Safeguarding Your Data - Part 2

If you missed part 1 of this article you can read it by going to the web links provided at the end of this article.

What Is My Data?

Part 1 of this article dealt with financial insurance records. This article will deal with Cloud Email.

Cloud Email:

This is an area where it is quite common for me to see total data loss due to hacking. The Achilles heels of cloud based emails such as Gmail and Hotmail are:

1.      There is no backup of the email accounts.

2.      Once it has been hacked, the hacker may encrypt the emails and demand a ransom for their return.  There is no way to undo the ransom hack attack.

3.      By residing on the cloud the email account is subject to hack attacks 24 hours a day 365 days a year from anywhere by anyone.

Action Required:

1.      Download any important attachments to your computer and follow the two copy rule (I’ll outline the two copy rule later).

2.      Save important emails to your local computer and/or print them.

3.      Avoid leaving sensitive data on your cloud based email. Work on the premise that at some point a hacker will gain access to it. So once you have secured a copy of the emails then delete the sensitive emails.

4.      If you are using an apple device make sure that your email and contacts are included in the cloud backup.

Two Copy Rule: This is where you have at least two independent copies of data in separate or different locations or devices. In a pc example your email would be backed up to the cloud and a local hard drive or usb.   

My personal recommendation is NOT to include the cloud in the count so you should have two other backup devices AND the cloud.

My next article will continue on this topic.

Oliver Reidy is a computer technician and has been in the industry since 1981.You can contact him via email at help.desk@reidyonline.com or at the telephone numbers listed on this page. This article, and all previous articles, are available to view online at http://reidyonline.blogspot.ie/ or www.reidyonline.com/blogspot.htm

Safeguarding Your Data

Safeguard Your Data

By the time you read this article it will be 2019 and no doubt some fresh data breech will have been announced, hand wringing performed, perfuse apologies given, and promises that it won’t happen again issued. The truth, as we all know, is this is far from the truth. Which begs the question who is responsible for my safeguarding my data? The answer is simple: It’s you !  In this accidental digital world we live in you must take action and the time to protect and safeguard you data. The consequences of ignoring it are really very simple – you’ll lose it. Over the next few articles will outline data profiles and some steps you can take to safeguard it

What Is My Data?

Start with the question “what is my data?” and you are on the road to safeguarding it. The average person’s data is spread across multiple devices, networks, computers, and held by many institutions. When it comes to locations outside your control the most important element is to maintain a duplicate, where possible, of what they hold. To help those confused by that the following is a list of data, more will follow in the next articles:

Financial and Insurance records – Account numbers, passwords, policy numbers, access passwords, balances etc.

• Action Required: Ensure you have paper and digital copies of this information in a secured location such a home safe or other hidden location.

Your local digital copy should be, at a minimum, stored in a file which is password protected and where possible encrypted. A usb flash drive that can be hidden is a good idea as a storage location.

 The data includes in the case of your banking, direct debit mandates, credit card numbers including expiration and security code, and emergency number for lost, stolen, or hacked accounts.

• Financial Access passwords: Change your passwords frequently where possible and NEVER use the same password on more than one site or app. Record previously used passwords and do NOT re-use them.

   

If your financial institution offers double authentication use it. Double authentication is where the website sends a code to your phone which you must use in combination with your password and login information to login.

In my next article I will continue on this topic. Stay Safe and happy new year!