The internet has become most of our second home today. Whenever we wake up in the morning, the first thing most of us will do is to get to the internet whether to check email, read some latest news, check sports results and many more. Internet has become part of our life and having a better internet security means protecting our own self better. Here I have 7 solid tips for you to have a better internet security.
1 – Don’t get fooled by easy money trick
Spamming users with lottery scam or promoting a product which so called can help you make five figures a month are all outdated easy money trick. Let’s get straight that earning money is not easy and we should no longer fall for this trick in the year 2011. If you happen to see any of this email in the future, do yourself a favor by thrashing the email right away after reading the title.
2 – Centralizing is only good for convenience
What I mean here is sharing a single password across all your online accounts is only good for convenience sake and score ZERO for security. Even if you have more than 10 online accounts, that should not give you an excuse to use a single password for all. Same goes to the excuse where you easily forget password. The solution to those excuses is not to use a single password but to use password management software instead. Recently I stumbled across a cloud based password management called LastPass which is free and I highly recommend everyone to at least take a look at it.
3 – Don’t fall into ‘Warning’ at first sight
You can fall in love at first sight but should not fall for security warning at first sight. There are plenty of internet threats today that tell you the number of infections in your computer which you do not have. The idea is to trick you into purchasing a bogus anti malware which basically does nothing. So the whole idea is to earn your money by scaring you. Be sure you investigate the threat carefully from time to time and most importantly, don’t panic.
4 – Make Virus Total your best friend
Virus Total had helped my life in security for a lot of times and I had made it my best friend. Whenever I have any incoming URL or file from anonymous user, I will go through Virus Total’s approval before executing it. It has more than 40 antivirus engines to scan your file or URL and because of that, I find the result trustable.
5 – Don’t click! Type yourself
When you have an incoming link, don’t make the smart move by clicking it in the first place. Links can redirect you to phishing site or even malicious site. You should always ensure that the incoming links are legitimate by copying the URL out to have a look. It is even better if you can use your keyboard to type the URL to access the site that you wanted to go. This will eliminate most of the malicious URL trick.
6 – Abandon the outdated
Outdated software, plugins, and operating system should be patched or ditched if it cannot be patched any further. Especially to the users who are still using Internet Explorer 6, that old web browser should be completely ditched since it is capable of being exploited easily. Adobe flash player, Adobe reader and Java Runtime Environment should be patched from time to time as these plugins are favorite target for hacker to make use of for penetrating one’s security.
7 – Stay tuned
No matter how hard security vendors worked, they can only cover 80% of your security. The remaining 20% relies on your initiative to learn about the latest threat. Every threat has its own solution where there isn’t really a universal solution to all threats. As a result, we should all stay updated to the latest security news and you can refer to The Security Blog where it is a compilation of security news from most of the famous security vendors and security researchers.
Guest article written by: Alan Tay is the author who runs IT Security Column, a IT Security blog where he mostly writes about computer security tips and security software reviews.
Even though you have anti virus installed in your desktop, it doesn’t mean that you’re safe from virus and malicious files. I agree with you that 20% relies in the user’s initiative. People should be careful whenever they visit websites and take necessary precautions in order to be secured in surfing the net.
That’s right. Stay careful and alert on the internet 😉
I know so many people who have fallen for that easy money trick. Wouldn’t even read the title before trashing the email.
I had been receiving lots of money making trick. Recently, I even received an email with the title “You’ve got an affiliate sales!” where I personally did not sign up for that affiliate network. :S
It’s really essential to use updated softwares, specially antivirus and malwares. Because there is no benefit in using outdated softwares as they can’t protect you from threats.
Outdated software is also software with vulnerabilities which are not fixed. There isn’t any benefit at all
Hi, there!
Thanks for sharing about those tips for internet security.
You’re right. Having antivirus will only protect 80% of my computer. It’s not gonna work if I didn’t have any initiative for its safety.
I wonder if these tips can be applied in my Sony KDL46NX810 HD TV. I used to watching YouTube video or even check my Facebook on it.
And by the way, I often forgot to update some of my software, especially the antivirus. I think that will be the main factor of getting virus on my computer.
I don’t own a HD TV but I don’t think it will affect your TV. Basically it is the device that you use to output the display is important such as your computer or your console. I’m not too sure about console security, but you can voice it up if there is something really important 😉
I don`t get who are the fools who will fall for the “send me tax money first” and after that “we can share the million dollar I won from lottery”.
If you fall for that, you should not use Internet anymore.
Probably there are some who still fall for that. That is why I still receiving those emails today 😉
Nice post on how to take care little bit with all the known tricks. Due to easily available software and free scheme, people used to get fooled by this kind of virus which can harm your computer and other important functionality which can cause serious issue of data loss as well.
I’m guilty of using the same passwords for almost all of my online accounts. I’m now convinced in using a password manager. Thanks for the heads up!
These are the some basic and useful tips for internet users, day by day internet is becoming very popular and security is an important factor for internet, so be safe internet users…..
These tips you have shared is very useful, I really appreciate this specially when connecting to the internet, we all know that once we are connected virus is always ready to enter your own system unit.