A photographer’s integrity lies in their ability to produce high-quality photos and provide them to the client in time. Unfortunately, weak cybersecurity can stop this from happening and even end a photographer’s career.

Imagine this: you become such a great photographer that a celebrity couple hires you for their wedding. And then imagine if those wedding photos get stolen and leaked by an outside source. You can probably piece together what that would mean for your career as a photographer. Whether you’re photographing celebrities, babies, or just dogs, those photos deserve to be protected. And your career should never be hanging by a thread because of a simple cybersecurity mistake.

Choose your passwords wisely

We all love to use the same old password for email, social media, and all other accounts. It’s easy and convenient, so why would you want to change that? Well, because weak passwords create substantial security vulnerabilities for your art. You’d be surprised to find out the time it takes to crack easy passwords. If one of your passwords gets cracked (and you reuse it a lot), pretty much all of your passwords are cracked.

So how should you choose your passwords if you want to protect your accounts? You should make them long (about 12 characters) and mix up different types of symbols. You can even use special cybersecurity software to help you come up with your new passwords.

Encrypt your disc and email

Any place that stores or transmits your photos should be highly encrypted. First, this means encrypting your disc and email. Doing this will make it extremely hard for hackers to get into your device remotely because they will need the encryption key, which only you have. Encrypting your email will also protect your data from outsiders. If a hacker gains remote access to your device and tries to access your email, your data will not be visible to them.

Get an SSL certificate for your website

An SSL certificate is another way to encrypt your data, except this time, it’s for your website. This certificate creates an encryption barrier between yourself as the website owner and your website visitors. It’s a must if you have online payments set up on your website: users must know that their credit card information is safe and that you take security seriously.

In addition to security, an SSL certificate also increases customer trust and raises the integrity of your website, making it rank higher in Google.

Stay away from public wifi

Did you know that hackers often use public wifi to hack into people’s devices? If a network is unsecured and you connect your device to it (and your device stores all of your photos), a hacker might be able to steal your photos or even delete them.

Please refrain from connecting to public wifi networks unless you’re sure that they have strong encryption. Consider using a VPN if you still plan on connecting to public wifi. A VPN is a security tool that encrypts all of your data and closes it off from hackers.

Beware of phishing

Phishing is a digital form of social engineering that involves fake emails, calls, pop-ups, or any other form of messaging aiming to scam people. The goal of these messages is usually to get information like passwords, bank account info, or maybe even photos.

For example, if you fall for a phishing email by clicking on a malicious link, the malware on that link might end up blocking your access to or deleting your whole database of photos. Or, if you have a photoshoot with someone famous, scammers can create emails that seek to extract these photos from you, which they ultimately leak or sell.

Conclusion

Hopefully, after reading this article, you know why cybersecurity is becoming such a huge issue and why everybody is a potential target. Professionals of all fields should take cybersecurity seriously, and that includes photographers. Don’t forget that when you deal with customers and take photos of them, it’s your responsibility to keep that data confidential and safe from potential attacks. Following these simple tips will help you protect yourself and your clients and keep hackers away!