Stay safe online
14/03/2008
The internet is a great place to book your holidays or do your weekly shopping, but you also need to be aware of the risks. Threats are ever present and computer hackers will always be one step ahead of the game, so it is up to you to remain vigilant. After all you wouldn’t leave your front door open when you left the house, so why allow hackers easy access to your personal information and files.
So what you can do to stay safe on the internet? Here are industry expert John Safa's top tips.
Phishing
One of the most common types of scams that internet users are subject to are fake emails, otherwise known as ‘phishing’ attacks. Victims receive a fake email from a source masquerading as a familiar brand like, eBay, PayPal, fake competitions or even as your bank requesting you to update account details. This kind of deception can be very convincing as the page and email can look authentic and the scam relies on users putting their faith in a trusted source.
The best way to avoid falling foul of ‘phishing’ attacks is to make sure that you don’t open suspicious emails and never give any confidential details to anyone unless you are absolutely certain they are who they say they are, if in doubt make a call.
Trojans
Trojans are named after the mythical Trojan Horse and attacks appear as a link in an email or instant message (IM) inviting you to click on it. This will download computer viruses, which can then compromise your system or any data they touch.
The easiest way to prevent a Trojan from entering your computer, corrupting your files or disrupting your system is to make sure you never click on any links that look suspicious or too good to be true.
Pop-up Pests
Recently spammers have been carrying out more sophisticated attacks. An increasing number of spammers are using adult and entertainment sites to distribute harmful pop-ups that charge to their bank account. Users can be forced to enter bank details to remove incriminating pop-ups or risk having their entire hard-drive infected by a malicious virus.
Our user community Advisor Service has reported an 11 per cent increase in these pop-ups on Internet Explorer and seven per cent on Firefox. You need to make sure you are properly protected and read the site’s terms and conditions before browsing, otherwise, you could pick up something nasty.
They only way to ensure that you aren’t susceptible to malicious virus attacks is to never accept files from people that you don’t know.
Digital Devices
We are now living in a hyper-connected era, with growing consumer demand for multimedia devices such as MP3 players, digital cameras and removable storage. The proliferation of these devices has increased the threat of computer viruses.
Never allow any device to be connected to your computer unless you know exactly where it has been! However if a virus is being carried on a USB or MP3 storage device, then hardware must be protected and the best way to do this, is to install security software that will scan for malicious viruses as soon as the device is connected, preventing any attacks to your computer.
Top tips for safe surfing:
• Always be vigilant
• Get an understanding of the risks and threats
• Never open any emails or pop-ups unless you know and trust their source
• Install antivirus security software and ensure it is kept updated
• Check the sites security status before providing bank or personal details
For more information on how antivirus security software can provide up to the second personal data protection, you can go to the website linked below.