Any time you connect to the Internet you are vulnerable to cyber attacks where hackers attempt to steal your credit card details, passwords, or even attempt to completely disable your PC.

At the seventh annual Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network Summit (DWEN), a global gathering of 200 of the top female entrepreneurs, business leaders, media and Dell partners, Cylance CTO Glenn Chisholm discussed the importance of Cyber Security.

“Often misunderstood by senior leaders, the motivation behind cyber crime is crucially important. It is what motivates the attacker and helps define their target,” he explained.

“And it is quite simple, their motivation is money. This is a community of entrepreneurs who look for market gaps and then innovate to meet the needs of the market.”

He offered the following 6 simple tips to make yourself, and everyone you deal with online, safer:

1. Use a password manager

A password manager is a software application that helps a user store and organise passwords.

Password managers usually store passwords encrypted, requiring the user to create a master password – a single, ideally very strong password which grants the user access to their entire password database.

Chisholm recommends LastPass, one of the most popular free password manager apps out there, which works on both your desktop and your phone (Android or iOS).

2. Turn on Two-Factor

Two-factor authentication is a security process where you provide two means of identification from separate categories of credentials.

Typically, this would be a one-time pin sent to your cellphone, and the other would be a password that you memorised.

“Turn on Two-Factor for everything – Facebook, Twitter, Google, everything,” Chisholm said.

“That way, if you ever lose your password, a hacker still won’t be able to get past the second factor because you still have your phone.”

3. Make like Mark Zuckerberg and tape your camera

Mark Zuckerberg very recently made the news for putting tape over the built-in camera on his laptop.

Chisholm argues that this might not be as paranoid as it seems at first.

“This is the lowest common denominator of low-risk moves. It costs you absolutely nothing to do and it reduces your risk completely,” he explains.

4. Keep your OS up to date

Ensure that your computer’s OS software has been appropriately upgraded, and upgrade to Windows 10 if you haven’t yet.

“These updates have been released for a reason, and keeping up to date will help to keep you safe,” Chisholm said.

“Again, this costs you nothing and makes you far more secure.”

5. Never click on links in emails

“Never click on a link in an email and don’t do business with companies that require you to,” Chisholm said.

“Ignore the link to click and rather visit the website directly from your browser.”

If a friend sends you a link in an email, he suggests that you copy the link out of the email and paste it into the web browser so you can see where it is going.

6. Back up all your data

Ensure that your data is backed up regularly. Better yet, set automatic, regular back ups.

“That way if you ever get caught in a ransomeware attack, you can just format your PC and start again,” Chisholm said.

“And if you have data that you care about, encrypt it. Encrypt it in motion and in rest – it is free to do this and especially important for BYOD.”