online security of our private information and data is necessary. I do not feel comfortable that sites like facebook track what I do even when not on their site. Lucky for me I quit and removed my account several years ago. Protecting ourselves online to some degree isn’t talked about enough. Here I will discuss what forms of security I currently use and what I plan to do to change it.
As of today, I currently have a bluebook on a private external hard drive that has an encrypted database with usernames, passwords, and emails to website accounts I use regularly. In addition to keeping important pictures of family and friends on my external hard drive. For me having them in one place for safekeeping makes me feel at ease. I have poor memory, so keeping up with every website and account is impossible.I have 2 different anti-virus and web protections programs and a VPN. I don’t use the VPN regularly as some sites for school and work require I use certain browsers. use of a VPN requires a paid subscription. Currently, I’ve been pretty lax about the amount of security I put for myself. At worst I have automatic login for online shopping and at best I change my passwords from old accounts to updated stronger ones. While I am worried about being hacked, I do feel like it’s inevitable. Passwords for me are typically long and have a variety of numbers, letters, and symbols. Which strangely isn’t common. I do this as I have gotten an old email hacked. luckily for me, it was an account I no longer use. My view makes is harder for hackers and put a solid barrier to what is important to you and what’s important to hackers to gain access.
Where I could improve upon is to stop using automatic log-in’s and use a search engine that gives me privacy. I rely too much on engines like google for simple searches. I could also renew my VPN subscription. Most importantly research how organizations use my data. I think I’ve been hesitant to improve because there is that feeling of it that will happen anyway. Mostly due to the lack of trust I have in organizations and platforms. We have seen breaches happen again and again but little to no effort to make customers and users feel safe. there is little safety net for us. While settlements might give some financial relief, but the emotional strain and overall distrust never really goes away. Feelings of exposure and violated loom about. I always feel vulnerable even when I feel like I did what I could on my part but how much are organizations making sure they are fully doing there part? That feeling of distrust and at-risk never really go away, when so often breached happen.
while I don’t think it’s necessary to scrub your data clean and go off the grid. I think evaluating what more you can do to give you the ease of mind when online.
