subject: How To Stay Safe Online [print this page] It is difficult to be on the Internet without running into all kinds of risks to your safety, but there are ways to successfully stay safe online. Protecting your children, your accounts, your passwords and knowing how to handle things and ignore others is key to making sure that you do not become a victim of the many crooks that sit online and prey on users of all ages. Internet safety threats usually fall into one of two categories: malware threats and social engineering threats. Social engineering is using social influence to obtain personal information. This category includes spamming, phishing and other similar activities that can devastate a persons life. Perpetrators are usually out for personal information such as bank account numbers and social security numbers.
How to stay safe online involves spotting these people and avoiding anything they are telling you to do, which is usually giving them your personal information in exchange for some big prize that you have won (of course there is no big prize). Fraudulent emails are linked to fraudulent websites, and from there people can give a virus of any type to you, install spyware, keystroke loggers and all kinds of other things. Emails that have funny video clips are often loaded with spyware and other terrible things. Malware includes email viruses, spyware, trojans, the keystroke loggers, software running in the background on your computer and other things that provide an open back door to your information.
To stay safe online, you have to be aware of the signs of viruses and hoaxes that are out there that are just waiting for you. Here are some tips to keep in mind to stay safe on the Internet:
First of all, never ever give out your account information to anyone over the phone or via email. Almost all of the shops and programs on the Internet use email identity check processes that do not involve passwords, so they will never ask for yours. The most popular of these is the secret question method.
Make sure that you keep your personal stuff between you and the people you know are your friends. Never give out personal details online, because those surveys and quizzes that are so much fun to take involve using the same kind of information that is used in identity checks. To stay safe online, you just have to use common sense, which includes never opening email attachments that come to you from strangers.
by: Phoenix Delray
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