Introduction to Digital Security

Why is digital security important?
In today’s world, digital technologies have become an integral part of our lives. We store personal information, financial data, work documents, and much more on our devices. However, as technology advances, so do the threats. Cybercriminals exploit vulnerabilities in systems and human carelessness to steal data, money, or gain access to private accounts. Information security has long been of the utmost importance, because having information about a person can either elevate them or destroy them. For example, by knowing the weaknesses of a country’s president, intelligence agencies can exert pressure on him…

Common Online Threats

Phishing attacks: attempts to trick you into providing confidential information.

Viruses and malware: They can steal data or damage devices or the information stored on them.

Account hacking: due to weak passwords or unreliable authentication.

Phishing sites: created to steal payment information or to deceive users (as part of phishing).

The goal is to help you understand how to protect yourself, your data, and your work-related information from digital threats. We’ll go over the basic rules and recommendations for staying safe online.

Internet Safety

Website Security Protocols Before entering personal information or making an online payment, check to see if the website uses the secure HTTPS protocol. The padlock icon next to the URL and the SSL certificate indicate that the connection is secure (but there are exceptions: shady websites may have their own certificate issued by an unauthorized authority and only mimic security—they typically use a basic level of encryption, and clicking on the lock icon will trigger warnings). The absence of such protection on a website that is otherwise known to be reliable poses a risk of traffic hijacking (your login and password being stolen during authentication, or cookies being sent to other sites), or even simply the replacement of images with ones that benefit the attacker. That’s why, for example, Facebook uses its own resources and won’t let you log in if it detects that the connection isn’t direct but goes through an unsafe intermediary.

Use secure Wi-Fi networks (such as those in cafes when working on a laptop)
Avoid using public Wi-Fi networks for important activities (you can share your phone’s internet connection via Wi-Fi).
If necessary, use a VPN to protect your data from interception (but keep in mind that the quality of these services varies, so be sure to choose a reliable solution).

Phishing via websites
Carefully check website URLs. Scammers often create websites that look similar to well-known services but have different domains (for example, google-secure-login.com instead of google.com).
Even small websites may offer registration, and their administrators, once they have your username (email address) and password, may try to use them to gain access—if not to your email—then to popular websites where you may have registered using that same email address.

Email Security

How to Avoid Phishing Emails
Never open suspicious emails from unknown senders.
Do not click on links in emails if you are unsure of their origin.

Signs of dangerous emails
Grammatical errors or strange phrases.
Urgency with a demand for immediate action.
Strange sender addresses (for example, support@bank-secure-123.com).

The Dangers of Attachments
Do not open attachments in .zip, .exe, or even .pdf format if they seem suspicious.
Use antivirus software to scan attached files before opening them, even if they come from trusted senders.
Even a trusted sender’s account may have been compromised or infected with a virus that is sending emails on their behalf (in such cases, you should contact them via other available means of communication to report the emails and, if you have any suspicions, verify that the email was sent with their authorization).

Social Media and Messaging Apps

How to Avoid Scams on Facebook and Other Social Media Platforms
Ignore messages from “customer support” asking you to enter your account information or threatening that your business—whether it’s an account, page, group, or profile—has violated some rules and that you need to urgently click a link to their fake website. 1) If there were a violation, Facebook would have blocked you first, and then you’d have to explain that you’re not a camel; 2) If Facebook sends you a message at all, it’s only to say that your ad budget has run out—top it up or add another payment method in Ads Manager; 3) if there are any violations at all, they’d be minor (like local laws regarding alcohol sales or similar), and warnings would appear in the business profile’s admin panel, not in your messages, 4) even just clicking a link in such a phishing comment usually leads to a shortened URL that redirects to code designed to steal all your browser cookies—so even if you didn’t manually enter anything into forms on the fake site after clicking the link, you still need to change your passwords not only for this social network but for all sites visited from that device (especially if you also use password autofill in your browser).
If your business runs any giveaways for followers, fake accounts using your business’s logo and name might message them about a win and urge them to click a link immediately—I think that’s clear enough…
Don’t click on suspicious links, even if they’re sent by people you know (their accounts might have been hacked, or they might have a virus).

Phishing in Messaging Apps
Scammers may send links that lead to fake login pages or infected websites. Always check where a link leads. Make sure it doesn’t redirect you multiple times to other addresses. Even legitimate websites can contain viruses when a specific group of users is only partially redirected—such viruses can be difficult to detect.

The Dangers of Apps and Files
Only install apps from official app stores (Google Play, App Store), although this is not a guarantee of safety (an app might pretend to be useful, it might be compromised, or the website through which it operates—or the server itself—might have been compromised; therefore, choose popular apps).
Do not download files from unknown contacts or unverified websites.

Fraud in Financial Transactions

Fake payment pages for
: Before entering your payment information, check the URL and the SSL certificate. Do not trust websites that look suspicious.

ATM Invitation Scammers may ask you to perform certain actions at an ATM to receive a “transfer.” This is a scam that could result in the loss of your funds. Although people are used to ATMs dispensing cash, they also have features that allow you to manually make transfers from your card to the recipient’s card.

Using two-factor authentication
Add another layer of security to your accounts. For example, verification via SMS or apps like Google Authenticator. While Google Authenticator is generally quite secure, you should be careful not to lose the recovery codes on the website where you activate this protection; SMS messages can be intercepted if you’re in an uncontrolled environment—for example, in a crowded public place where a suspicious van has been parked for a long time, or in a public establishment, or during an interrogation by intelligence agencies where you’re asked to open the app—in most cases, they have a local station that mimics a mobile network operator, intercepts data, and can send fake or duplicate messages.

Creating and Managing Passwords

Why Strong Passwords Are Important
Weak passwords are one of the main causes of account hacks. Use complex combinations of characters, numbers, and letters.
Simply adding an exclamation point, two exclamation points, or a dollar sign to your password doesn’t make it secure. If a criminal steals a set of your passwords from your browser’s saved passwords or cookies, they’ll be able to figure out the pattern you used to create them.

How to Create a Strong Password

Example: G8kL$z9#Yp.
Use reliable password managers to remember complex passwords.
Keep your master passwords in a secure place that isn’t connected to the internet—you can write them down with a pen on paper or carve them into a rock)))

Avoid Reusing Passwords
Create a unique password for each account so that if one account is compromised, it doesn’t lead to access to your other accounts.

Software and Devices

Install only verified apps
Download programs to your computer only from official sources. This reduces the risk of installing malicious software.
There are no more “good” hackers—they all disappeared back in the early 2000s — now they all have families and children to feed, downloading pirated movies not as video files but as archives, downloading cracked licensed games and cracks for breaking software – There will be something embedded everywhere—if not a virus right away, then some kind of Trojan horse that will lurk in the system until it receives a command from the owner to activate or take complete control of the device. Even Windows itself has to be licensed…

Regular updates to
System and application updates fix vulnerabilities that cybercriminals could exploit.

When updating a system (such as a computer’s operating system, a website’s content management system, or a phone’s firmware version), other software components (office programs, drivers, apps, and extensions) also need to be updated. It’s not uncommon for devices to run slower with new versions, but that’s no reason to sacrifice security.

A tablet, phone, or laptop purchased from a pawn shop has most likely already been flashed with a modified operating system that monitors your activities in the background and may have access to a lot of information—it’s worth having experts replace the operating system with the original, secure version.
Some budget manufacturers of these same affordable smartphones ship their devices straight from the store with firmware containing malicious code at the root access level. If you notice signs that your device is being monitored (this isn’t necessarily the case, but no one’s stopping you from being attentive, cautious, and thinking critically), a simple factory reset won’t do much good in this case (especially if you notice, for example, that the calculator app on your phone or a notepad app you don’t use—but can’t delete—is collecting gigabytes of data in the cache without having time to send the collected information to its developer). In such cases, only a complete firmware replacement performed by a specialist will allow you to continue using the device.

Using
Antivirus A modern antivirus program can protect you from most threats, including viruses and spyware—the standard Windows Security is sufficient in most cases—yes, it doesn’t have proactive protection, but as long as you don’t run viruses on purpose and scan files before opening them, this updated antivirus is enough. Kaspersky and Avast are all spyware-based antivirus programs, and they steal information from devices… The spread of the latest viruses—for which there are no antivirus databases yet capable of detecting the malware in a file—is possible through various file dumps, file storage services, or forums with links to file-sharing services or archives—don’t fall for the “cheap cheese in a mousetrap”; no one is going to just give away high-quality games or good add-ons for them for free, Viruses are embedded in them (there are exceptions—in some cases, code is embedded that will later turn into a virus after downloading an update or triggering after a certain amount of time). You should send such suspicious files to antivirus labs or developers—after they’ve been checked, you’ll receive a response detailing what was found.

Physical Security of Devices

PIN Protection: Set complex PINs or use biometric authentication. Your computer or laptop desktop should be locked with such a code; when you step away from the device, press Win+L to bring up the lock screen—even if you live alone and only your cat might accidentally press the wrong keys on the keyboard.

Using the “Find My Device” feature
This feature will help you remotely lock or locate your device if it is lost.

Avoid connecting to unknown USB devices
Malware can be transmitted via suspicious charging stations or USB flash drives. Disable autorun for flash drives or discs (you can find instructions for this on Google). Check the storage device before running any files from it.

Training and Regular Checks

Regular training
Share digital safety tips with your family and friends. This will reduce risks for the whole family. Be sure to talk about messaging apps in particular.

How to check your data
Use services like “Have I Been Pwned” to find out if your data has been compromised.

What to Do in the Event of a Data Breach

Immediate Steps
Change your passwords.
Disconnect any suspicious devices.
Notify the platform’s support team or your bank, and inform your company’s management.

How to check your account activity at
: Review your login history and close any suspicious sessions. If the smartphone was purchased at a pawn shop, there’s nothing you can do—almost all such devices are reflashed with an operating system that’s essentially a virus, and resetting it to factory settings won’t help.

Tips for Ongoing Protection

Check your privacy settings at
. Adjust your account settings to minimize the amount of publicly available information.

Using
Backups: Back up your important data regularly. Keep an offline copy of your data that is not connected to the internet at least once a month…

How to Avoid Information Overload
Focus on reliable sources of cybersecurity information to avoid unnecessary stress.

Where can you find more information about online safety?
Be sure to subscribe to the HackYourMom channel: https://www.youtube.com/@hackyourmom-hackyoumom6166

By following these tips, you can significantly reduce the risks associated with digital threats and ensure the security of your data.