Data Privacy Day is an initiative of the National Cyber Security Alliance started in 2008 in United States and Canada. Now it is celebrated also in Europe and its purpose is to raise awareness among Internet surfers, social media fans, online gamers, online shoppers…so pretty much all of those who use the Internet, about the importance of their personal information privacy.
We are big fans of data security, so we encourage you to do the following for at least one day OR starting from today:
1. Stop sharing so much personal information on your Facebook, Twitter, Google +, etc. account. Hackers can use that information and you might find out one day your online identity is robbed, your passwords don’t match anymore, or even worse, your bank account is empty. Not to mention the creepy stalkers outside your house, who, of course, found out where you live from Facebook…
2. Change your passwords and do not assume that using the same strong password on all your online accounts is enough. Use alphanumeric passwords, but not “pasword1234″.
3. Use a special card for online transactions. There are options like disposable cards, or weekly withdrawal limits you can set with your bank.
4. Encrypt your data on USB sticks or other portable storage devices. Losing such a small device where you surely have important data is very frustrating. At least no one will be able to access your data once they find your USB stick.
5. Don’t forget about your mobile devices: smartphones and tablets. They need protection as much as your laptop or desktop does. Don’t download suspicious apps and use AdBlock software to avoid annoying popup ads that could also carry malware.
This is it from us, but the guys from National Cyber Security Alliance have more advices and you can find them on:
New victims, same old story…. An unprotected USB stick containing private information of Canadian residents went missing from an office of Human Resources and Skills Development in Gatineau, Quebec.
The drive was storing the names, social insurance numbers, dates of birth and loan balances of 583000 students who had borrowed money between 2000 and 2006.
The internal investigation on the affair started only two months after the discovery of the loss of the stick (Nov. 5th) and a notification was sent to the victims only last Friday.
So the question remains: Are we ever going to learn from others’ mistakes? Especially now that Device Control, Data Loss Prevention and USB encryption software has been around for ages and it’s virtually in everybody’s reach.