When you are browsing the Internet, you may not think about all the potential dangers you may face each and every day. This can be a real problem because if you do not know about any of the potential dangers you cannot properly prepare for them. However, following some general rules will help keep you safe no matter what kind of Internet dangers you are facing each and every day. Without this type of information, you may fall victim to the different scams and scammers on the Internet. By having the information, though, you can easily have some great aspects of how safety on the Internet can be a great thing for you to follow. Learn how to Stay Safe On The Internet!
How To Stay Safe On The Internet: Be Responsible
This is one of the things which many people think they can get rid of when they log online. However, if you are not responsible you can give out too much information to other people or even let people know more about where you live. When you are responsible you will end up having more information protected, but also know what kind of laws are in place for your area to guarantee you are not violating any of them. Without this type of responsibility, you may end up having more problems than you think because you are not following the laws or even worse giving out quite a bit of information, which is letting the Internet stalkers find you and do harmful things to you.
How To Stay Safe On The Internet: Make Sure Your Anti Virus Programs Are Updated
Normally you will have updates on your anti-virus programs. However, you should make sure you have these properly updated all the time. Then you can make sure you are going to get the proper protection from any of the potential viruses which people are putting out each day on the Internet. If your virus programs are not updated properly, then you may have trouble with these viruses which are coming out, but also with the different phishing scams. Most of the time the virus programs will end up having some type of way of discovering if you are going to be running the risk of being a victim of a phishing scam based on the information the site is asking and if the site is trusted or not. If you did not update these properly, though, you will have the problem of the sites getting your information or being able to put the viruses into your computer, which can cost you quite a bit of time and money in getting your identity protected.
How To Stay Safe On The Internet: Avoid Opening Emails From Unknown Sources
How many times do you log into your email account and see you are going to have the chance to get five hundred million dollars deposited into your account today if you send your information to the Crown Prince of Madagascar? Well, obviously you know this is a scam as these have been going around since the Internet started. What you may not realize is just by opening this email from an unknown source you may be welcoming in some types of viruses, which could be attached to the email in a hidden file or even getting a key logger program downloaded to your computer. By not opening the emails from people you do not know, though, you can completely avoid this problem and not have to be concerned about the money you have lost or even worse the identity and computer you just handed over to the scammers.
Another big scam which has been seen is for job seekers. Some of the emails you may obtain are going to be claiming to be with a company. However, the company would like for you to submit all of your information via email for their job. The problem with this is the companies may not even exist or if they do not have any openings for what they contacted you for. So you should use caution when you are looking for a job and only use credible sources for the jobs and if you have any doubt make sure you give the company a call. All you have to do is tell them you were worried about identity theft because it was a different way of contacting you and they will typically understand your concerns.
How To Stay Safe On The Internet: Keep Your Passwords Private
Generally, every website you go to will ask for you to input a password. This is a great feature and a wonderful way to keep yourself safe. However, when you sign up for these websites you will want to use a different password for each site, but also make sure you are using a password which is hard to guess. If you use one of the most common passwords which are, password123, you will find that your information will easily get hacked and this can lead to you losing access to your account. This is especially hard to deal with if the password was for your email accounts or some other type of important account.
Something else you should make sure you do is never give out your passwords to anyone. When you give out your passwords the person may be able to log into your accounts, but then they will also have the chance to get a hold of all of your other information. By not giving out the information, though, you do not have to be concerned about other people getting your information.
Another thing you should do with your passwords is to make sure you are changing them on a regular basis. When you change your passwords on a regular basis, you will not have to be concerned about people getting information which could give them your password, but you also do not have to be concerned about people sitting there and typing in the same thing all the time until they find out your password. By changing them up, though, you can provide a challenge and know your passwords are going to help keep your information safe.
How To Stay Safe On The Internet: Firewalls Are Important
Keeping an updated firewall is a great thing to have. When you have a firewall it will only allow certain things through and certain things out. However, you need to make sure you have properly organized your firewall and then you can make sure you are not going to allow certain file types into your machine, but at the same time will be able to keep certain files from going out.
– Make sure when you are setting up your firewall you keep the default settings, but make them stronger. For example, you do not want the firewall allowing any information which contains your finances going through it. So you would want to make sure you limit these files from gaining access to the Internet, except to your bank websites. So you need to work on your computer to guarantee these are set up properly and not allow files to go out that you do not want to have out. However, you also need to guarantee the firewall is set up to stop any of the incoming files which could be harmful to your computer as well.
How To Stay Safe On The Internet: Restrict Computer Access With Strangers
You may often share your computer with family members, which is fine to do. However, what you may not want to do is share your computer with all the people they have coming and going in the house or with other people at a coffee shop. When you do this, you are going to allow them to have access to almost any of the files you have on your computer, but also let them see what you have been doing. Then these people can easily trace down the sites you have visited and attempt to discover your login information. If they do this, then you will have to change all of your passwords or even worse have to sign up for a completely new account if they get your login information.
How To Stay Safe On The Internet: Disconnect From The Internet
How often have you heard this one said? It probably has not been said very often as many people leave their computers on all the time to guarantee they can get right up in the morning and not have to wait for the machine to boot up. However, this is a dangerous thing to do as it leaves your computer hooked up to the Internet all night even when you are not on it. By turning the machine off you are removing the connection to the Internet and this can easily stop the hackers who are trying to get your information. The problem is you may not think this is really that big of a deal, but you need to remember, even when you are sleeping the other half of the world is wide awake. On the other half, they have people who want your information and even on your own half as well. So you need to make sure you are looking at disconnecting your computer from the Internet to prevent the hackers from even having a chance of getting into your computer.
How To Stay Safe On The Internet: Provide Routine Back-Ups And Restore Points
Depending on the age of your computer you may have to back up the machine, but you may also be able to get away with using restore points on your machine. When you are creating these points, you will be able to get your machine back to this point should something happen to your machine in between backups. Yes, you will lose some of your information, but you will still have access to all of the information from the restore point on the back. So this will really come in handy if you think your machine is under any type of attack. Without frequent backups, you may lose all of your information including any of the important files you had or even the different programs you only had access to for a limited time.
– When you do perform these backups make sure you are using a separate disk or flash drive. When you are using a separate disk or flash drive, you will be able to get the files backed up and kept away from the computer. Then you do not have to worry about it getting infected at the same time your computer does. if you keep them together or even worse plugged into each other all the time, then you will have a risk of the machine getting infected and passing this right along to your backup files which you do not want to have to happen.
How To Stay Safe On The Internet: Update All Of The Security Patches
You may log onto your computer in the morning and get a notice from your operating system that it needs to update an important part of the computer. This is something you should let the machine do as this could be updating the security system on the machine because of a discovered loophole. By not allowing the computer to update the security software, you may have trouble getting to have the protection you need to have on your machine. However, you may also end up having more problems with the hackers being able to get into your machine because you do not have the most updated information on the type of security you can have on the machine.
Getting to learn about the Internet dangers is a good thing, but knowing how to have some basic advice to protect yourself from these dangers is an even better thing. When you know how to protect yourself from these dangers, it will be easy to have a great time and know yourself and your entire family will be safe from any type of harm. Without this information, though, you may be opening yourself up to a lot of headaches and hassles as more and more people are using the Internet to get information, but also steal identities and in some cases stalk people. The most important thing is to make sure you know how you can safely browse the Internet and how you can keep your computer locked up tighter than Fort Knox.
Learn how to Stay Safe On The Internet and teach others how to Stay Safe On The Internet!