Archive for February, 2010
Keeping Safe Online no comments
There are a lot of scare stories about phishing and hacking attempts, lately these have spread to Facebook and Twitter, so I thought it might be a good time to give a few hints and tips about online security.
Anti-virus Software
Under no circumstances, should you ever go online onto the internet without good anti-virus software installed. As well as having it installed, it is also imperative that you use the software’s update process to regularly download the latest version of the virus signatures, this will ensure that you are protected from the latest viruses. New ones are being developed all the time, and a quality anti-virus software package will have regular updates, potentially multiple times a day.
Microsoft provide anti-virus software for free here.
Trust No-one
Sounds very cynical I know, but be suspicious about anything you receive from anyone, even if it appears to come from someone you know and trust. Far and away the best protection you can provide is your own common sense. If you receive something that you weren’t expecting, be suspicious, if you know the person, don’t be afraid to ring them and confirm what it is they have sent you.
Be very careful of links in eMails, check them before you click on them, if you move the cursor over the link without clicking, then most eMail clients will show you where the link is going to take you, check that it seems valid. If it concerns a sensitive subject like online banking, ignore the link completely and type the normal address of the site into your browser.
You should also be careful of attachments in emails, good a-v software should also protect your email, but, as a general rule don’t open attachments from people you don’t know or were not expecting.
Many people seem to treat Facebook as a competition to get as many friends as possible, they will accept friend requests from anyone, even if they’ve never met and have no friends in common. Be careful when accepting friend requests, not everyone on the internet is who they appear to be! Some Facebook applications will also ask for rights to access your profile and friend list, before you grant this, check out the application, most importantly check out the applications ‘discussions’ page to see what people are saying about it. If it’s not what it claims to be then people will usually be saying so!
Twitter is reasonably safe, the only real risk is clicking on links, because of the 140 character nature of ‘twits’ links are often shortened making it difficult to see where they are really going. Only click on links from people you trust. Also beware of Twitter Direct Messages, at the time of writing there is a large number of direct messages being sent from compromised accounts, the message says ‘Is this you?’ with a link to a malicious website. If the message is not the sort of thing you would expect from the person in question be suspicious.
Be Careful out there
This is absolutely the best advice I can give you, consider the internet to be a hostile environment, consider everyone on it to be suspect, even the ones you think you know, don’t take anything at face value, check it out first.
If in doubt, do nothing! Ask the opinion of someone experienced, you can paste a question on the Norfolk Nerd Facebook page here.
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