In this highly digital world, it is important that you should keep yourself and your family protected online. Here, we are going to provide you with some tips on how you can ensure the safety of yourself and your family online. It is quite obvious that you require home security for protecting your home, however, protecting yourself online is quite hard to imagine. But consider this, you always go online and every time you do this you are using most of your personal information, for instance, your name, email address, bank information, and any other things in your life.
Unfortunately, most of the websites that you visit and interact with ignore cybersecurity. In fact, most small businesses assume that cyberattacks are unlikely to happen to them. But sad to say, they are wrong. The fact is, more than 17% of people confess that they’ve been victims of cyberattacks. Additionally, another 16.5% were doubtful, which is quite alarming. Fortunately, here we are going to provide you with some tips on how to ensure your digital security. Although there are also services that can help you in protecting your personal data.
Use Built-In Browser Tools For Website Security
The good thing is, your browser has already done enough when it comes to identifying which websites are safe. Using Chrome is highly recommended since it can block pop-ups, blocks unsafe flash content, send websites with “do not track” requests to ensure that your data is protected, controls access of your camera, microphone, and speaker, as well as prevents malicious downloads. All you have to do is go to your browser’s settings and look for the “Privacy and Security” section so you will know how your browser filters out the harmful ones. Unfortunately, these built-in browser safety tools are not capable of catching everything, that is why it is important that you should do other things.
Use VPNs
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is capable of encrypting your web traffic so you can completely hide your web activity and replace your IP address. This is very important especially if you are using a public network such as in the airport, hotel, or a coffee shop. Additionally, it can also help you in accessing servers from other countries so you can enjoy watching shows and movies on Netflix. You can either choose a paid or free VPN option. By using a VPN, there are less chances that your devices will be hacked. You can simply download a reliable VPN into your computer, tablet, laptop, phone, or even your router.
Use Trusted Retailers
This might seem quite obvious, most especially, if you’re shopping online. As much as possible, try to choose retailers that you are familiar with such as Amazon. Keep in mind that you will be giving them your debit or credit card information aside from your name, address, telephone number, email address, and other pertinent information. In case this sensitive information will get into the wrong hands then it could be very dangerous. So, be sure to have a safe online shopping experience.
Check the Payment Methods
Be sure that the website accepts all major debit and debit cards. Reliable websites usually use the safest payment methods like major debit and credit card companies such as Visa, Mastercard, or American Express. If the payment method accepted by the website is only wire payments or bank transfers, then you should get alarmed.
Double Check URLs
Oftentimes, scammers will intentionally misspell the names of reliable URLs or substitute one of the letters, for instance, writing go0gle.com rather than google.com. If you are in a hurry, then this could be something that you can miss. Since these fake websites look so real, then you can easily trust them and give them your personal information. The good news is, if you are using Chrome or Firefox, then you’ll get the chance to see the URL before you click them. All you have to do is hover your mouse over the anchor text. This will allow you to recognize the URL before clicking on it. In case you are using Safari as your browser, then you can go to the view menu and choose show status to get the same result. Just to make sure, you can do a quick spell check.
Look For HTTPS
Although this is not 100% foolproof, however most reliable websites usually use HTTPS instead of HTTP. Are you wondering what “S” stands for? Well, it actually means secure. Typically, this single letter is what separates a secure website from a scam website. With a secure website, you can ensure that they will protect your data while a scam website will likely steal it. If you can see an image of a padlock on the left side of the URL, then you can guarantee that the website is secure. But take note that there are also unsafe websites that use HTTPS, hence, this is not a complete guarantee that you are safe. However, a good rule of the thumb is you should never give your financial information or password to websites that do not have a padlock.
