Every Step to Simple Online Security (2024)

Reusing passwords on multiple sites is one of the most common mistakes people make online, and it can land you in hot water if a company or site gets hacked and that password leaks out. The solution to this problem is to use a different, hard-to-guess password for every account, and most people find that a password manager is the best way to make that a reality.

While you’re updating your passwords, turn on two-factor authentication for online accounts that support it. Enabling this feature, along with a unique password, makes your online accounts much harder for strangers to access and adds only a few seconds to your routine.

Nobody likes getting those annoying pop-ups nagging you to update your computer, phone, or apps, but updating is a crucial step in keeping your software secure. Double-check to confirm that updates are enabled and working as promised.

If you lose your laptop, your personal information on that computer might be readily available to whoever finds it. An easy way to protect your laptop is to turn on encryption, which jumbles up the data for anyone trying to access it without the password. It sounds technical, but the process isn’t complicated at all.

Losing a laptop or smartphone stinks, but if you enable “find my device” software before that happens, you’ll be able to track where the device is—and if you don’t think you’ll ever see it again, you can wipe the storage drive clean from a distance. Turn this feature on now, before you lose your laptop or phone.

Backups are a critical part of any security plan because they enable you to easily regain the data that matters to you if something goes wrong. Beyond the obvious problems such as a computer getting lost or breaking down, a backup gives you access to your data if your computer is infected with malware. You should back up to a local external storage drive or to a cloud service (preferably both).

Smartphones contain just about every private detail of people’s lives, from notes to photos, so it’s worth paying special attention to how that data gets treated. Take the time to ensure that nobody can access data on your phone but you.

The free antivirus software included with Windows is good enough for most people, but if you’ve ever tinkered with the settings in the past, you’ll need to make sure it’s working correctly these days. Things work a little differently if you have a Mac, but you can still take a few steps to secure it without relying on expensive extra software.

A web browser is often the only software many people use on a given day. Take a few minutes to add a couple of browser extensions and make some settings tweaks to improve its security by blocking malicious ads and reducing unwanted tracking.

If you never really understood the setup instructions for your router, or if you installed yours years ago and haven’t thought about it since, it’s time to poke around to check that it’s set up properly. This means making sure you have good passwords for both your Wi-Fi network and the router’s administration tools, as well as confirming that you’re using the router’s most secure protocols.

Whether they’re meant for chatting with friends, keeping up with family, or sharing files for work, not all chat apps and messaging platforms are created equal. Understanding the differences, and adjusting the settings on whichever platforms you use, is key to making sure your conversations and files stay as secure and private as possible.

It’s easy to lose track of how much personal information you can share on social media networks, or how much data the large online service providers can collect. Work through our list of all the major sites to check your privacy and sharing settings, and take a little more control over who sees what about you.

A few quick changes to your online financial accounts and credit files can help you protect yourself in case of a data breach. And if you use any online health services—from Apple Health to Fitbit—there are additional considerations and settings to keep in mind to ensure that your data doesn’t inadvertently become visible or accessible.

It can be especially stressful to lose access to your email accounts, see strange behavior on your own social media accounts, or get notifications for logins that aren’t yours. Whether you’ve received yet another email about a data breach or totally lost access to an account, we’ve collected resources and advice for how to recover.

All of the practices and tips we recommend for everyone in steps 1 through 10 also apply to any number of other online gadgets, including smart-home devices. We have basic tips and shortcuts to help you find instructions for some popular smart-home brands, including Arlo, Nintendo, Ring, and Wyze.

If you’re concerned about your privacy in light of potential additional scrutiny from authorities when you’re crossing international borders or attending protests, your options are limited. But we have some suggestions, such as making online backups, to help you avoid confrontations when possible, as well as additional resources from organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU.

Regardless of whether you sell, donate, or recycle an old device, you should take the time to properly wipe or encrypt any personal information that may be stored on it. We have guidance and links on how to do so quickly and safely.

We’re not here to judge your Tinder bio or help you figure out which profile photo to use, but we do have tips on how to make sure you keep certain information—such as your regular email address, your phone number, or the location you snapped your photos—as private as you want it to be.

Sometimes you don’t want everything you search for online to be tracked, used for advertising, or linked back to you. While it’s not always possible to hide everything you do, we have some tips for searching the web more privately.

This article was edited by Arthur Gies and Mark Smirniotis.