Digital literacy, A need that is taken for granted.

One of the biggest problems today is that we are neglecting the power of information. Firstly, understand a few basic terms. Digital literacy is the must-have in the 21st century. (1/n)
#cybersecurity

We will see basic fundamental things you can do to defend yourself from the dark side of the digital world. We will see some malware common ways to improve your security. (2/n)

India is an easy target for the malware infection and cyberattacks if we compare with the world. Let's see why is it so? (3/n)

Malware means the software came to your computer that is doing some malicious activities. It is an umbrella term for the Viruses, Trojan horse, Spyware, Adware, botnet etc. A bug or vulnerability means some fault in the software. (4/n)

You may have heard the names like WannaCry, Black Rock, Agent Smith, Shopper Trojan, Lokibot etc. All these are some pieces of malware which infected our world last year. Also, for most of these pieces of malware, India was the worst-hit country. (5/n)

Reason: Poor digital literacy + cheapest internet in the world.
That's the deadliest combo. We have one of the most powerful weaponry of the present-day world, though we cannot use it as we lack digital literacy. (6/n)

Let's see some statistics, 59% of the total infection of the Agent Smith Malware were seen in India. You can get fascinating information at https://rb.gy/nrhuy5 . It shows that India lacks proper laws for cybersecurity. Also, an average Indian is careless on these issues. (7/n)

Keep a note of the following things that you need to follow.
Do not save any critical data like the credit card or debit card details on your computer or smartphone. (8/n)

Browsers will ask you to collect card info for convenience, but this trade-off is pathetic. As a hacker getting entrance to your browser cache can get all the data like stored passwords, card info etc. (9/n)

Prefer Open source password manager instead of browsers to store the passwords. The data in the password manager is usually encrypted with a master password making it more secure. Also, try adding a master password to the browsers you use. (10/n)

Only use the password managers that stores and processes all the data on your machine. That is less convenient, but the security with it is worth it. Open source because it guarantees you can be 100% sure how your data is being used. (11/n)

Do not share any critical data like passwords, OTPS, card details while talking on your phone to anyone unless an emergency. Such attacks where a user is involved are known as social engineering attacks. (12/n)

Do not click any email attachment or link in general if it appears suspicious.
Example: 'Your Windows/Android device 17 viruses, use this software', 'You won a lucky draw' etc. (13/n)

Humans are the weakest link of the cybersecurity right now. So, beware, improve digital literacy and do not fall for these traps. (14/n)

For Android, Do not install any antivirus or antimalware apps. Try getting away from the cleanup apps and all that junk. Just follow the guidelines of Google for making Android secure. Only download apps from play store and update the Android when updates are available. (15/n)

We encourage you to go and read the security tips from Android if you are using the Android phone.
https://developer.android.com/training/articles/security-tips (16/n)

In Windows, Stay away from the weird-looking sites and pirated stuff. At least, shift to Windows 10 has the Windows 7 and 8 are not secure. There is no need to install any antivirus or antimalware in Windows 10 if you are away from pirated stuff. (17/n)

Stay away from the pirated stuff on Windows as there is almost no need for it in the Windows 10. There is an online MS office and, the OS is essentially free lawfully. The only thing you get in an activated Windows 10 is you can change the wallpaper and apply a dark theme. (18/n)

Thus even if you are not buying Windows 10, it is ok. There is no need to have a pirated OS installed. Go to the website of Microsoft and download the ISO. Burn it on a pen drive(i.e. make a bootable pen drive of Win 10). Install. That's it. (19/n)

Set stronger passwords. A more robust password includes upper and lowercase letters, numbers, special characters like @, ! etc. Is 8 or more characters long. Keep different passwords for different accounts and avoid linking the accounts. (20/n)