How to Protect Your College Work from Hackers

Introduction

Imagine spending months working on a thesis just to have your entire progress destroyed by malicious software or losing access to your research material because someone hacked your cloud account. Cyber security for students often doesn't seem like an important aspect of their college life, however, we often disregard potential threats until the danger becomes too real and we have to deal with the consequences.

The word hacker is pretty much a generalization of various types of online threats, it doesn't mean that some evil software genius is set against your college future, so we made sure to consider various forms of security measures to help you keep your college work safe and easy to access. We have several pieces of advice to share with you, consider which of these suggestions are most applicable to your needs or simply have fun reading how the internet can mess up a person's life.

Offline vault

Our devices are online almost all the time, with free Wi-Fi signals available almost anywhere you go, and our homes completely covered with an internet signal. Therefore, if you wish to prevent unauthorized access to your sensitive data, it's best to keep copies of your work in an offline location. Consider using USB flash drives, memory cards, external HDD, or even an old PC or laptop that sits around the house.

This manner of backup is the most functional because it prevents online intrusions on one side, and on the other side, it keeps the data accessible in case of hardware malfunction on your primary device. For example, essay writing services, where you can pay someone to do my assignment, keep student papers in safe and follow all cybersecurity rules above. In other words, you could backup your files and keep a copy in cloud storage that you might lose access to, or in case you create a backup but your hard drive experiences failure and you can't retrieve any data.

Update OS security features

Your computer operating software has built-in security that protects you from all kinds of malware, ransomware, worms, and direct third-party access to your files. As new types of threats appear on the internet, OS developers issue security updates that keep you protected from the latest safety threats. When you enable auto-updates, the system performs regular update checks to see if there are new safety procedures, virus libraries, or other pieces of software to download and activate.

Also, allow your computer to perform regular system scans to make sure your files are not corrupted and that there aren't any threats that the system might have overseen during the last checkup. In case you don't feel your OS security is not functional enough to keep your work safe, consider downloading antivirus software that you trust. Additional online security solution will not interfere with the functionality of your built-in software, so you don't have to worry if your choice is compatible or loses some of its potency.

Don't engage with emails from unknown or suspicious senders

It's amusing to imagine a Nigerian millionaire waiting for a reply to his offer, but we all know that the email most people in the world received, in which we were offered millions if we just send our bank account info, is a scam. The same can happen if you get a mail readying "Hello Sir, I'm a member of the Belgian royal family, I'll promote you into a knight". You don't know if the email comes with a script that activates when you click on a link or try to reply, therefore it's best to avoid replying to such email, or even open any mail that comes from an email address you don't know or seems suspicious.

Two steps security

Sometimes, you just have to keep your college work online because you're sharing the information with other student's or you need to collaborate on an assignment. As we already said, cloud accounts are not the safest place to keep sensitive data, no matter how much cloud companies brag about their credibility. You could use a public computer in an online coffee shop or library and forget to log out or fall victim to a Keylogger attack.

Therefore, to keep your data secure from people who would corrupt or steal your work, it's good to use two-steps security, which means that you have to confirm any login attempt using your mobile device. This way, even if someone gets their hand on your password and username, they won't be able to access the storage unless you allow it.

Conclusion

As much as we'd like to think that online threats lurk only around large corporations, banks, and other institutions where big money goes in and out, computer safety for students is also important. Hackers use ransomware software that encrypts your data in a few seconds, and the only way you can retrieve it is if you pay the "ransom", usually in Bitcoins because they are untraceable. These security measures should keep you safe enough from online intrusions, however, it's important to stay updated and learn about new methods of protection.