6 Cybersecurity Tips That Students Can Apply While Studying on the Internet

Featured article by Christina Battons, Indepent Technology

My last 20 odd years has been an exciting time for technology, certainly making student life easier and a lot more functional than ever. Smartphones, wearable smart watches, tablets and mobile technology at the touch of a screen was a part of science fiction in the twentieth century but has now become a stark reality. Ask professors working in the 90’s and they’ll tell you that to fork out the relevant journal article, you’d have to dedicate hours of library time to find it and borrow it for a few hours, yet today millions of articles are available on the world wide web for you to keep at the touch of a button.

The vast interconnectedness between students and the use of the internet to do this affects all aspects of the daily life and almost all aspects of the student circle, from your social life to organizing lecture notes. If you’re a student, communication is practically doomed between you and a lecturer without the use of email, and just how else were you thinking of getting research done for your assignments without the trusted internet by your side?

With great internet applicability come enormous perils of cybersecurity. Unfortunately the fact that the internet touches most of student life means that there are so many ways for hacks to exploit and leech off student naivety. Don’t be a sucker – you’re a student now so you have to take responsibility! Fortunately for students it couldn’t be simpler to improve your cybersecurity and stay safe – here are six cracking cyber security tips you’ll be sure to thank us for.

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1. Connect to Encrypted Connections On Wifi

You’ll be surprised how many times hackers can get into your computer via dodgy Wi-Fi. Even your student library may seem like a safe place but its connection could very well be tampered with on a regular basis by external hackers – there’s just no way of knowing for sure. in order to keep yourself safe, disengage the sharing option on your Wi-Fi settings so that you’re not sharing your files and other personal data with others – this option should only be realistically turned on either if you’re at home or on a trusted network.

2. Refrain From Storing Passwords In Browsers

Sure, it’s difficult to remember all your passwords, but your convenience may be the death of your data. Storing passwords in your browser is one of the most common mistakes students tend to make and can actually result in a tragic loss of data security.

Is it that hard to really run each password and username through when you’re logging on? As a student, you’ll need to be getting into good habits to prepare you for the future, so this would be one to set you on your way. It may seem a little tedious, but certainly worth it down the line.

3. Make Sure Your Home Network Is Secure

If you are at home, your Wi-Fi network is guaranteed to be a whole lot safer than a public connection. You can take necessary steps that are simple and safe to make sure no-one else can use your Wi-Fi and to and to boost the safety of your already safe network.

Make sure that you change the password of the router admin, as well as the username. The name and password supplied to you are actually on the public record and who knows what kind of people could get a hold of that information! It’s also handy to give your network a different name, something more personalized in order to not give away the fact that it’s at home. Hackers often go for soft targets like home wifi because they know this will have less security, so disguise this a little. Using a VPN when necessary will also masque any identity and increase the security of your data.

Taking a couple of seconds to change these details will increase your Wi-Fi security – just make sure you tell all your housemates about the new changes in case they’re wondering what on earth is going on.

4. Have Smart Passwords

Not your dog’s name or the year you were born, please – you can do better than that, after all, you’re an intelligent student now! Be careful not to use the most obvious choices because even though you may think this won’t impact you, a multitude of passwords can be tried by hackers in a short space of time. The best recipe for password success is to use an almost random combination of both upper and lowercase letters, throwing in a few numbers for good measure. If you can’t remember them all, use one random password and make small iterations using other random letters and numbers for other passwords. It’s easy.

5. Backup Your Computer

God forbid that a hacker would enter your private space and steal all of your information, what would happen then? Remember Wannacry and the malicious targeting of students, holding their information at ransom for large sums of money? It’s no good running around trying to fix the problem or saying write my paper for me to your friends if the deadline for your assignment is in a couple of hours, so always backup your computer. Using cloud storage can be a good option, yet surprisingly clouds can also be hacked, so invest a little in a spare hard drive in order to store every assignment you’ve got.

6. Update Your Security Software Regularly

Your security system updates aren’t something that just pop up on a regular basis to annoy you and meaninglessly restart your computer, hackers are always moving fast so your system needs constant updating in order that you’re one step ahead. As a student, you may be on a tight budget, yet there is a lot of decent free antivirus protection software available and a lot of student discounts available for paid software, so get looking.

Secure Yourself

Security in this day and age is an issue that needs to be taken more and more seriously by Society. Students are seen as a soft target for hackers, so try and make personal steps to reverse this understanding.

Author Bio: Christina Battons is a creative writer and content strategist from LA. Currently, she writes for various sites. Her posts address the topics about self-education, writing, motivation, professional development. In her spare time, she prefers to read novels and crime thriller stories. Connect with Christina on Twitter.