With news of a major breakthrough occurring almost every week this year, it can be difficult to tell if your data is secure, as hackers constantly seek to track users' activity, steal their data or deceive them to reveal sensitive information for financial gain.
Unfortunately, most people do not know that they have been hacked until it is too late, so with frequent cybercrime you should check the network vulnerabilities you use constantly to secure yourself from hacker attacks, and protect your online privacy.
Here are 5 ways to help you verify the security of your Internet connection:
1. Test your firewall for vulnerabilities:
Firewall is an important tool to keep your devices safe, even if hackers know your location and IP address, your firewall prevents them from accessing your operating system, network, and can help prevent malware from spreading.
Windows and MacOS have built-in firewalls to identify incoming and outgoing Internet ports.There are also many third-party programs that outperform these built-in programs in terms of features and ease of use.
Hire a service like: ShieldUp! To check the security of the firewall on your devices, if your firewall does not provide you with the necessary protection, it is worth trying a more secure firewall.
2- Testing the strength of your antivirus software:
Antivirus software scans files as soon as they are downloaded, and blocks files that are suspected to be viruses to ensure that there are no malicious files that may infect the operating system.Therefore, it should be verified that they are working properly.Weak antivirus software will not detect threats as they arise. May expose you to a security threat.
To test your antivirus software on your computer, you can download an EICAR file, as the EICAR files are not originally harmful, but antivirus software detects them as if they were a virus. You can also compress it in a ZIP file to try to hide it from your antivirus software.This is a great way to test your antivirus without exposing your computer to actual threats.
3. Verify sites protocol while browsing:
You can see if your website uses HTTPS by looking at the URL; it should start with “HTTPS” if your connection is secure, and some web browsers may display an icon next to the address bar to notify you of your data encoding, for example Google Chrome will show a lock Small to let you know that the site uses HTTPS, or a red marker for unencrypted sites that use HTTP.
When you sign in to any website, be sure to check the protocol it uses.If it uses HTTPS, it is secure and you can log in.For more security, you can use the HTTPS Everywhere extension that lets you encrypt your connections with several major sites, making Internet browsing more Secure, available for most popular web browsers.
4. Secure the router:
Your router is the main hub of Internet connectivity in your home, making it a major target for hackers to steal data or steal Internet bandwidth, slowing down your Internet speed and consuming more data. Therefore, securing it is important for everyone.
Make sure your home wireless network is encrypted using WPA2 AES, and it only takes about 30 seconds to activate the encryption protocol in your router settings. All you have to do is go to your router's security settings, and next to Network authentication Be sure to activate the WPA2 security standard.
If this is not available, choose the WPA standard, but do not use the WEP standard because it is weak and can be easily compromised even by novice hackers.
Once you set the WPA2 / WPA security standard, make sure you use AES encryption instead of TKIP, because AES is more up-to-date and secure, and most importantly when WPA2 is activated, make sure you use a strong password, which is hard to guess from third parties.
For more security, many routers come with a default SSID that can carry the brand name or model, and if hackers know what type of router you have, it will be easier for them to hack it, so the default SSID must be changed.
5. Verify the VPN service:
VPN (virtual network) services allow you to automatically encrypt your data, especially when using public Wi-Fi networks, Internet banking, or other sites that contain private data.
If you are using a VPN service, you can check its strength using the IP Leak service, which allows you to check your connection to make sure your VPN connection is secure, does not detect your real data while using the Internet, and if you visit a website without a VPN service, it will display All the information about your device's IP address, and your locations, as shown in the following image:
