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So I used to think this was boring and always told people my password, or wrote it on a post-it-note that I put on my screen. But then I got my Instagram hacked and things got really serious. So I hope I can tell you this story and that it will save you from losing all your followers like I did. I basically had to start from scratch. If I can save one fashion blogger what I’ve gone through by sharing this, it will be a good day!

What is the fuss about?

You wouldn’t get undressed in front of an open window right, with millions of weird guys out there?? Well I wouldn’t. So basically you need to think of being on the internet as like that, getting undressed in front of an open window. You need to close those curtains and I’m going to tell you how. Luckily I had a guy who was a friend of mine and he was really friendly and good at computers so he helped me set all this stuff up.

Passwords

I know, I know! We all hate those stupid password things where they make you have one letter, one number, and one other thing. I just like to have 123456789 or something like that (that’s not my password any more!!). These rules just made me frustrated. I always forgot the password when they made me put those other characters. But, I learned that there is a reason for it, it’s not because it makes the password harder for someone to guess, but it’s because a person isn’t trying to guess your password, they’re using some software to guess the password, thousands of tries every time. So the bad guy’s software will try dogs1, dogs2, dogs3, and so on, until it’s tried all the possible combinations. Now that you know this, you will know why they make those rules. So make sure you follow those rules and choose a good password that won’t be guessed by that software. Also, don’t tell anyone! I know it feels fun like you trust your friends, but you never know, they might log into your email to see if you’re cheating on them or any other crazy reason. So be safe and don’t give your password out, not even to your besties.

Anti Virus Software

When I was younger we had this old boxy computer up on a table, it was that gross beige color and it was really slow, but there were some fun games on it that my little brother would play and I would watch him. It was a Windows computer, and I remember it had antivirus, because it would always come up when I was trying to write reports for school. Anyway, as you can tell, anti virus is a thing of the past. I have a mac now and the guy at the shop told me and my parents that I definitely shouldn’t spend money on anti virus for my mac. So if you can, get a mac and not a windows computer, because even though it’s more expensive, it’s worth it. Not needing anti virus is just one of the ways that it’s better.

Internet Spies

Remember the millions of weird dudes outside your window? Yeah, shudder, right? Well, I’m going to tell you how to permanently close those curtains. Basically, everything that you do on the internet can be watched by the people out there. Your cookies and the websites that you go to are shown to people on the internet. They can’t read your emails but they can read some other information. What you can do is to use a service called a VPN which is basically a private service. It’s like a private tunnel that other people can’t read. So I recommend a VPN service. It’s kind of cheap and easy to get started, just pick one, download the software and you can be set up in a few minutes.

Browsing History

This is something that most people don’t know about, and I only found out recently. Basically, when you’re on the internet you leave a trail of where you’ve been. It’s like a bread crumb trail. You can go to see your browsing history and delete it, but it’s still not very private. If you’re doing anything that you don’t want the people out there to know about, use a VPN (see above) to make sure you’re safe. But if your little brother is going to use your computer then make sure you have cleared your history if there’s anything you don’t want them to see. There’s a button in the menu to clear the history for today, the last week, or everything ever.

I hope these tips help you guys to stay safe online, let me know if you lost your instagram (or anything else) and we can offer some support to each other. Thanks for reading and make sure you do these tips!

x koko