Simply having a device connected to the internet makes you a potential target to a host of cybersecurity threats. While many have grown to love and rely on technology as it advances, cyber threats have also evolved equally quickly. With cybercrime accounting for 26.8% of all crimes in Singapore, securing your devices means having the freedom to use technology with confidence.

A firewall helps you do precisely that. It acts as the first line of defence between your system and the internet. The moment you’re connected to the internet, you are constantly sending and receiving information in small data units called packets. It blocks or allows network traffic based on a set of predefined or dynamic rules. A firewall goes a long way in protecting you and your family from cyber attacks.

What is a firewall and how does it work?

A firewall either blocks or allows network data traffic depending on a pre-defined or dynamic set of regulations. The function of a firewall is to protect networks and computers against unauthorised access from potentially dangerous actors. Acting as a gatekeeper that monitors and examines incoming and outgoing traffic, it protects your devices from harmful or potentially unwanted content and communication.

3 reasons why you need a firewall

For home network protection, firewalls are the first line of defence.They are so important to the digital health of your systems that most operating systems today come with a built-in firewall. However, using a third-party firewall application provides you with better control options and more consistent results. This is particularly important for home devices because of the sensitive nature of data stored in them.

A firewall is an effective tool for preventing and managing cyber threats, loss of data, and unauthorised network use. Here, we look at the top 3 reasons why you should have one.

Reason #1: Protects you from malicious activity

A firewall inspects the traffic going into and out of your network so that it can look for and block any unwanted internet traffic, along with viruses, worms, spam, etc. They also let you maintain a list of known good and malicious applications so that they can block the malicious applications and enable the good ones.

In addition, they log intrusion attempts and other violations so that you can investigate attempts made by unauthorised users to access your system, along with other suspicious activity.

Reason #2: Prevents unauthorised remote access

The worst thing that could happen to your system is for someone to take remote control of it. Singaporeans learnt this the hard way in 2018, when the nation suffered its largest-ever data breach in history when 1.5 million patients of SingHealth’s outpatient clinics had their personal information stolen.

Firewall security measures are one of the most basic cyber protection tools that are used to prevent data breaches. Network security firewalls filter out incoming traffic to prevent malicious files from being downloaded and block attackers from accessing sensitive systems.

A firewall, such as the one found in ESET Internet Security, can help you prevent this by disabling remote desktop access, thus preventing interceptors from taking over your system. Without a firewall, it is easier for malicious actors to gain access to your system.

Reason #3: Helps you keep a lookout for vulnerabilities

Prevention is always better than cure. It’s a good idea to proactively stay one step ahead of attackers, by making sure that you have no vulnerabilities in your home network and router-connected smart devices that they can exploit.

Having a feature like ESET Smart Security Premium’s Connected Home helps you achieve that easily. It can identify vulnerabilities in your home network, such as open ports or a weak router password, and even suggest options on how to fix any possible issues.

At home, we’re usually connected to our home network on our smart devices. This could potentially be a weak link for hackers to take advantage of, if these devices are not properly secured. Connected Home keeps you and your loved ones safe by allowing you to test all your router-connected smart devices for vulnerabilities such as weak passwords. Then, it takes the guesswork out of fixing these issues by providing suggestions on how you can resolve them.

Furthermore, you will be able to see the list of devices that are connected to your home network, and get notifications whenever a new device is detected.

The rise of online and mobile banking has made managing finances easy and convenient. This includes paying bills, depositing checks, and transferring money, so naturally it has become increasingly popular over the years. According to research from Finder in 2019, one in five adults in Singapore currently has an account with a branchless bank.

However, there’s a big concern to keep in mind when banking online: security. Having your personal financial information and bank account hacked can give rise to unnecessary headaches. Money could be drained from your account via fraudulent wire transfers, or an identity thief could use the stolen information to exploit your credit cards. In fact, this growing security concern is reflected in the fact that 34% of Singaporean customers do not trust digital banks with personal data security.

Making your online identity and activities more secure doesn’t take too much effort at all. The following five tips will help keep you more secure online.

Tip #1: Choose strong and unique passwords for every login

When it comes to online security, Singaporeans seem to be prefer sticking to the same passwords. In fact, between 50-70% of Singaporeans don’t change their passwords, and if they do, they only do so when prompted by their online accounts.

Sticking to the same passwords makes it easy for hackers to gain access to your online accounts by getting a batch of username and password combinations and attempting those combinations until they find the right one. The best way to protect your data and prevent a breach from having a cascading effect on your life is to choose and set a unique password for each specific online account that you have.

While it can be a tough task to remember multiple passwords, it’s essential to do this to protect your online accounts. You can also delegate the job of remembering passwords to a password manager. A password manager such as the one included in ESET Smart Security Premium, helps you store your passwords into a digital vault and keeps them safe from prying eyes. The only password you need to remember is a master password that unlocks the password manager itself.

Tip #2: Steer clear of public Wi-Fi

The same things that make publicly available Wi-Fi so desirable are what make them so dangerous. These networks require no authentication to get a connection and make for an amazing opportunity for cybercriminals to access unsecured devices on the network.

Hackers may infiltrate poorly secured public Wi-Fi networks to distribute malware, monitor victims’ traffic and redirect them to fraudulent login pages. Sometimes attackers will set up a malicious network (an “evil twin” or “spoof”) to trick users into logging into a network with a similar or same name. From there, they can launch attacks to steal personal information, corrupt data and more.

In such cases, the best way to protect your online banking information is to either avoid public Wi-Fi altogether, or use a virtual private network (VPN) to create a secure and private network.

Tip #3: Use secure payment gateways

Whipping out a credit card to complete an online transaction has become second nature in today’s digital age. With your love for online shopping unlikely to go away anytime soon, it is important to practice safe payment habits, including the use of a secure payment gateway, to prevent malicious actors from reaching your financial data and money.

Payment gateways such as PayPal use data encryption and anti-fraud technology to keep customers’ details safe. These protocols also prevent the merchant from obtaining your card details. Look out for these payment options the next time you make an online purchase.

Tip #4: Don’t fall prey to clickbait

Clickbait often comes in the form of a combination of misleading and sensationalised text along with a false thumbnail to encourage visitors to click on a link. These often contain links to phishing websites that aim to steal your credentials. Also, clickbait may redirect you to malicious domains which can infect your computer with malware. This malware can potentially be used to encrypt your financial information and keep it hostage, denying you access to it.

Now that you know what clickbait is, avoid clicking on them or suspicious website links. In general, don’t ever click links in emails or websites unless they’re from a source known to you.

While clickbait is an infamous carrier of malware, you can stay safe by employing an anti-malware solution such as ESET NOD32 Antivirus. Software like these promote system security by scanning the system for malicious behaviour and restricting redirects to malicious websites through inspection of the malware code.

Tip #5: Turn off the ‘save password’ feature in browsers

Your browser knows a lot about you, courtesy of your history and cached files. Many browsers offer some kind of password storage solution as well.

However, it’s safer to not store passwords in your browser. If a hacker takes control of your computer remotely, they will easily be able to gain access to your online accounts. Storing passwords in a browser also makes your accounts vulnerable to people who might want to snoop around on your computer when you aren’t around.

To enhance your online security, disable the autofill and the ‘save password’ settings. Also, use a reputable VPN so that your internet browsing activities are carried out anonymously.

With so many of our everyday activities now taking place online, the number of online accounts you have to juggle can be overwhelming. In theory, no one wants to get their online accounts hacked, especially when their personal information is at stake. In practice, however, Singaporeans are largely careless with online password security, with 50-70% of them using the same password across multiple online accounts.

Now that working from home and outside the safe confines of the office intranet is the norm, the number of passwords you need may have significantly increased. If even one of those accounts is compromised in a data breach, it doesn’t matter how strong your password is, hackers can easily use it to get into your other accounts.

The safest method to save them, however impractical it sounds, is to memorise all your passwords. But with password measures being ridiculously complex (passwords should be long, contain an uppercase letter, a number, and a special character), memorising all of them can be a tough task. The solution is to offload that chore to a password manager, which offers a safe vault for all your passwords across all your online accounts.

What is a password manager?
Despite the increase in data breaches, Singaporeans still practise poor password hygiene and are in the habit of storing their passwords on a computer, writing them down, and using the same passwords for both work and personal accounts. 

The overarching reason behind such behaviour is the difficulty of generating and remembering strong passwords. However, you can ease this burden by automating both those tasks with the help of a tool called a password manager. A password manager can provide a secure, automated, and digital way to both generate strong passwords and save them for you. It can generate a strong, new password whenever you create an online account or are trying to change a password, as well as store your passwords securely.

Password managers don’t just stop there. They also come in handy for storing other vital and sensitive information such as credit card information and bank details. All users have to do is store all this information in the password manager and secure it with one master password, similar to a master key.

Why do you need to use a password manager?
Passwords are stolen and guessed all the time. In fact, a variant of the malware Mirai unsettled Singaporeans in 2019 by targeting system vulnerabilities through brute-force attacks, a method where hackers try out various combinations of usernames and passwords in an attempt to correctly guess yours.

That’s not all. Singaporeans are also experiencing a rise in phishing scams on websites and emails where threat actors try to trick them into handing over their password. Although websites are meant to scramble your passwords whenever you enter them, not all websites use strong algorithms to do it, which makes it easier for hackers to unscramble your password.

This is where password managers can help you by generating long and complex passwords that are infuriatingly tough for hackers to unscramble. Apart from that, password managers also relieve you of the daunting task of remembering multiple different passwords for your online accounts, and protect you from harm arising from a data breach, acting as a powerful way to keep out hackers.

Password managers also provide autofill options that allow you to obscure your passwords from onlookers and prevent credential stuffing attacks, where hackers use your user login details stolen from other less secure services or sites to log into other sites in hopes of gathering sensitive or personal information that can be used in other scams or attacks.

What makes a password manager safe?
Password managers enable users to practice good security hygiene by making every password unique and sufficiently complex. However, the underlying reason is that password managers, such as the one in ESET Smart Security Premium, make use of what is known as the zero-knowledge security model. What zero-knowledge security means is that while the password manager tool knows your passwords, the organisation that made it does not.

This model comprises 3 layers, namely the encrypted data of the users, the tool’s password (which is not stored on the system), and the security key. These layers of defence all rule out any exposure to passwords and greatly reduce the risk of a password being stolen or being obtained by a cybercriminal. To learn more about password managers, click here.