Have you secured your personal internet server? If not, your data isn’t secure. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Report 2022, there were about 800,994 cyber crime reports from the public in 2022 alone. Further, this resulted in a loss of $10.6 billion, an increase from $6.9 billion in 2021.
Many businesses have gone remote, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic. For this reason, the cyber security landscape globally has seen skyrocketing threats. Cybercriminals are exploiting misaligned remote business networks, resulting in a worrying increase in malware attacks daily.
Whether you’re a blogger or a small online business owner, you’re at risk of cyber attacks. Cybercriminals can steal your data, go a step further, and use your server as their operational base for more cyber attacks, such as mining cryptocurrency, phishing, and spam. To avoid becoming an online fraud victim, you must take stern action to secure your personal internet server.
By now, you can see the damage hackers can do using stolen data. Still not convinced? Brace yourself. This article will explain why you must secure a personal internet server. Let’s start!
1. To Keep Estate Documents Secure
Let’s face it. When it comes to estate planning, storing essential documents can be risky. So, a shoe box under your bed isn’t a good plan. In this case, how do you safely store digital documents such as the power of attorney, wills, living wills, titles, and property deeds? What you need to do is to secure your personal internet server.
Your estate documents, such as property deeds and titles, are critical documents that prove ownership of your home. It’s no rocket science that you can get a loan against your home equity. Hackers know this; without a secured personal internet server, they can take your titles from you and try to get money fraudulently.
Most people have an online presence in this digital age. For this reason, without properly securing your personal internet server, your data may fall into hackers’ hands, leading to fraud and identity theft. They may use email messages and ‘phishing’ texts to attack you, searching for your passwords, account, and social security number.
When cybercriminals successfully steal your private data, they can easily replicate the information for fraudulent activities. For instance, they may file fake paperwork with the register of deeds to transfer the titles to others or themselves. After the fraud discovery, you may have difficulty proving your rightful ownership of your property.
2. To Keep Tax Records Secure
Did you know that, according to USA Today, in 2015, cybercriminals accessed over 700,000 IRS accounts? If this doesn’t convince you to secure your personal internet server before tax preparation, you may be a few clicks away from becoming an online fraud victim.
You may wonder why someone would want to hack into your tax records. It’s simple. Online thieves will fake your tax returns and steal your refund when possible. However, with a secured server, you don’t need to panic. You’re safe.
Typically, hackers need your data, such as your relevant keywords or social security number, to access your past returns. They do this via the IRS web function called ‘Get Transcript.’ Usually, when there’s a significant increase in downloading requests, the IRS shuts down this functionality to avoid more damage.
When you possess a weak server, fraudsters quickly steal your personal identification data to access your past returns. When this happens, you’ll be a victim of what the IRS terms as ‘modified form’ identity theft. In this case, the hackers will have used your personal identity data to pose as legitimate taxpayers.
3. To Keep Personal Information Private
According to the Insurance Information Institute, in 2022 alone, identity theft and fraud complaints amounted to nearly 5.2 million cases. Amongst the reports, 21% were identity theft complaints, 46% were fraud complaints, and 33% were other consumer complaints. Digital advancements are on a rising trend, and cyber-attacks are rising steadily.
With this worrying trend, you need private data protection processes to include in your house plans. Well, It goes without question, secure your personal internet server first. Failure to do so means you’ll be open to all online attacks.
Additionally, you’ll need to install an anti-virus for your data protection. It’s software that works as a soldier who fends off malware attacks that are a gateway to cyber-attacks. The nice feature about an anti-virus is that you can ignore it by letting it run in the background. Doing so allows you to work undisturbed, as the anti-virus automatically scans and removes harmful malware.
Many cyber attacks happen due to stolen or weak passwords. For this reason, ensure that you have a strong password. To do this, avoid reusing your old password. If possible, make it lengthier with ten or more characters. Also, as a rule of thumb, use a combination of numbers, memorable symbols, and lower and upper and lower cases.
4. To Follow Your Lawyer’s Advice
It’s easy to keep your legal documents locked in a filing cabinet. However, fire, flood, or another natural disaster can destroy your legal copies within seconds. Meaning, keeping your legal records in one storage is very risky. So, it would help to have backups on different spaces you can access only.
You probably already emailed your critical legal records to yourself. Perhaps you’ve decided to store them with Dropbox or another third-party solution provider. If this is the case, are your documents safe? Unfortunately, emails are prone to phishing threats and hacking. Also, third-party solutions are more focused on public sharing, which is risky.
It takes money and time to replace your legal documents. For this reason, your lawyer will advise you to keep your legal documents safe whenever you seek legal services. There are a ton of hackers out there ready to steal your info. So, scanning and uploading your legal documents can put your documents at risk. To protect your data better, you must secure your personal internet server.
Getting an online legal management software system is also a pro move. It helps maximize functionalities such as offsite backups on an interface developed for managing and storing your documents.
5. To Keep Your Medical Information Secure
Hackers are targeting your medical information. Typically, your medical data may have personal details such as your demographic, date of birth, and Social Security Number (SSN). Hackers use such information to commit identity theft to engage in cybercriminal activities. So, it would be best to secure your personal internet server before filling out your medical insurance form online or any other medical-related information.
Cybercriminals will likely illegally use your medical data to obtain credit cards and loans. Moreover, they may use your information to impersonate you and gain access to healthcare benefits, prescription medicine, Medicaid, and Medicare benefits. Typically, credit card companies block cards quickly after suspicion of fraudulent activities. However, healthcare fraud is difficult to detect. For this reason, hackers can misuse your healthcare data for a lengthy period before being caught.
6. To Protect Your Insurance Information
Cybercriminals typically depend on your data to commit fraudulent activities. Therefore, you’ll need to keep all the documents with your personal information, such as insurance documents, safe. For this to happen, the first and most crucial step is to secure your personal internet server to protect yourself from online criminals.
When applying for insurance coverage, such as insurance for homes, personal injury, or motor vehicle cover, some insurance companies require you to fill out an online application form. You’ll need to fill out your critical data, like your Social Security number and date of birth. In such a scenario, cybercriminals may easily steal your data without caution.
While applying online for insurance simplifies the process, your insurance information is vulnerable to attackers without a secure personal internet server. Typically, you’ll need to save your data on your computer for reference. For this reason, it’s essential to ensure your information is safe from online criminals.
7. To Store Your Data Securely in the Cloud
Do you fancy online privacy and data security? If you do, you’ll love the idea of setting up cloud storage. With it, you’ll enjoy the best computer services with flexible and scalable data storage without exposing it to third parties. What’s more, you can operate it in the comfort of your home if you’d like.
Also, there’re many cloud storage services for people who wouldn’t mind storing data on somebody’s else infrastructure. However, if you’d wish to be more in control, you should opt for a personal cloud server. However, you’ll need to secure your personal internet server to keep your data safe and avoid hackers.
8. To Benefit From Cloud Computing Without Risk
Cloud computing has a vast number of uses. For example, software testing and development, data backup, email, big data analytics, and data backup. While cloud computing sounds safer, there still exists hacking threats from cybercriminals. For this reason, you’ll need to secure your personal internet server to enjoy cloud computer benefits without worry.
Businesses and organizations of every type, size, and industry embrace cloud computing due to its efficiency. According to Trivent Publishing, you no longer need an electrician to perform specific tasks due to adopting cloud computing for power systems. Cloud computing is here to stay, and you should keep it safe from hackers to maximize its limitless possibilities.
9. To Keep Estate Documents Where Your Loved Ones Can Find Them
You’ll need to store estate documents, such as wills and trusts, safe from hackers and where your loved ones can access them easily. If you’re tech-savvy, saving them on an online system is a good plan. Doing so ensures that the documents will last for a lifetime. Also, your loved ones can easily access them when the need arises using a digital key.
While keeping your documents online is easy, hackers can steal critical information to commit online fraud. For this reason, you’ll need to keep the estate documents safe by securing your internet server. Online accounts have unique access regulations in the user agreement. Several allow you to name a person with limited access after your demise. With such flexibility, planning who can access your estate documents is easier.
10. To Manage a Small Business Securely Over the Internet
Running a small business doesn’t make you a lesser target for hackers. In other words, your business is vulnerable whether you manage a few rental properties, a small online store, or a coffee shop. For this reason, you should take all the necessary steps, such as securing your internet servers, to protect your business from data theft.
According to the 2021 Data Breach Investigation Report by Verizon, 46% of cyber breaches target businesses with less than 1000 employees. Therefore, if you operate a small business, you are a target of cybercriminals. You should therefore take measures to secure your businesses by securing your personal internet server.
Additionally, you should keep your emails clean by investing in software that scans your emails for possible harmful viruses and links. Further, it would be best if you change your passwords frequently to discourage any potential hacking. Also, installing anti-virus software helps.
With more people shifting to digital solutions for businesses and data storage, cybercriminals are devising smarter strategies. For this reason, you’ll need to do everything within your capacity to protect your data from theft. Mostly, hackers commit online fraud by stealing an identity. So, to keep safe from online fraud, the first step is to secure your personal internet server.
Doing so keeps your estate, tax, and insurance documents secure. For this reason, it becomes impossible for cybercriminals to steal your personal information. Also, a protected internal server allows you to manage your small business safely over the internet. What’s more, you’ll be able to maximize cloud computing without worrying about any data breaches.
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