Assume the scenario- You’re a marketing manager on digital platform and you’ve been tasked with the responsibility of attracting consumers to your specific brand, but you have very limited budget. You're questioning yourself, "How am I supposed to roll in the big bucks with a small marketing budget?"

. Digital marketing doesn't have to be expensive. Truth be told, if you do enough strategic planning from the very beginning and aim at realistic, targeted outcomes, you can achieve success with a limited budget. Explosive marketing budget to get anywhere online is a myth.

From my perspective, digital marketing shouldn't be expensive. You have to plan the channels and resources you'll allocate to your marketing efforts overall. It’s not a prime factor if it's SEO, pay-per-click advertising or social media marketing, no matter what platform you're looking at tackling, you can execute it with careful strategy and refinement.

You can opt for work with an agency to help you, or you can do this on your own. Do keep in mind, however, that if you're not a marketing expert or are trying to learn the ropes from the very beginning, your budget can quickly be eaten up. Ensure you're weighing all of the options you have on-hand and eliminating those that could potentially use your marketing budgets unnecessarily.

The good news is that even a beginner can take a few simple steps toward harvesting traffic without spending too much money. If plunging into a dedicated, expert-driven campaign isn't right up your alley yet, this is the best place to start.

Here are a few ways you can begin generating website traffic:

1. Use search engines to your advantage.

You might need a bit of SEO insight here to help you, but in a nutshell, you want to get as much traffic as possible from this organic platform. That means optimizing your content and website for keywords and phrases you know your target audience would be searching for. There are a few free tools available that you can quickly find online.

2. Check for broken links.

You'll lose prospects and customers to links on your website that are broken. Review your website and check whether you have any URLs that need fixing. This is a quick way to get traffic back that you were otherwise letting escape.

3. Assess who's talking about you.

 Has anyone been writing or talking about your brand but not linking to your page? Consider reaching out to them and politely asking them to do so. This can help you gain more opportunistic traffic.

4. Update your old content.

This is a big one. If you've put effort into blogging in the past, have a gander through Google Analytics and see what content is performing the best. Update these posts with new stats, facts, quotes and images that will reap new attention. Let your audience know it has been updated as a call to action at the bottom of the article, and even with an "[UPDATED for 2020]" tag in the headline.

5. Use manual outreach as your sidekick.

Going back to authentic relationships and connections to build links and awareness for brands is an another alternative . That means scouring the web for those in your industry who are like-minded and already writing about brands, services and goods like yours. You can offer them an incentive to write about your business and help turn their following into yours. Think of this as digital public relations.

6. Refresh your ranking content.

Use your choice of SEO tool to see what content of yours is ranking on page two of Google. This is the kind of content you want to refresh, optimize and get up to page one. It's low-hanging fruit that will pay dividends in return.

Sometimes, generating website traffic with a limited marketing budget is a lot to handle. There are many aspects to juggle, and you still have to ensure you're keeping on track with branding and maintaining the compliance norms as well. But by setting honest expectations and taking the steps mentioned  above, you'll be on your way to getting your brand out there with limited costs.

Social media has made its own place in the world of people. There are some people, whose day is not complete without using it, but always be aware of the fraud and cyber-crime that occur while using social media. So far, people have had to pay the price for not doing so.

It's a good time to update existing policies to cover the increase in remote work and set clear expectations for employees about using social media during work hours.

One fine day you may get email that someone is trying to log into your Instagram account. But the thing is, you don’t have any Instagram account.

This is a very common phishing scam. A phishing scam is when someone tries to impersonate a company or service that you might actually do business with in an effort to steal your account information.

The scammers assume you have a Instagram account and are hoping you will click on the link and provide your login credentials so they can use this information to access any account you might have.

These tend to be more common with scammers claiming to be from your bank or other financial institutions, but lately they have been targeting social media accounts. Their assumption is that if you use the same login information at one site, you probably use it for another.

Once they get a user name and password combination, these scammers will meticulously go through every possible online service and try to access the accounts with the information they have from this one phishing attack.

That is why it is always a good practice to use a unique password for each one of your online accounts. And yes, that can be a real hassle.

I have been using Google Chrome and logging in with a Google account. This allows me to create and save complex and unique passwords for all of my online accounts.

If you’re not a fan of Google, look at a dedicated password manager like LastPass or 1password for managing this.

Social media platforms like #Facebook, #Twitter and #Instagram started out as a way to connect with friends, family and people of interest. But anyone on social media these days knows it’s increasingly a divisive landscape.

Undoubtedly you’ve heard reports that hackers and even foreign governments are using social media to manipulate and attack you. You may wonder how that is possible. As an information security enthusiast I can explain – and offer some ideas for what you can do about it.

Bots and sock puppets

Social media platforms don’t simply feed you the posts from the accounts you follow. They use algorithms to curate what you see based in part on “likes” or “votes.” A post is shown to some users, and the more those people react – positively or negatively – the more it will be highlighted to others. Sadly, lies and extreme content often garner more reactions and so spread quickly and widely.

But who is doing this “voting”? Often it’s an army of accounts, called bots, which do not correspond to real people. In fact, they’re controlled by hackers, often on the other side of the world. For example, researchers have reported that more than half of the Twitter accounts discussing COVID-19 are bots.

As a social media researcher, I’ve seen thousands of accounts with the same profile picture “like” posts in unison. I’ve seen accounts post hundreds of times per day, far more than a human being could. I’ve seen an account claiming to be an “All-American patriotic army wife” from Florida post obsessively about immigrants in English, but whose account history showed it used to post in Ukranian.

Fake accounts like this are called “sock puppets” – suggesting a hidden hand speaking through another identity. In many cases, this deception can easily be revealed with a look at the account history. But in some cases, there is a big investment in making sock puppet accounts seem real.

Sowing chaos

Trolls often don’t care about the issues as much as they care about creating division and distrust. For example, researchers in 2018 concluded that some of the most influential accounts on both sides of divisive issues, like Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter, were controlled by troll farms.

More than just fanning disagreement, trolls want to encourage a belief that truth no longer exists. Divide and conquer. Distrust anyone who might serve as a leader or trusted voice. Cut off the head. Demoralize. Confuse. Each of these is a devastating attack strategy.

Taking control

So what can you do about it? You probably already know to check the sources and dates of what you read and forward, but common-sense media literacy advice is not enough.

First, use social media more deliberately. Choose to catch up with someone in particular, rather than consuming only the default feed. You might be amazed to see what you’ve been missing. Help your friends and family find your posts by using features like pinning key messages to the top of your feed.

Second, pressure social media platforms to remove accounts with clear signs of automation. Ask for more controls to manage what you see and which posts are amplified. Ask for more transparency in how posts are promoted and who is placing ads. For example, complain directly about the Facebook news feed here or tell legislators about your concerns.

Third, be aware of the trolls’ favorite issues and be skeptical of them. They may be most interested in creating chaos, but they also show clear preferences on some issues. For example, trolls want to reopen economies quickly without real management to flatten the COVID-19 curve. They also clearly supported one of the 2016 U.S. presidential candidates over the other. It’s worth asking yourself how these positions might be good for Russian trolls, but bad for you and your family.

Because of the multi-purpose aspect of social media platforms, they become valuable tools that the average person spends approximately 100 minutes on every day, according to a recent study. Because they are such omnipresent platforms, and being linked to an increasing number of applications on smartphones and other devices, it becomes even more necessary to secure them.

Users can save themselves from all these things by taking care of few things.

Create strong password

It is very important to protect yourself while using any social media platform. For this, first create a strong and different password. This is such a thing, without which you cannot open your account. For this reason, create a password that is difficult for the hacker to think and cannot easily break it. This will keep your social media account safe and no personal information will be able to go out. Also for the sake of protection please activate multi-factor authentication password while logging into the social media account.

Take care of privacy

Have you ever noticed that whoever is watching what you are sharing on social media?

If you do not want everyone to see the photos, files and other things you have shared, then take care of the privacy settings. While creating an account, first make the settings related to privacy so that your things do not fall into the wrong hands.

Report offensive post

Many times we see many such posts on social media which do not look right, but in spite of this we ignore them. This is our biggest mistake. You should report such posts immediately. It will be beneficial for you as well as the rest of the people. By doing this you can secure multiple people at once. In addition, you can also report fake IDs.

Do not use third party app

Many applications, software, and websites etc. give you the option to login with a social media account. You must have thought many times to press the button of Login with Facebook, but it can become a big problem for you. To avoid this, tap on the app and website in the settings and see all the apps and websites associated with the ID, immediately remove what you don't feel safe.

This article is drafted to explore the privacy and security issues that affect social media accounts. The topics covered herein reveals that users of social media post personal information, which can be used by malicious criminals and businesses to compromise the privacy and security of individuals in the real world. It has been noted that people post personal information because they have a false sense of security while using social media.

Irrespective of  the fact that there are laws and policies that seek to protect users’ information from such vices, individuals should exercise caution and filter information that they publish on social media, because it becomes public as soon as it is posted. So prior to posting any personal information in social media account please judge the personal contents you are willing to publish.

Millions of people are still working from home due to the COVID-19 crisis, which makes  VPN access more essential than ever. But in the ever-growing market for commercial virtual private networks, finding the best VPN to suit your particular needs can be difficult. To help you make the right choice, we've sifted through the multitude of overhyped VPN providers touting their own private network to find the best VPN service for you. .    

Since we're living in a connected world, security and privacy are critical to ensure our personal safety from nefarious hacks. From online banking to communicating with coworkers on a daily basis, we're now frequently transferring data on our computers and smartphones. It's extremely important to find ways of securing our digital life and for this reason, VPNs have become increasingly common.

What is a VPN?

A virtual private network is a technology that allows you to create a secure connection over a less-secure network between your computer and the internet. It protects your privacy by allowing you to anonymously appear to be anywhere you choose.

A VPN works by routing your device's internet connection through your chosen VPN's private server rather than your internet service provider (ISP) so that when your data is transmitted to the internet, it comes from the VPN rather than your computer.

How a Virtual Private Network can help protect your privacy online

A VPN is beneficial because it guarantees an appropriate level of security and privacy to the connected systems. This is extremely useful when the existing network infrastructure alone cannot support it.

When your computer is connected to a VPN, the computer acts as if it's also on the same network as the VPN. All of your online traffic is transferred over a secure connection to the VPN. The computer will then behave as if it's on that network, allowing you to securely gain access to local network resources. Regardless of your location, you'll be given permission to use the internet as if you were present at the VPN's location. This can be extremely beneficial for individuals using a public Wi-Fi network or public Wi-Fi hotspots.

Therefore, when you browse the internet while on a VPN, your computer will contact the website through an encrypted connection. The VPN will then forward the request for you and forward the response from the website back through a secure connection.

VPNs are really easy to use, and they're considered to be highly effective tools. They can be used to do a wide range of things. The most popular types of VPNs are remote-access VPNs and site-to-site VPNs.

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Understanding the importance of a virtual private network

We may have heard of a VPN, but we have little or no knowledge about the same. Known as Virtual Private Network, it is a group of computers connected over a public network. The internet is an example of such a network. But what does a VPN do? Read on to find out.

There are numerous benefits linked with the use of a VPN, and more of this is discussed in this article. The VPN is meant to help you protect your internet privacy and also get around your internet censorship.

Unknown to some computer users connecting to a VPN, the data on your personal computer is encrypted to the Virtual Private Network provider.  The best thing is that entities that try to censor some sites are not able to determine the site you are connected to. The filtering entities that may be used to restrict access to specific sites cannot determine whether your computer is accessing such sites or not. For example, access to a specific site may be restricted in your country, but you will comfortably use it when you access it when you connect to a VPN because your connection is encrypted.

At the same time, you are sure of internet privacy when your data is encrypted between your PC and the virtual private network provider. No entity can access your internet connections to see the specific websites you are accessing. Using a VPN keeps your data protected. 

Most internet users keep the notion that connecting to a public network is not safe. The best thing to know is that you will enjoy the benefits of connecting to a virtual private network, even when connected to a public WIFI network. 

If you are browsing from a local café or a public park, some hackers can easily access your data if you are not connected to a VPN. Luckily, you remain protected as long as you are connected to a virtual private network which encrypts your data.

Therefore, you should always ensure to connect to a virtual private network to use a private connection.

Another great thing about virtual private networks is that they don’t require any sophisticated equipment. 

Most VPN providers use software that is included in the windows operating system to allow subscribers to access the network. The provider should give you this information before subscribing for their service.

Virtual private network services are highly affordable. They can cost as little as $5 or higher depending on the quality and the extra features. Take time to find the best VPN provider who will give you value for your money.

Whether you are accessing the internet anonymously for business or personal reasons, you need to invest in the best virtual private network.  There are thousands of companies offering VPN services out there. Free programs are not worth it since they don’t use the best technologies. The best VPN providers will offer unlimited customer support and give affordable rates.

Who needs a VPN?

People who access the internet from a computer, tablet or smartphone will benefit from using a VPN. A VPN service will always boost your security by encrypting and anonymizing all of your online activity. Communications that happen between the VPN server and your device are encrypted, so a hacker or website spying on you wouldn't know which web pages you access. They also won't be able to see private information like passwords, usernames and bank or shopping details and so on. Anyone who wants to protect their privacy and security online should use a VPN.

How to choose a VPN service?

There's a vast range of VPN services on the internet. Some are free VPN services, but the best ones require a monthly subscription. Before you decide to download a VPN, make sure you consider these factors for understanding a VPN.

Cost: VPNs aren't too pricey, but they vary from vendor to vendor. If your main concern is price, then go with something inexpensive, or a free VPN service -- like Spotflux Premium VPN or AnchorFree HotSpot Shield Elite. Free servers are often slower, and since most are ad-supported, they place adverts on the online pages you access. Others can even limit the speed of your connection, as well as your online time or amount of data transferred.

It's also important to note that leading VPN providers offer stronger security features to ensure you're digitally safe. When selecting a paid VPN service, always be sure to check which countries it operates servers in.

What VPNs are used for-?

At its core, a VPN makes you appear to be somewhere you're not. It does this by connecting you to the internet via a server in a different part of the country or a different part of the world. 

There are a lot of ways people use VPNs. VPNs let you:

 Protect your identity while downloading software, especially while using a service like BitTorrent. Whether your downloads are legal or not, many ISPs don't like their customers to use torrents. Using a VPN avoids being chastised by your ISP.

 Hide your online activities. Activists around the world need to worry about having their online activities monitored or outright censored, and sometimes these activities can even put them at risk of physical harm. A VPN is an effective tool for keeping your online activities from being tracked. 

 Avoid geographic restrictions on online content. Some websites and streaming media services are geo-blocked, which means you need to live in a particular country to have access to them. A VPN can help you bypass these blocks by connecting you to a server in any location you want.  

 Securely access your home computer while traveling. A VPN creates a secure and anonymous connection you can use to remotely connect to your home PC when you're away from home.

There are two basic VPN types which are explained below.

Remote access VPN allows a user to connect to a private network and access its services and resources remotely. The connection between the user and the private network happens through the Internet and the connection is secure and private.

Remote Access VPN is useful for business users as well as home users.

A corporate employee, while traveling, uses a VPN to connect to his/her company’s private network and remotely access files and resources on the private network.

Home users, or private users of VPN, primarily use VPN services to bypass regional restrictions on the Internet and access blocked websites. Users conscious of Internet security also use VPN services to enhance their Internet security and privacy.

A Site-to-Site VPN is also called as Router-to-Router VPN and is mostly used in the corporates. Companies, with offices in different geographical locations, use Site-to-site VPN to connect the network of one office location to the network at another office location. When multiple offices of the same company are connected using Site-to-Site VPN type, it is called as Intranet based VPN. When companies use Site-to-site VPN type to connect to the office of another company, it is called as Extranet based VPN. Basically, Site-to-site VPN create a virtual bridge between the networks at geographically distant offices and connect them through the Internet and maintain a secure and private communication between the networks.

Since Site-to-site VPN is based on Router-to-Router communication, in this VPN type one router acts as a VPN Client and another router as a VPN Server. The communication between the two routers starts only after an authentication is validated between the two.

VPNs Don’t Make You Totally Secure

While as IT professional and an ITIL practitioner, we always recommend using a VPN while connecting to the outer world over the internet, it’s important to keep in mind that VPNs don’t make you totally secure. Hackers having quality knowledge as well as the government and law enforcement agencies — can still trace your identity and.

Still, VPNs are considered as one of the vital layers of defense — either to lock out average hackers or convince expert hackers to ignore you. It’s like analogous to home alarm. Experienced burglars can disable pretty much anything. But if you have a good system, burglars are much more likely to skip your house and find an easier target.

Hackers are much the same. These persons are usually highly motivated by money and will focus on victims that present the easiest opportunity. If you have a strong VPN, there’s a good chance they’ll skip you and target someone else without a VPN (and the number of people who use the public internet or open public wi-fi for internet access without a VPN is shocking!).

Use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to Secure VPN

MFA extends primary authentication (such as passwords) with an additional layer of authentication (such as using security tokens) to verify a user's identity. It usually includes at least two of the following categories: knowledge (something they know), possession (something they have), and inherence (something they are).

The goal of MFA is to provide a higher level of identity assurance to users attempting to access resources via VPN. MFA prevents an attacker from accessing your account, even if they obtain your username and password. For example, if you created a layered mechanism, an unauthorized user would have to bypass all layers to gain access.
However, not all MFA solutions and approaches are created equal. Traditional on-premises MFA solutions are often cumbersome to deploy, solve limited use cases, and provide poor user experience. The net result is limited end-user adoption in addition to sunk IT and security costs.
Adaptive MFA (AMFA) integrates with your organization's applications and resources and adds an additional layer of identity assurance, making it ideal for today's rapidly changing security landscape.