On 12th May 2017, British hospital staff pulled out their phones during their lunch breaks to check their email, when they noticed their hospital’s Internet connection was down. Thinking it was a minor glitch, they returned to their lunches. Soon it became obvious something more was taking place.
The Wannacry ransomware virus inflicted over 200,000 computers across 150 countries. In the NHS (Britain’s healthcare service), it caused unprecedented chaos, putting the lives of intensive care patients at risk. The damages to the NHS were estimated at £92 million, while the damages to businesses globally were over £6 billion.
The Wannacry incident highlights just how vulnerable our connected world is to cyber-attacks, and how much damage they can cause. Since freelancers do most of their work online, they are at a particularly big risk of cyber vulnerabilities. In addition, 43% of cyber attacks target small businesses. With cybercrime rates going up, knowing how to protect yourself against an attack is crucial.
1. Secure your mobile!
Today, smartphones are even more likely than laptops to get targeted. They also have access to more data – your location, camera, contacts, and text messages, on top of your digital data and passwords. You need to keep it safe! Put a PIN, fingerprint, or facial recognition for unlocking your phone – it prevents instant access to your data if your mobile gets stolen. Install anti-virus and tracker-blocking apps. Don’t clog it with a ton of random apps. The fewer, the better. Be aware of app permissions – apps should only get permission for what they need to use. You can check the permissions of apps in your settings. Install your security updates frequently, as they help keep it safe.
2. Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN)
VPN has become a buzzword in the world of cyber security, and for good reason. In layman’s terms, VPNs “hijack” your internet connection and reroute it to another location. This means your internet traffic and your data are hidden from your Internet provider, as well as from hackers who manage to tap into your connection. It works on mobile, too, which is very important. As most freelancers often work in cafés and coworking spaces, which use public Wi-Fi, they are at risk. VPNs do not make your traffic completely untraceable and anonymous as some claim, but greatly reduce the chances your sensitive data will be stolen. Plus, they unlock larger Netflix catalogs from other countries.
3. Backup, backup, backup
If your work is stored on your personal devices, it is vulnerable to loss if your devices get damaged or lost. This makes backing up your files essential. Prioritize your documents like contracts, invoices, and statements and keep them in both a file cloud or a flash drive or an external hard drive. Use a password manager – it keeps your passwords in a safe place even if you lose your laptop or phone. Also, it stops you from reusing the same password multiple times, which is a cardinal sin in digital security. A lot of freelancers nowadays work in the cloud with Google Docs and Drive, which is automatically backed up but relies on the Google servers, which went down in December, so they are not perfect either. Using more than one backup location is a best practice. In the unfortunate case that your device gets infected with a nasty piece of malware, your best response might be to format your hard drive and start with a clean slate. This is why having a backup is so important.
4. Encrypt your data
If you’re a freelance lawyer, accountant, or work with sensitive information, keeping documents away from prying eyes is crucial. Here’s where digital encryption comes in. It scrambles data so that it appears as gibberish to snooping hackers. It can only be decrypted with the use of a key, which is only given to the receiver of the message. Often even the owners of the freelancing or other platforms themselves cannot decrypt the data of their users, which gives you peace of mind when sharing sensitive information. Messaging apps like Signal and Telegram offer end-to-end encryption, ProtonMail encrypts emails, and cloud storage like pCloud and iDrive can securely store your files across devices.
5. Consider Cyber Insurance
If you fear your business might become the target of a cyberattack, investing in cyber insurance can be a good strategy. Those types of insurances cover the cost of investigating the crime, recovering lost data, and the restoration of computer systems affected by an attack. Also, they may cover the legal charges for breaching GDPR and other legal fees and fines stemming from the potential exposure of users’ data. It may seem a bit excessive, but considering the leading cybersecurity firms believe that cybercrime will become more widespread, in the future, getting cyber insurance might be common practice. In the end, the best practice when protecting yourself from the dangers online is to be vigilant and use common sense. Be careful with clients’ data, don’t follow unknown links, and know what you share.
