In this day and age, a large portion of our data is stored and sent via the internet. From personal addresses and phone numbers to critical financial information like credit cards and bank account information — everything is kept on the internet. Whilst there are a lot of security measures in place to keep such data safe, hackers use innovative methods to gain access to this personal data and cause a breach in data security, harming our lives. Here are the top things that they exploit to steal our data.
4 ways hackers get access to your data
Data Breaches
You may have seen on the news of some big company being the victim of a massive ‘data breach.’ In these cases, hackers usually hack into the company’s data servers and then take control of the data. This results in them gaining access to sensitive data, for example your passwords and usernames, which they can use to hack into your account. Through this link, they can then hack into your other accounts, and take control of your online presence.
Phishing
Phishing is a tactic hackers use to get control of your data. The hacker will send a legitimate looking email to your account, and an attachment in the form of a link or file. The email will prompt you to click on the link or file, which will redirect you to a genuine looking website, usually that of a bank or a reputed social media site.
These websites, however, are created by the hacker in an effort to steal or ‘fish-out’ your data. Since the website will look genuine, most users enter their sensitive data (e.g. their usernames and passwords), unbeknownst the fact that the website is not real. The hackers then take advantage of that and collect the username and password of your accounts, without you knowing you have been hacked at all.
Learn more about phishing here
Registering using your primary email in lesser-known websites
Have you ever gone scouring through the internet and come across a shady looking website that you needed to log into? We certainly have — and we can tell you how risky they are. Most of these websites are lesser known and not maintained well compared to more mainstream ones, making them prone to data breaches, hacking and more data security risks. Registering in such areas with your main email address can lead to hackers gaining access to your sensitive data, and they can end up gaining control of your other accounts.
Using the same password everywhere
Like the earlier notion of using the same email address to register, using only one password for all your accounts is an unsafe practice which makes your data vulnerable to getting infiltrated by hackers. This is because once they know your password, they can then access all your other accounts as well.
So how do you protect your data from getting stolen?
1. Use a temporary email service
A temporary email service is perfect for ensuring your data is not getting stolen. Since your primary and personal information is connected to your main email address, one data breach through your primary email is enough for hackers to gain access to sensitive data.
A temporary email service, on the other hand, can be used to register and log into
websites which you are not using on a daily basis, or only need for a short amount of
time. Moreover, you can use a temporary email service to get verification when creating
accounts on the internet.
We recommend you use Burner Mailbox, our flagship temporary email creation service
that takes into account your privacy and security. Burner Mailbox is a fast, secure and
easy to use temporary email creation service where you simply need to enter a
username to create your email, and use it to protect your data privacy and security.
Burner Mailbox is absolutely free-of-charge and available for all devices. No app or
software download is required, and you can easily access your information through
Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Safari or any other web browser.
Burner Mailbox is ideal for long-time use since our temporary email accounts are active forever, and emails are only cleared every 2 days, so you can check back into your email account later on.
Burner Mailbox is ideal for long-time use since our temporary email accounts are active
forever, and emails are only cleared every 2 days, so you can check back into your email
account later on.
Since privacy and data security is our motto here, we have designed our software to
ensure only you are able to access your temporary emails, and no one, including Burner
Mailbox, can’t collect data from your emails.
2. Avoid malicious app downloads
Often we download miscellaneous apps and games on our devices without ensuring that the software is from a trusted source or has no viruses in it. Such apps can contain ransomware or spyware which hackers can use to access your computer and secretly or even confrontationally take your data away. Thus, being careful about what apps and software you install can be incredibly helpful to keep your data safe.
Now you know how hackers can steal your data, and what steps you can use to keep your data safe. In this day and age, keeping our data safe is of utmost importance, and we hope you have gained useful insight from this article.
Tags: data safety, data, hackers, hacking, ethical hacking, passwords, temporary email, emailing, data security, phishing, pharming
