When the leaders of the world's most powerful nations talk about IT and computer security, you know the issue is top of the global agenda. Replacing nuclear weapons and trade tariffs as a talking point, countries are talking about playing fair and not escalating a cyber war to a state where it could become cause for a real conflict.

While Theresa May might have been desperately trying to gather some support for her Brexit strategy, Barack Obama was trying to talk tough, stating that the US has a sizeable cyber weapon arsenal, but doesn't want to use it (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/06/obama_says_usa_has_worlds_biggest_and_best_cyber_arsenal/). 

Instead he prefers a round of no-hack agreements with nations, that would see their official spy agencies avoid hacking each other. 

The hacks will go on

Of course, any such agreements completely ignore the private, pirate and rogue hackers, as well as hacking groups in third-party countries that are invisibly sponsored by other governments. These are still free to target any business, with increasingly powerful tools that can attempt to break into thousands of accounts or servers every hour. And that's assuming most states don't sign the piece of paper and carry on regardless. 

Russian and Chinese sourced hacks continue to plague American and western businesses, on the lookout for useful information, business ideas or technical data to steal, while random attacks will continue to be a scourge for all businesses.

Even when a hacking shop is identified, located and its command and control servers shut down, the perpetrators, let alone the government behind them, can be impossible to identify. The hackers will simply set up a new base of operations and start all over again. With the US election full of hacking stories (http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-greatest-threat-to-american-democracy-is-psychological-2016-9??r=US&IR=T) linked to Russia, likely looking to destabilise or weaken the candidates, hacking and data security has never had a higher priority. 

Fighting the hackers

Trying to block the hackers are nation states, private data security firms and talented white hat hackers. The best examples are in line for a prize in Britain's 2016 Cyber Security Challenge, looking to find the data protection experts of the future (http://www.computerweekly.com/news/450303717/Simulated-cyber-attack-in-London-adds-finalists-to-2016-UK-Cyber-Security-Challenge?). While they may represent a bright future in the fight against hackers, for the rest of us, the advice is to take every practical security precaution possible.

That starts with the basics like having strong passwords (numbers, capital letters and special characters) for all services you use, and not duplicating passwords across sites. Many of us have been online for over a decade and have left plenty of dormant or defunct accounts around the internet. It just takes one of those databases to be stolen with a password you still use (and older databases had weaker or no encryption) to compromise your current accounts. 

To check if any of your existing accounts have been hacked, you can use the Have I Been Pwned service (https://haveibeenpwned.com/) that stores your email address and compares it against all recorded leaks, so you can see if you would need to change your other passwords. It will email you if your details come up in any future leaks or hacks. 

Why do you need to take these measures? Another popular US forum was recently hacked, this time associated with a porn site (http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/09/05/hackers-ejaculate-800000-brazzers-accounts-onto-the-dark-web/#gref), and over 800,000 accounts were revealed. Users can expect plenty of spam blackmail attempts in their email inboxes, but the dedicated hackers will be trying user names, emails and passwords on dozens of other sites to try and access accounts. 

Staying safe isn't complicated

While adding a few characters to a password, or using disposable email accounts for non-essential services, might add a little extra effort to your day, most other personal data security requires little effort. Antivirus software and firewalls on your PC update themselves regularly and are free to use or available at low cost. Using a virtual private network will help encrypt your data when you are using an untrusted public network, when travelling or working in a cafe, for example.

Staying aware, and on the lookout for fake emails, websites and other threats is perhaps the most important thing that users can do to remain safe. Whenever you get a new piece of hardware, or sign up for a new online service, think about making sure you follow our advice on safe logins, and check websites for HTTPS:// headers in their weblinks (like our own site), these ensure a secure connection and are still easy to miss. Chrome's browser highlights such links with a green tab on the address bar, while Firefox has a green padlock icon to show the sites is safe.