By Mr. Reaz Uddin – e zine articles
In this present world, the internet is fastened in many people’s lives. The Internet has changed our lives, everyday communication. And we know that it is a great source and a place full of fantastic and useful information. The Internet provides us a means of services and information. Now many activities in our daily lives depend on the Internet, including various forms of shopping, communication, entertainment financial services, and many others. But you have to know that it is also a source of many threats, risks, and hazards. You just think about all information you send over the Internet, like bank account information, personal messages, photographs, your card details etc. As a general internet user, you have the expectation that your transactions and communication secure and private. Just think about when you make a video call to your family member, you normally expect that no one else is watching what you are doing. When you buy something through online with your personal credit card, you must expect that nobody else can get access to your credit card details.
So you should learn about the various security threats and methods to make your online activities more safe, sound and enjoyable. Now I will give you a few but important tips on how to be safe your data on the internet.
Most of the time, the internet is indeed secure and private. But there are a number of risks. The following lesson will provide some review of those security risks and also provide some realistic suggestions on how to deal or tackle them.
We know that computer viruses are one of the serious threats consists of viruses and another type of harmful programs. A computer virus is a program that easily duplicates itself into other computer programs and causes damage hardware, software or data of the computer. It performs a harmful action, for example, getting sensitive information or corrupting data.
The best way to fight with the threat of a computer virus is to use antivirus software. Antivirus software helps to protect a computer system from viruses and other types of harmful programs. Antivirus software scans your online activity to make sure you are not downloading the infected programs or files. It also helps to detect and remove viruses from your computer system if you do get infected.
Phishing is the program that attempts to get sensitive information like passwords, usernames and credit card details etc. It is often caused by spiteful motives. It is also an email scam that is masked as an official communication from a legal website. The message generally tricks to people into providing some sensitive information, for instance, login details. A usual scam consists of a message that focuses and describes some issue with your account and requires you to log in to your account to confirm something. This message, however, looks very official, expert by using logos and formal language. The Web page looks very authentic, but if you look carefully and closely, the Internet address is in fact not the official one. Don’t follow that link because financial institutions never send out these types of messages. Go to institution’s official Website and do log in to your account easily that you generally would. Remind it never sign in your account from the link that already sent to you in an email.
There are six Phishing scams like deceptive phishing, spear phishing, Pharming, CEO fraud, Dropbox phishing, and Google docs’ phishing.
Spam is a type of electronic junk mail. It is the use of an electronic messaging system to send thousands of unwanted and unsolicited messages, typically on advertising. Experts of Spam try to collect email addresses by using automated spiders that crawl across Web pages. Spiders look through discussion forums and newsgroups. Spammers may use a procedure known as a directory harvest attack, which sends a message to millions of repeatedly generated email addresses.
Though there is no comprehensive solution because we are wrapping with internet and tech devices but there is a thing you can do make your communication less insecure. Here are best 10 ways you have to consider.
01. Email
I know you may never tense regarding your email or email setup. You may never think about your email security and also not concern how will your email be hacked?
So rethink your email setup. Just mind it that all “FREE” email, webmail is suspect. Because email is broadly used in the world, developed and well-understood service. This email is frequently the target of attacks. Your email can be harmed by Malware, Spam, and phishing, Spam etc. So take these seven steps to keeping your email secure:
01. Choose strong password. Longer is better. You have to mix of letters, numbers, symbol, and punctuation marks.
02. You can choose a strong security question.
03. Make sure you’re using Secure Socket Layers (SSL).
04. Never use your Email account password on another website.
05. Perform regular operating system and browser updates.
06. Enroll in 2 steps verification method.
07. Update your account recovery options.
02. Encryption
Now we are going through the time when the conveniences of pervasive connectivity, including the cloud, have put us at high risk than ever of getting hacked. You need to encrypt the message themselves if you cannot use secure, private email services and want to make confident your emails are safe. Encrypt email messages and your email server to keep messages unreadable by everyone except you and the recipient. Email encryption also includes the authentication. Emails are prone to disclose information. There are two most common forms of message encryption system include Open PGP and Secure or Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (SIME/MIME). Never think that device encryption is a one-stop solution for protecting all of your data and information from prying eyes, especially when you are sending information over the internet. But device encryption converts all of your data stored on your phone into a form that can only be read with the proper documentation.
03. Web Browsing
If you ask me a question that which is the best and most secure Web Browser? Mozilla Firefox? Google Chrome? Opera? Microsoft’s Internet Explorer? It’s a common and simple question but the answer is complicated. The Network Security Services Labs (NSS) research showed that there is no single browser uniformly and equally protected users of browsers against the bulk of security threats and privacy risks. That means no single browser is bulletproof, so the next and best things are to make your browser is as secure as possible. There are six commons but one of the best ways you can improve the security of your browser. 01. Configure your browser’s security and privacy setting. 02. Keep browser updated. 03. Sign up for alerts. 04. Be alert during installing plug-ins. 05. Install security plug-ins like HTTPS Everywhere, Web of Trust, LongURL.org.
04. Cloud Services
More your applications and data are moving to the cloud that introduces exclusive info security threats and challenges. Some biggest security threats right now those organizations often face when using cloud services: Insecure interfaces and APIs, System and application vulnerability, Data breaches, Data loss, Insufficient due diligence, Weak identity, credential and access management, Malicious insiders, Advanced persistent threats, Abuse and nefarious use of cloud services, Account hijacking etc. Research of the Snowden Reveals that you should avoid all type of cloud services (iCloud, Evernote, Dropbox etc). These cloud services are based in France, the UK, the US. You should mind it that anything that stored on such cloud systems will probably accessible by others. But if you keep entrusting data to them, then you have to sure it’s encrypted.
05. Stop Spyware
Safeguard your information with antivirus software. Top ten Antivirus software are listed below: Avast Antivirus, Norton Antivirus, ESET NOD32, AVG Antivirus, Kaspersky Antivirus, Microsoft Security Essential, Panda Cloud Antivirus, McAfee VirusScan, Malwarebytes, Clam Antivirus.
There is another program called Spyware. It is a program that set up in a computer and sends information about you and exploits your computer to a third party, Spyware habitually enters in your system when you are installing some type of software (like free) from a source that not trusted. In the time of Installation of the program what you were interested in too installs the spyware. Since you authorized the installation, usual protection methods, for example, antivirus software, don’t avoid spyware from getting installed in this way.
When spyware program is installed, it starts collecting information. Some spyware programs are risk-free and collect very common information. Other spyware programs may record your actual keystrokes, like passwords,
When spyware has collected information, sends this to who created the program. This happens without giving any notice to you. Removing the spyware can sometimes be difficult. Often program installs itself again as quickly as you can delete it. To counteract spyware, you just need to use a best and dedicated spyware management tool.
06. Destroy Data
“Vanish” technology that developed by the researchers at the University of Washington. It makes electronic data ‘self-destruct’ after a specified period of time. Vanish does this job instead of relying on Facebook, Google, Hotmail to delete the data on their servers.
07. Over Share on Social Networking Sites
Do you like inviting danger? Thought nobody does but they invite danger or hazard accidentally. One of the trending ways is oversharing on social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc). Social media acted as the opium of the masses. These media introduce a way to share things regarding your life, emotion. The FBI uses Social Media (like Facebook) to catch criminals and the White House has its own social accounts to connect with the public.
Always remember three tips when you are using social media: Don’t invite unknown people to talk with you, be careful when making friends on social media sites, if you share too much information about yourself, your identity, peeper can easily get information about life, not all are plain people busy with their own lives. You also have to careful regarding your photo shared on social media, because if anybody wants to know about your location or position, he/she just click on your picture, simply download and run it through some specific software, for example, ExifTool that is designed to extract metadata from images. By using metadata of images on Google Maps or Google Street View give away the street map of the place where the images were taken. When you uploaded your own house’s photo, the snooper trace you easily the complete map to your place. Imagine, how scary is this?
08. Turn off Your Computer.
After using your computer or Laptop, power it off. Be very careful that leaving computer devices on with connection to the Internet, clear the door for snooper attacks. It ultimately gives scammers right of entry malware and commits cyber crimes. So to be safe, must turn off when it’s not in use your computer.
09. Wireless Services
Do you know wireless threats come in all shapes and sizes? Many wireless users don’t know what kind of hazard they face by attaching a WAP to their wired network. The common wireless threats can be, the Ad-hoc Networks/ Rogue Access Points, configuration problems, denial of service, passive capturing. Disable Bluetooth when you’re not using it. You only switch it on when you clearly need to use it. Similarly, be careful to open wifi in public place.
10. Lock Down Your Hardware.
A unique password is required when your computer boots up or sleep. You can easily believe the family members but imagine what if your computer is stolen or you lose it? Same issue regarding your mobile phone. You should use a password to access them every time you use them. You can also use an app that will locate your phone, tablet if it’s stolen or lost as well as lock it. And make sure your PC, mobile are protected with a good anti-malware software or app.
Conclusion
At the end of the day everyone wants to secure in working on Internet, so hopefully, information in each step within this article will be helpful in securing your data from the pepper. You have to keep your operating system update by installing any recent updates. Avoid using social services like ‘FourSquare’ because it asks your location information. Stay away from such websites that contain spyware. Another way you can keep your information safe when you’re entering credit card details, visiting banking site is to make sure the code prefix starts with https://
