your data because of a cyber attack, you should think of making backups. They will also help you a lot, if you accidentally delete a file or find out that your hard drive is broken.

In fact, every user needs to make backups on a regular basis. You can backup your files with the help of Dropbox, Google Drive and other special cloud services, or you can also copy all crucial data to an external media. We recommend you use both methods. In this post you will find out, how to backup your files easily with the help of Kaspersky Total Security.

September: learn how to protect yourself from ransomwareAs Eugene Kaspersky says, “Back to Work!” Cybercriminals look at the end of summer as a prime target to turn refocused and energized people (at home and work) into their prey. One of the most widespread and dangerous threats is ransomware — special programs that lock all data on a PC and extort money for bringing it back to the user. We recommend you to find out how to protect your system from ransomware. We have a special post devoted to this question.

October: let’s protect our personal data from Mad Men

It’s the time for sales: Halloween discounts, traditional sales and all other tricks, which can be invented by the sharp minds of marketing specialists. People go shopping online and offline, and retailers readily gather their private data. Surely, they will do almost everything to increase sales.

You probably would not like it if strangers from Internet shops get your private data and use it as they like. That’s why it’s time to find out how to use the Private Browsing module built into Kaspersky Internet Security (if you haven’t done this before, of course).

November: learning how not to be deceived by phishing

In the end of November shops roll out their mind-blowing Christmas sales starting with Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Cybercriminals are still very active, they are in the middle of the most profitable season. It is very important to keep cool and remember about different frauds, and at first instance – about good old phishing. If you don’t want to take the bait, you need to know why phishing works and how to avoid it.

December: install security software

We have only one last thing to recommend. If you still have no security solution, you should install it on your PC and the devices of your family members. Security is a big thing and a good gift. By the way, you don’t need to wait the whole year for that. You can start right now!

All in all, if you are planning on turning over a new leaf in 2016, you should think of learning these cybersecurity rules. They will be of good for you moving forward.Lastly we’d like to wish you an amazing 2016!

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