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Security and the Internet - 9 Tips to Keep Your Personal Information Secure

Online security has become even more important than ever, and for many, using a computer is part of their daily life. Even if all you do is email people, it is still vital that you protect your computer, your programs, and your information from the negative possibilities that exist out there today.   The sad truth is, there are people who devote their time to finding ways to get into your computer, via Trojans, Spyware, or virus programs, to get your personal information, or even just for entertainment. It is sad, but true. There are thousands of companies out there that rely on spyware and malware to promote their products, route traffic to their sites, and install annoying pop-up advertisements on computers of innocent customers. Anyone who has surfed around the Internet has experienced the annoyance that pop-up boxes with ads cause, or the lag caused by shockwave or flash advertisements.   The term "hacking" gets thrown around a lot on the web, but the simple truth is, very rarely are any accounts (email, forum, etc.) actually "hacked". More likely, the people simply did not protect their information. This article explains how, in a few simple steps, you can protect yourself, and your computer, and stop worrying about having your personal information released without your permission.   First Steps:   Install a good virus scanner, firewall, and a spyware scanning program.   The single most important thing you can do for yourself is to protect your computer. There are an abundance of excellent free programs out there, from Zone Alarm, to Ad-Aware, Spybot Search & Destroy, and Microsoft Defender. All of these programs are free, and a simple Google search will find their websites. You do not have to spend a bunch of money to protect yourself! Go with a reputable company, and be sure that you keep the programs updated with the list of virus and spyware definitions, but doing these simple steps will provide you with the basics for protecting your computer, and yourself.   But having these programs running isn't enough. You need to use them. Scan your system daily for Spyware, you would be surprised at how many websites install "tracking cookies" or other nasty stuff simply be visiting their site, and some sites can even install Trojan viruses on your computer, just by going to their site! Scan for viruses weekly, at the very least. Don't get complacent, it takes only a few minutes to let these programs do their scans, and they can safe you time, and money, in the long run.   Do not ever disable your firewall for any reason, ever. Not having a firewall means that your computer is basically an open book to anyone with a little knowledge, or any program designed to access it and can result in disastrous effects. Programs can be installed without your knowledge, and can do anything from reading anything you have on your computer (documents, emails) or installing keyloggers, that can record every single keystroke you type. Imagine if you have one of those installed without knowing it, and you go to your online banking site... not a good image. Protect yourself!   Email accounts   If you visit a variety of forums, play online games, or are a member of a specialized community, it is always a good idea to get separate emails for these things. Having one email, and using it for everything, has a number of drawbacks, not the least of which is spam. A good idea is to have one email for your personal information, things like family emails, banking, shopping, but having one or more "spare" emails, for other areas, such as forums, or gaming, or communities like Facebook and MySpace. Yahoo.com, Gmail, etc., all offer free email accounts, and they have spam filters that help deal with the spam.   If you are a member of online communities, or instant messaging programs, it is always a good idea to "hide" your email in your profile. Most forums or other sites have a "control panel" that allows you to configure whether you would like your email made public. I would suggest that you never have it public, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is there are programs out there that are designed to cull email addresses from forums, online community sites, and other areas to send email spam to. Hiding your email goes a long way towards stopping this. If you need to make a post that has your email, type it and "ghost" it, by making it so that it cannot be copied to work, such as Bob (a-t) hotmail (dot) com. This way, anyone who is a real person reading your post will understand they must substitute the @ and ., but these programs will not recognize it as an email address.   When reading email, it is a good idea to set your email program to read in "plain text only". Most email programs (Microsoft Mail, Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc) have this setting in the Options menu. Doing this has a few benefits. First, it takes much less time to load the email to read, you can see immediately what it is about, rather than waiting for images to load, but most importantly, there is no chance that some malicious script could run simply by reading the email. (Yes, those exist, and while most good virus scanners integrate with your email programs, it is better to be safe than sorry, and avoid allowing emails to display in HTML.) If you are 100% sure the email is from someone you know, and trust, then you can simply use the "View" menu, and "View in HTML" to see any images or formatting.   Passwords   I would guess the majority of online users use the same password for multiple sites, if not all of them. This is one of the biggest mistakes you can make online. Sure, it may be easy to remember, but isn't your personal information worth taking the time to make a specific password for each account? If you have accounts at Facebook, MySpace, Instant Messaging sites like GoogleIM, MSN, etc., use separate passwords for each site. Why? Because if someone did get your password, they would not have access to everything, just the one site that password belonged to.   More importantly, make your passwords secure. A lot of sites that ask you to register now include a small "security bar" that shows the strength of security your password has. These are excellent, but if you get into the habit of using numbers, capital and small letters for your passwords, it is something you can do without even thinking about it. Don't use your birthday, your dog's name, or your children's names. Don't use anything that someone you know could guess. With a little ingenuity, you can easily make multiple, unique, secure passwords for every single site to which you belong.   "But how on earth could I remember more than one password?" You may ask. It is simple.   Use tricks to make the password hard to "guess" for someone who knows you, but easy for you to remember. One example is to think of a movie that you like, one you have seen enough to know quotes from. Think of a line from the movie, and use the first letter of each word. For example, the movie "Independence Day", when the big fight is about to start, Bill Pullman gives the speech, and he ends it by saying "Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!".   Now, take this sentence, use capital letters, and it would become "TwcoID". But that's not quite enough, add some numbers to it, or characters. Pick a set of numbers you would remember, perhaps the monitor size you have, and add those to the front, and then pick a character to put at the end (note that not all sites allow characters in passwords, so in that case, choose another set of numbers for the end).   Thus, your password becomes: 26TwcoID%   And you have a very, very difficult to 'guess' password that you will remember, and that takes advantage of the new technology of characters and capitalization in passwords, but one that you are not likely to forget.   I personally do not suggest writing down passwords, ever. However, if you live alone, and do not allow any other people to access your desk or computer, it is probably safe to write them down.   Change your password monthly   I know it sounds like a pain, but keeping a password "fresh" is an important step in online security. At the very least, change your password to shopping sites, online banking or payment sites, or anything else that may store your sensitive personal information.   Keep your information secure   Never, ever, give anyone your login and password, for any site, for any reason. There is no reason to ever give someone this information. Any family members can create their own accounts, and any friends can do the same. There is never, ever a reason to allow others access to your forum accounts, community site accounts, or shopping accounts. Ever.   Don't use File Sharing programs   Programs like Kazaa, BearShare, or other Peer-to-Peer file sharing programs (PtP) are notorious for viruses, Trojans, and other horrid things. You think you are downloading one thing, click on it, and boom, you have a full blown, and very difficult to eradicate virus. Just don't risk it. Don't use them, don't allow anyone to send you something via these programs, and if someone insists they have to send you something, have them do it in email (if you trust them) or just refuse, if you don't. It isn't worth taking the risk these days.   Download programs only from trusted sources, and always scan them first!   If you are downloading programs, be sure they come from a trusted site. Look for a site that has automatic virus scanning (there are icons at the bottom that say "Trusted: Scanned 1/5/09" for example), and even if you trust the site, virus scan every single program you download, always.   Instant Messaging   If you use instant messaging programs, don't allow anyone you don't trust 100%, to send you a file. Don't allow anyone you don't know to send you files, no matter what. Simply refuse it, and if necessary, block the person so they cannot continue to attempt it. If your friends send you files, always virus scan them before opening them, even pictures! Remember, you have no way of knowing where the file came from, or who sent it to them before they sent it to you. Make sure that you keep your IM program updated, as the updates often contain security changes.   Update your computer   Be sure that you update your operating system, Microsoft Windows has the option to automatically download and install updates, and it is a good idea to turn that on, as many urgent security updates are put out without notice, as issues arise. If you use another operating system, refer to the publisher's website to learn how to keep your OS updated.   Conclusion   As technology advances, so do the innate dangers of innocent "web surfing". But with a little thought, some free programs, and common sense, you can avoid having your computer infected with harmful viruses, Trojans, or spyware, and you can keep your sensitive, personal information safe. Be smart when surfing, realize that sites that cater to the "over-18" crowd are very, very high risk sites. Visit them at your own (very high) risk. Don't give out more personal information than is absolutely necessary to any website, or use a "pen name" and get a throw-away email address if you're worried about spam or junk email.   I work from home, and invite you to visit my website to see more opportunities that exist online.

Security and the Internet - 9 Tips to Keep Your Personal Information Secure

Online security has become even more important than ever, and for many, using a computer is part of their daily life. Even if all you do i...