The internet is a beneficial tool and has become a necessity in our day to day life. Booking flights, social networking, checking your bank balance all requires our personal information to be passed through the World Wide Web. But how do we keep our information safe? How can we protect ourselves from threats such as email phishing scams, identity theft, viruses, trojan horses, worms?  Well here are a few tips to keep you safe whilst enjoying the internet experience!

Secure Sites
Make sure your sensitive personal information is protected before giving it out by checking for signs that site is secure. A yellow padlock icon in the lower right corner of the browser or https:// in the web address show that the site is secure as it is using a SSL certificate.

Choose Safe Passwords
Your password is your main protection from keeping someone from accessing your personal information on your account. Here some suggestions for creating a better password:

• Passwords should have at least eight characters and include upper case (capital letters) and lowercase letters, numerals and symbols.
• Avoid common words and don’t use personal information such as your name, birthdate etc
• Change your passwords regularly—at least once a month and use different password for every online account.
  

Email Attachments
File attachments in emails are the most common way that a virus is spread. Never open an attachment without checking who the sender is and what you think the attachment is. If you are not sure you should check with the sender incase it is not a legitimate email.

Email Filters
To avoid opening junk emails by mistake which can contain viruses and scams you should filter them by enabling your junk email/spam filter to a high setting.

Protection
Every computer should have Anti Virus, Anti Spyware and Firewall software installed. It is important to keep this software up to date and regular scanning is recommended.

Back Up
A virus can attack your hard drive and corrupt your data which means you could lose all of those important documents, pictures, music and anything else you may have saved on it. To avoid this happening you need to make back ups of your data. Recordable CDs/DVDs , USB Flash Drives and External Hard Drives are the main tools that be used to store your precious data. Back ups should be a regular habit to protect yourself against data loss.

Hope you find these tips helpful!

TD

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Posted in: General, Tips and Tricks