Life has no shortage of obstacles and it seems to get more challenging with each passing day! It would be easy to just tune them all out.
But that can be more painful in the long run. Sometimes, when you ignore potential challenges they end up biting you and sucking up even more of your time and money.
Some of the very worst issues modern life has thrown at us are identity theft and hacking. Both can create much lost time, expense and potentially embarrassment and legal issues.
Prevention Beats Overcoming Obstacles
Whenever possible, it is better to avoid issues than have to overcome them later. But when it comes to security, prevention gets very complicated.
New vulnerabilities are identified so often it sometimes seems impossible. Even the state department is looking for a tool to scan for vulnerabilities across worldwide systems.
There are security solutions available, but how many do you need to cobble together to even hope to avoid issues?
When he got hacked, Aura Founder and CEO Hari Ravichandran started researching digital security. But he said he found “products were confusing, expensive and difficult to use. And there was no comprehensive solution anywhere”.
That is why he set out to create a platform to protect individuals and businesses on every front. Isn’t one simple security solution what we all need?
How to Overcome Obstacles
But what about those obstacles we just can’t avoid? The key to overcoming any obstacle is to stay calm and face it head on.
Seriously consider getting professional advice before you respond. It is much more difficult to see solutions when you’re too close to the problem.
Most importantly, do not post anything online until you develop a strategy. What you share online lives forever. And unwise actions can make things much worse.
Businesses and anyone with a large following should remember the Streisand Effect. Tech blogger Mike Masnick explained:
“How long is it going to take before lawyers realize that the simple act of trying to repress something they don’t like online is likely to make it so that something that most people would never, ever see (like a photo of a urinal in some random beach resort) is now seen by many more people? Let’s call it the Streisand Effect.”
Only use your own reach strategically once you have a strategy – never to amplify bad publicity or express frustration.
This is especially true when there are legal issues involved. And it is imperative when the consequences can be extremely costly.
Yes, ignoring it and hoping it will go away is very tempting. But that usually leads to issues becoming even worse over time.
Why Invest in Prevention?
The consequences of ignoring online security include fighting identity theft for years or even decades, destroying your business, or even landing in jail.
The innocent person is usually released within hours, days or weeks. But their photo will be plastered all over the internet with the words “arrested” on it and no details.
It is not recommended to pay to try to remove those photos as they will keep popping up on additional sites whose owners will also want to be paid for removal.
The stress and embarrassment identity theft victims experience sometimes leads to deep depression. Some even consider suicide.
In the ThriveGlobal series on “5 Things You Need To Know To Optimize Your Company’s Approach to Data Privacy and Cybersecurity”, Jason Remilard and Chloe Messdaghi wrote:
“Security is just as important as sales. You should invest just as much in both. Without security, you don’t have a product, you don’t have consumers, you don’t have a company.”
Set Up Alerts and Monitor Credit Reports
It is an excellent practice for every person and business to be monitoring activities about them online. Anyone can easily set up no cost Google Alerts to monitor their name and business name.
The FTC offers consumer information on how to get free credit reports. And they have a website that provides detailed instructions for what to do if you are the victim of identity theft.
Some of the biggest obstacles in life today are related to what we do online, finances, scammers and privacy violations.
Fortunately, the same solution applies to overcoming all obstacles in life: stay calm and face them head on.