Before it becomes cozy with family and friends at Christmas, it is often the case that big online shopping and bargain hunting is the order of the day. Unfortunately, this time of year is also very popular with cybercriminals to steal financial data or to violate your privacy via phishing or other scams.
But don't
worry. Today I'm going to introduce you to five tools you can use to
protect your data in the run-up to Christmas - and on all other days of the
year too.
Secure and Data Protection Compliant Email
Having a
secure, ad-free email service isn't just a wise decision during the holidays. Many
major email providers like Gmail or Yahoo! scan your emails to show you
targeted advertisements. This is not only annoying, but it also means passing
on your personal data to third parties.
To keep your data and email content protected and private, switching to a
commercial and secure email provider is recommended. Such
providers pursue a fundamentally different business model. Instead of
funding yourself from advertising revenue, you pay a small fee for the service
and in return, you get more security and privacy.
Tip: Use an email
alias to protect your privacy.
In the run-up to Christmas, large discounts, special offers, and bargains are often
offered when shopping online. You "only" have to register with
your e-mail address. Instead of using your regular e-mail address, you
should use an e-mail alias here. This has the following advantages:
· You can easily delete an alias if you no longer need it (disposable e-mail address).
· You can define your own filter rules (folder) for e-mails received via an alias.
Many
secure e-mail providers allow you to create a certain number of aliases for
your main account by default.
Safe Browsers
As with
the free e-mail services, third-party web browsers can also be used to collect
data. Many websites and advertising networks use cookies and trackers
(tracking tools) to collect data about your browsing history and your surfing
behavior and then show you targeted advertising
Browsers are also a popular attack vector that hackers like to abuse or
use to infect with malware. In addition to the history of visited pages,
private data can also be stored in the browser, for example for automatically
filling out forms or access data for websites. (Tip: Don't save passwords
in your browser, use a secure password
manager instead .)
If you want to be sure that your data remains protected when you do your
Christmas shopping online, use a secure browser. A
great tool is Mozilla Firefox. It
offers a lot of setting options and can be easily adapted to your individual
data protection requirements. Another privacy-designed browser with
built-in tracking protection is Brave. Chrome may be popular, but
it's not the best solution from a privacy perspective. Google uses it to
collect your browser history, open tabs, names of downloaded files, IP
addresses, URLs entered for automatic completion, and much more.
There are
also some useful security and privacy add-ons for browsers. These include,
for example, Cookie Autodelete, Privacy Badger, uBlock Origin, and HTTPS
Everywhere. Be careful, however, and do your research before installing
any third-party add-ons.
VPN
A VPN -
virtual private network - is also an indispensable tool for your Christmas
shopping and when using public WLAN access. With a VPN you connect your
device to a VPN server via a secure, encrypted "tunnel". This
option offers numerous advantages - from security and data protection to
discounts and anonymization of your location.
If you use public
WLAN access, for example in cafés and hotels or at airports, a VPN service is
definitely recommended. As already explained in this blog post, there are numerous dangers
in public WLAN networks, such as man-in-the-middle attacks, the reading of
network traffic, and malware in general. Network administrators and third
parties can also collect browser history data for any user who uses this
network without protection. With a VPN, all your data traffic is
encrypted, which means that your information and online activities are no
longer traceable to third parties.
Another interesting advantage of VPN is the (virtual) change of location. By
connecting to any VPN server in the network, you assume its location via its IP
address. In this way, you can not only anonymize your own location but
also, use the other IP address to secure discounts on hotel or flight
reservations bought online (keyword: price differentiation ).
Some of the larger VPN providers I have reviewed, such as ExpressVPN and NordVPN, offer user-friendly apps for all major
operating systems and devices. You can even include your router in a VPN
if you want the data traffic of all devices in your network to be encrypted.
But that doesn't make VPNs a silver bullet. They are just another
useful tool for giving you extra security and privacy online. As this study shows, it can happen with free VPN solutions as well as with free e-mail
services that your private data is read. So do some research before you
choose a VPN provider.
Antivirus Software
Another important tool is the antivirus to stay protected from ransomware, banking trojans, botnets, and other threats during the holidays.
There are many ways in which malware can infect your computer. However,
during the holiday season, malicious files attached to electronic greeting
cards are very popular. According to a report by Verizon, 66% of malware is installed
through an email attachment. This means that email remains one of the most
popular attack methods.
This is
where an updated and trustworthy antivirus solution can provide the crucial
protection. Even if you do open the malicious attachment, the software
will intervene and protect your computer from infection.
As important as
antivirus software may be for your security, compromises in data protection are
sometimes necessary. As new types of threats are constantly emerging, it
is common practice for many antivirus programs to exchange user data with the developer
in real-time. So, in theory, antivirus providers can, among other things,
track every website you visit or collect metadata about your computer. You
can also find more information about this in this article.
Fortunately, you don't necessarily have to choose between privacy and
security. With Protegent360, both are guaranteed.
Ad Blockers
Aside
from being annoying and consuming bandwidth, online advertising can also
compromise your privacy and security.
Privacy - Advertising
is not just about selling you something. It is also great for collecting
data. Online advertisements and trackers are often fed in via third-party
domains that collect data about you to create personal user profiles. This
includes information about your location, your browsing history, your
interests, your income, and your family and friends. Online advertising
could therefore also be seen as digital surveillance cameras.
Security - Since, as As already mentioned, advertising is brought in via third-party domains, it can
also easily be exploited to spread malware if the advertising domain has been
compromised or hijacked by hackers. It doesn't even require clicking a
link. Just loading a web page can be enough to execute malicious code. The
combination of advertising and malware (so-called malvertising ) is becoming an ever-greater
threat and has already hit well-known websites such as the New York
Times and the BBC.
With a good ad blocker, you can provide even more security and privacy while conserving your bandwidth and speeding up the loading of pages. The easiest solution to blocking ads and trackers is to install a browser extension like uBlock Origin. As previously indicated, the Brave browser blocks ads and trackers by default.
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