Tips to remain safe online - Prevent your system from getting hacked

With Covid-19 virus infections spreading at an alarming proportions, hackers are leaving no stone unturned to exploit the situation in the cyberspace and swindle money from gullible users. This has once again put focus back on cyber awareness.

Despite India ranking no 2 in having the highest number of internet users after China as at the end of financial year 2019¹ , it still lags in cyber security awareness, thereby putting the data of scores of users at risk. The cyber threat is looming large and has now become imperative for the users to understand the pattern of attacks to safeguard their systems from getting hacked.

Let us now understand few forms of hacking:-

Phishing : A technique to obtain critical information, where, hackers create dubious sites/applications having uncanny resemblance with the actual one. 

Social Engineering : A fraudulent way of obtaining confidential information by manipulating an user into revealing confidential information.

Trojan Horse Virus : A form of malware that though looks like a legitimate software, but is designed to steal or damage your system.

Malware : A software designed to gain unauthorized access of your system.

Spyware : A piece of code that secretly transmits user's data to the hacker who placed the spyware.

Ransomware : A malicious software that encrypts the user's data and prevents them from accessing unless a ransom is paid.

Some tips to remain safe online.

1. Avoid clicking untrusted websites. Unless you are sure that the website you are visiting is genuine and secured, refrain from visiting such sites.
2. Check if the website has an SSL(Secure Sockets Layer) certificate i.e., whether the domain starts with http or https. If it is https, it means that the site is encrypted and is secured.
3. Some malicious websites that claim to offer free gifts, recharge etc., have kept doing rounds on whatsapp and other messaging applications. Even though it may sound alluring, but guys, please, nothing comes for free, everything comes with a cost and in this case your data, or may be worse, say your system getting hacked.
4. Do not install any random apps from playstore. Not everything that appears on google is reliable. Make sure that the app is secured.
5. Create strong and complex passwords, do not set passwords that are easy to guess and do not record it anywhere.
6. Avoid revealing sensitive information over phone like OTP, ATM pin, login passwords etc etc.
7. Some E-commerce sites save your credit card details. Most of the e-commerce websites have the checkbox enabled for saving the credit card details by default. Do not allow any of your credit card details to be stored on the e-commerce websites. Disable if you come across this option.
8. Use a strong antivirus that also provides online protection and keep them regularly updated.
9. Avoid sharing personal details and confidential information online


Let us build a safe cyber environment for all and spread awareness to the extent possible.

Hope this helps forestall attacks.