Online security has become even more important than ever, and for many, using a computer is part of their daily lives. Even if all you do is email people, it’s still vital that you protect your computer, your programs, and your information from the negative possibilities that exist today.
The sad truth is that there are people who spend their time finding ways to get into your computer, through Trojans, spyware or virus programs, to get your personal information, or even just for entertainment. It’s sad but true. There are thousands of companies that rely on spyware and malware to promote their products, drive traffic to their sites, and install annoying pop-up ads on the computers of unsuspecting customers. Anyone who has surfed the Internet has experienced the annoyance caused by pop-up ad boxes, or the lag caused by shockwave or flash ads.
The term “hacking” is thrown around a lot on the web, but the simple truth is that accounts (email, forums, etc.) are very rarely “hacked.” Most likely, people just didn’t protect their information. This article explains how, in a few simple steps, you can protect yourself and your computer, and stop worrying about your personal information being disclosed without your permission.
First steps:
Install a good virus scanner, firewall, and spyware detection program.
The Bachelor the most important What you can do for yourself is to protect your computer. There are plenty of great free programs out there, from Zone Alarm to Ad-Aware, Spybot Search & Destroy, and Microsoft Defender. All of these programs are free and a simple Google search will find their websites. You do No You have to spend a lot of money to protect yourself! Go with a reputable company and be sure Keep your programs up to date with the list of virus and spyware definitions, but following these simple steps will give you the basics to protect yourself and your computer.
But having these programs running is not enough. You need to use them. Scan your system daily for spyware, you’d be surprised how many websites install “tracking cookies” or other nasty things just by visiting their site, and some sites can even install Trojan viruses on your computer, just by visiting their site! Scan for viruses weekly, at a minimum. Don’t be complacent, it only takes a few minutes to let these programs do their scans, and they can save you time and money in the long run.
Never disable your firewall for any reason, ever. Not having a firewall means that your computer is basically an open book to anyone with a bit of knowledge, or any program designed to access it and it can have disastrous effects. Programs can be installed without your knowledge and can do anything from reading anything you have on your computer (documents, emails) to installing keyloggers, which can record every keystroke you type. Imagine if you have one of those installed without knowing it, and you go to your online banking site… not a good picture. Protect yourself!
E-mail accounts
If you visit a variety of forums, play games online, or are a member of a specialized community, it’s always a good idea to get separate emails for these things. Having an email and using it for everything has a number of drawbacks, one of which is spam. It’s a good idea to have one email for your personal information, like family emails, banking, shopping, but have one or more “spare” emails for other areas, like forums, games, or communities like Facebook and MySpace. Yahoo.com, Gmail, etc. offer free email accounts and have spam filters to help deal with spam.
If you’re a member of online communities or instant messaging programs, it’s always a good idea to “hide” your email in your profile. Most forums or other sites have a “control panel” that allows you to set whether you want your email to be made public. I would suggest that you never make it public, for a number of reasons, one of which is that there are programs out there that are designed to pick out email addresses from forums, online community sites, and other areas for email spam. Hiding your email goes a long way in stopping this. If you need to make a post that has your email, write it down and make it “ghost”, making it so it can’t be copied to work, like Bob (at) hotmail (dot) com. That way, anyone who is a real person reading your post will understand to replace the @ and ., but these programs won’t recognize it as an email address.
When reading email, it’s a good idea to set your email program to read “plain text only.” Most email programs (Microsoft Mail, Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc.) have this setting in the Options menu. Doing this has few benefits. First of all, it takes much less time to load the email to read it, you can immediately see what it is, instead of waiting for the images to load, but most importantly, there is no chance of any script running malicious just by reading the email. . (Yes, there are, and while most good virus scanners integrate with your email programs, it’s better to be safe than sorry and avoid allowing emails to display in HTML.) If you are 100% sure that the email is from someone you know, and trust, you can simply use the “View” menu and “View in HTML” to view any image or format.
passwords
I guess most online users use the same password for multiple sites, if not all. This is one of the biggest mistakes you can make online. Sure, it may be easy to remember, but isn’t it worth taking the time to create a specific password for each account with your personal information? If you have accounts on Facebook, MySpace, instant messaging sites like GoogleIM, MSN, etc., use separate passwords for each site. Why? Because if someone got your password, they wouldn’t have access to everything, just the site that password belonged to.
More importantly, make your passwords strong. Many sites that ask you to sign in now include a small “security bar” that shows how strong your password is. These are great, but if you get into the habit of using numbers, upper and lower case letters for your passwords, it’s something you can do without even thinking about it. Don’t use your date of birth, your dog’s name, or your children’s names. Don’t wear anything that someone you know could guess. With a little ingenuity, you can easily create multiple, unique, and strong passwords for each site you belong to.
“But how the hell could I remember more than one password?” You can ask. It is simple.
Use tricks to make your password hard for someone who knows you to “guess” but easy for you to remember. An example is thinking of a movie you like, one you’ve seen enough to know the quotes. Think of a line from the movie and use the first letter of each word. For example, in the movie “Independence Day”, when the big fight is about to start, Bill Pullman gives the speech and ends it by saying “Today we celebrate our Independence Day!”.
Now take this sentence, use capital letters and it would become “TwcoID”. But that’s not enough, add some numbers or characters. Pick a set of numbers you’d remember, maybe the size of the monitor you have, and add them to the front, and then pick a character to put at the end (note that not all sites allow characters in passwords, so at that case, choose another series of numbers for the end).
So your password becomes: 26TwcoID%
And you have a very, very hard to ‘guess’ password that you’ll remember, and that takes advantage of new character and capitalization technology in passwords, but probably won’t forget.
Personally, I don’t suggest typing in passwords, ever. However, if you live alone and don’t allow other people access to your desk or computer, it’s probably safe to write them down.
Change your password monthly
I know it sounds annoying, but keeping a “fresh” password is an important step in online security. At a minimum, change your password for shopping sites, online banking or payment sites, or anything else that may store your sensitive personal information.
Keep your information safe
Never, ever give anyone your username and password, for any site, for any reason. There is no reason to give someone this information. Any family member can create their own accounts and any friend can do the same. There is never, ever a reason to allow others to access your forum accounts, community site accounts, or shopping accounts. Ever.
Do not use file sharing programs
Programs like Kazaa, BearShare, or other peer-to-peer (PtP) file sharing programs are notorious for viruses, Trojans, and other nasty stuff. You think you are downloading something, you click on it and boom, you have a complete virus and very difficult to eradicate. Just don’t risk it. Don’t use them, don’t let anyone send you anything through these programs, and if someone insists you have to send them something, ask them to do so by email (if you trust them) or simply decline if they don’t. t. It’s not worth the risk these days.
Download programs only from trusted sources and always scan them first!
If you are downloading programs, make sure they are from a reputable site. Look for a site that has automatic virus detection (there are icons at the bottom that say “Trusted: Scanned 5/1/09”, for example), and even if you trust the site, virus detection every program you downloadforever.
Instant messaging
If you use instant messaging programs, don’t let anyone you don’t trust 100% send you a file. Don’t let anyone you don’t know send you files, no matter what. Simply reject it and, if necessary, block the person from trying any further. If your friends send you files, scan them before you open them – even pictures! Remember, you have no way of knowing where the file came from or who sent it to you before it was sent to you. Be sure to keep your instant messaging program up to date, as updates often contain security changes.
upgrade your computer
Be sure to update your operating system, Microsoft Windows has the option to automatically download and install updates, and it’s a good idea to turn it on, as many urgent security updates are released unannounced as problems arise. If you use another operating system, check the publisher’s website to learn how to keep your operating system up to date.
conclusion
As technology advances, so do the inherent dangers of innocent “web surfing.” But with a little thought, some free software, and common sense, you can prevent your computer from getting infected with harmful viruses, Trojans, or spyware, and you can keep your sensitive personal information safe. Be smart when you browse, keep in mind that sites that cater to the “over 18” crowd are very, very high risk sites. Visit them at your own (very high) risk. Do not provide more personal information than is absolutely necessary for any website, or use a “pseudonym” and get a disposable email address if you are concerned about spam.
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