 | How can I be safe online? |
Long Answer:
Online safety is easily broken down into three basic processes, all of which must be adhered to. They are keeping your personal information private, preventing intrusions into your computer system, and minimizing the damage the intruders can cause. None of these processes are fool-proof, quite the opposite, most 'standard' home computers are extremely vulnerable. I define a 'standard' home computer as a half-year old machine running Windows XP and browsing the internet with Internet Explorer. As this is actually the most common home setup, and even very common on business machines, I intend to publish an article dealing with this specific setup in the near future. For the interested, subscribe to our newsletter.
Keeping Your Personal Information Private:
Keeping your personal information private prevents computer crime such as credit card fraud and identity theft, as well as violent crimes such as kidnapping and rape. The most obvious way to keep your information private is to not give it to anybody! That goes for chat rooms, emails, and other forms of online communication. Although using your first name might not be so dangerous (unless you happen to have a very distinctive first name, like I have), never let anybody online know your full name. Invent a fictitious family name and write it down on a sticky note. A fictitious birthday is a good idea, too. A fictitious city is not, because you will never tell anyone where you live! Other than bank services, there is no online service that requires you to reveal your location. You have no reason to, and it is extremely dangerous. If anyone asks, tell them that you are not comfortable discussing that.
A very common way to get personal information is through 'phishing' attacks. In a phishing attack you receive an email that appears to be from Ebay, Paypal, or your bank. The email asks that you update some personal information, and provides a link to a website that appears to be legitimate. To protect against such attacks, never follow a link in an email! Always type your banks' address into the address bar and press Enter yourself. And check that the page is secure! More on secure pages below.
Personal information can be collected in other ways. That is why whenever you fill out an online form, always make sure of two things. First, be sure that this is a website that you trust. Read their privacy policy, and be sure that they will not use your email address to send you spam (Remember, most sites do this! Online greeting cards are a prime example. Never use them.). Second, be sure that the page you are on is secure. This means that the signal is encrypted between your computer and the website. There are several way to check this. One way is to check that the URL starts out "https://" instead of "http://". See that "s" in there? It means secure. In Firefox the whole address bar turns yellow to make it more distinctive. Another method is to check that there is a little lock icon in the status bar. When you click on that icon, it should give you security information about the site that you are on. Remember, neither of these methods are foolproof.
Keeping Your Software Up-To-Date:
Web browsers, email clients, and operating systems are examples of software written by human beings. As with all other mortal creations, they are not perfect. Flaws and exploitable oversights are often discovered in their code. As these flaws are discovered, two groups of people take a keen interest in them. One group attempts to write code that will take advantage of these flaws, often with malicious intent. They are often wrongly referred to as hackers. The other group attempts to write code to fix the flaws, called a patch. Usually, the company that wrote the software is the same company that writes the patch and distributes it. If you are using a piece of software that has a flaw, you had better acquire a patch before someone feeds your computer malicious code.
The more popular a program is, the more flaws have been found in it. That is one of the reasons popular software such as Microsoft's Windows operating system and Internet Explorer web browser are so susceptible to exploitation. As Macintosh, Firefox, and Open Office have gotten popular, weaknesses have been found in them as well. That is why you must check for updates to these programs at least one a week. Most software have built-in update tools, such as Windows Update. If you are unsure about a particular program, ask in the Technology-Sleuth forums.
Keeping Your Computer Protected Against Intrusion:
The firewalls' job is to prevent the malicious code from getting onto your system in the first place. The firewall reads all incoming data and scans it for known patterns that are typical of harmful code. When a pattern is matched, the firewall then stops the code from continuing on to other parts of the computer. However, a firewall is not 100 percent effective, thus anti-virus software is necessary to scan existing files for infection. Both the firewall and the antivirus software must be updated weekly as new viruses and other infections are invented daily.
However, the responsibility for keeping malicious code off your system should not be left up to software alone. Any downloaded program, song, movie, email, or even webpage can contain a virus. You should only download files from websites and services that you know and trust. Even these files must be checked by antivirus software before you open them. And the entire system should undergo a weekly virus and spyware checkup.
Short Answer:
You can be safe online by following three very bas...
Technical Answer:
To be safe online means different things to different people. Here I will discuss methods for keepin...