Every piece of data you release on the web can be used against you. In the wrong hands, those data points can be gathered and correlated to create a digital profile, which can then be used to commit fraud, forgery and phishing attacks against you.
Your digital profile can be used to invade your privacy in annoying and creepy ways, such as showing you ads that are personalized based on your most intimate preferences and information.
Encryption is the best way to protect your digital information from unauthorized eyes. By scrambling data using mathematics, encryption makes sure only intended people can read your data. Unauthorized parties who access your data will see nothing but a bunch of undecipherable bytes. ..
- Choose a secure encryption algorithm
- Set up a password
- Store the encryption key in a safe place
Encrypt Your On-Device Data
Next, you need to create a secure password. This is a unique, long and complex string that you will use to encrypt your data. You should also create a two-factor authentication system, such as Google Authenticator or Apple iCloud. These systems require you to provide two pieces of information – your username and password – in order to access your account.
Full-disk encryption (FDE) is the most secure way to encrypt your on-device data. FDE encrypts everything on a device and only makes the data available for use after the user provides a password or PIN code. ..
In most operating systems, FDE is supported. To enable full-disk encryption on your computer, you can use BitLocker or FileVault. BitLocker is a security feature that allows you to encrypt your hard drive using a password. FileVault is a more advanced security feature that allows you to encrypt your entire hard drive.
Windows 10 BitLocker also supports encrypting external drives such as memory cards and USB thumb drives. On macOS, you can use the Disk Utility to create an encrypted USB drive. ..
Hardware encrypted drives are more expensive than their non-encrypted counterparts, but they are also more secure.
encrypt your mobile devices
Android devices come with different default settings and interfaces, depending on the manufacturer and OS version. Make sure your Android device is encrypted to keep your data safe. ..
Encrypt Your Data in the Cloud
We need to be careful about how we store our files on the internet. Cloud storage services like Google Drive, DropBox and Microsoft OneDrive are great for protecting your data, but they can also be used by someone else to access your files if they have your password. We need to make sure that our cloud storage service is secure and that it can’t be accessed by anyone other than the people we trust.
Boxcryptor is a software application that can be used to protect your files from Google and Microsoft. It integrates with most popular storage services and adds a layer of encryption to protect your files before uploading them to the cloud. This way, only you and the people you share your files with will be aware of their content.
Alternatively, you can use an end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) storage service such as Tresorit. Before storing your files in the cloud, E2EE storage services encrypt your files with keys that you exclusively hold, and not even the service that stores your files can access their content.
Encrypt Your Internet Traffic
To keep your data and online activities safe, it’s important to encrypt your internet traffic using a VPN. A VPN encrypts all of your traffic, making it difficult for anyone—including your ISP or a hacker on public Wi-Fi—to see what you’re doing online. ..
VPNs can help protect your online privacy by encrypting all of your traffic and routing it through a remote server. This prevents anyone from spying on what you’re doing online, whether it’s your ISP, a malicious third party, or the government. ..
If you’re using a VPN, your ISP won’t be able to see what websites or applications you’re using. ..
Your VPN provider will still have access to your internet traffic, even if you use The Onion Router (Tor). If you want absolute privacy, you can use The Onion Router. Tor, which is both the name of a darknet network and a namesake browser, encrypts your internet traffic and bounces it through several independent computers running a specialized software.
The Tor network is a secure way to browse the internet, but it comes with a speed penalty. Some websites block traffic coming from the Tor network, so you need to be careful about what you post and where you send your traffic.
Encrypt Your Emails
Your email is your most important communication, and it deserves the highest level of protection possible. encrypting your emails can help protect them from anyone who wants to access them, whether it’s someone trying to hack into your account or your email provider.
Pretty Good Privacy is an open protocol that uses public-private key encryption to enable users to exchange encrypted emails. With PGP, every user has a public, known to everyone, which enables other users to send them encrypted emails.
The private key can decrypt messages encrypted with the public key. If an unintended party intercepts a PGP-encrypted email, they won’t be able to read its contents. Even if they break into your email account by stealing your credentials, they won’t be able to read the contents of your encrypted emails.
If you’re using a web client like the Gmail or Yahoo websites, you can use Mailvelope, a browser extension that adds easy-to-use PGP support to most popular email services.
If you’re concerned about the privacy of your emails, then an encrypted email service such as ProtonMail is a good option. ProtonMail encrypts your emails without the need to take any additional steps, meaning that it’s harder for third parties to access your messages. ..
Encrypt Your Messages
Which messaging app is the most secure for you? Here are five of the most popular messaging apps and their security features.
- WhatsApp: WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world. It has a strong security feature called end-to-end encryption, which means that messages sent between users are protected from being read by anyone other than the sender and receiver. This makes it one of the most secure messaging apps available.
- Facebook Messenger: Facebook Messenger is another very popular messaging app. Like WhatsApp, it has end-to-end encryption, meaning that messages sent between users are protected from being read by anyone other than the sender and receiver. However, Facebook Messenger also has features like two-factor authentication, which makes it more secure than WhatsApp.
- Signal: Signal is a free messaging app that is based on open source software. This means that it is more secure than some of the other messaging apps available, because it is less likely to be hacked into by criminals or spy agencies.
- Telegram: Telegram is another free messaging app that is based on open source software. Like Signal, it is more secure than some of the other messaging apps available because it is less likely to be hacked into by criminals or spy agencies. However, Telegram also has a number of features that make it more popular among users, such as group chats and voice calls ..
end-to-end encryption is a security measure that ensures the privacy of communication. It allows you to send and receive messages without any data being stored on your phone or sent through your carrier.
WhatsApp, Signal and Wickr are three of the most popular messaging apps in the world that enable end-to-end encryption by default. This means that any communication between you and your contacts is protected from anyone else.
WhatsApp and Signal are messaging services that are based on open-source protocols. These protocols are more reliable than other messaging services because they can be peer-reviewed by independent industry experts.
