My Most Important Security Tips
There has been a spam message flying around LinkedIn recently, resulting in taking control over people's LinkedIn profiles, and people ending up losing access to their accounts forever. In this article I would love to share with you what I see as the most important security tips, not just for LinkedIn, but for every other platform as well. This is ought to protect you from any attempt to take over your account. Here they are:
Use 2-Steps Verification for Sign In.
The second verification method could be your mobile phone.This guarantees that if someone steals your password, it won't be enough for them to get access to your account, which means the stolen password is useless. This is probably the most important and efficient security tip to follow.
If you don't want to use the 2-Steps verification, make sure to follow the following tips, putting in consideration that they are not guaranteed to protect you 100%
- Don't use the same password across sites.
- Don't use your main email address password for any other website.
- You should have another email address for using as an alternative email. Don't use the same password as your main email address.
- Don't click any links from an untrusted source.
- Never sign in using your email address and password in any form you aren't sure it belongs to the email provider(like gmail for example)
- Never share critical information in messages or save critical information in your account. If the account is hacked into, this information can be retrieved easily.
- Use a strong password
Guidelines for a Strong Password
- At least 8 characters—the more characters, the better
- A mixture of both uppercase and lowercase letters
- A mixture of letters and numbers
- Inclusion of at least one special character, e.g., ! @ # ?
- Example: Th1sisAstrongp@ssword!
If your Email address(or user name) and password get stolen, you might lose access permanently to your account.
That's because the person who stole them can use this information to change any guarantee you have to get your account back, like:
- Your primary Email address
- Your alternative Email address/addresses
- Your phone number associated with the account
And in this case you may never get your account back. So, the last hope is "Identity Verification" in which you can provide a copy of an official personal ID such as a national ID, driver license, or passport to the site to prove you are the owner of the account. But note that not all sites provide this feature. To make you get the best out of this, follow these tips:
- Make sure your information, such as the spelling of your 'First Name' and 'Last Name" is the same as your ID, the passport for example.
- Make sure you use a registered phone number. Your phone might get stolen or you might lose it. In this case, you will need to make a copy of the same phone number.
- Use a recent profile picture of yourself.
That is all. If you have any comments or additions, that would be highly appreciated. And if you find this useful, please share it, so it can reach as many people as possible.