Secure your data with passwords, encryption and backups¶

In this chapter, we'll discuss:

• how to prevent unauthorised access to your data
• how to set up an effective backup strategy
• how to use encryption to make your data unreadable

We live in a digital age¶

Humanity generates more data every day. Digital data will have grown to 175 Zettabytes by 2025. That's one hundred and fifty-nine billion one hundred and sixty-one million five hundred and seventy-two thousand eight hundred and ten Terabytes.

Every connected person engages with digital data about 4.900 times per day. That's once every 18 seconds. You are no exception. A significant amount of your life is digitised and stored all over the place. Your phone, computer, watch and cloud services might know more about you than your closest friends.

Protect your data¶

Use strong and unique passwords. Avoid re-using passwords for several devices or accounts. Use a password manager. And consider two-factor authentication for additional security.

Backup your data¶

An effective backup strategy can shield you from data loss, theft, deletion, corruption, leaks, ransomware, or worse.

Encrypt your data¶

Encryption makes your data unreadable, even in case of a breach. For example if an attacker manages to hack your cloud storage account or gets unauthorised access to your computer.