There is probably no one who does not browse the internet for various reason. It may be for netbanking, chatting, Facebook, shopping, twitter or just to get some information. Do you know that while internet is a place of fun, it also has dangerous creatures lurking around waiting to find its victim? You would have heard that large organizations have lost critical information like credit card numbers and other information of their customer by hackers. Even home users are not safe. So what do you do? Here are some steps to be performed to be safe and secure on the internet.
1. Antivirus – This is the most critical step to be safe. Ensure you have an antivirus software or security software installed on your PC. You can go for paid Antivirus or even installed free antivirus (Microsoft security essentials). Also ensure, the antivirus is updated regularly with the current antivirus definition. Just installing the software will not be enough.
2. Emails Safety – Be careful when reading your emails. Now a day we get more spams than genuine emails. Ensure you only open emails from known sources. Do not open emails from unknown sources as they may contain virus. Also do not open attachments received from unknown persons. A simple word attachment may actually be an virus. Do not click on links mentioned in email of unknown persons. Do not believe on emails mentioning that you have received a fortune or an lottery, these are fake.
3. Browse authentic sites – Also browse websites you can trust on. Never browse non familiar websites as they may have malware. You will not realise but browsing the website will download Malware on your PC. This malware will collect critical information from you PC and send to hacker without your knowledge.
4. Operating system patch update – Ensure you are periodically updating your operating system with the latest patch which is released. For example Windows releases Windows 7 patch once in 15days. The patches contains fixed to new vulnerabilities that are found. Some is true for Mobile apps like IOS or Android. Go to setting and check for ‘Software updates’. If released, install it immediately.
The above are the best practices you should follow in order to be safe and secure on the internet. Remember precaution is better than cure and better be safe than be sorry. Kindly let me know if you have more tips by posting your comments, I will modify the same to my post.
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