Security on the web

--Originally published at Don't Trust Humans, Trust Computers

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OOOH the internet such a beautiful and harmonic place yet so full of stranger dangers and mischievous things. People must of the time are very naive when they are on the internet. They are not well aware of the dangers that the internet has. Even though this seems like I am giving a bad reputation to the Internet, I am only saying the truth. Yes, the internet is one of the most amazing inventions there is. It has help people from all over the world communicate in a way it seems impossible before and has brought us many other wonderful things. But sometimes there are people that take advantage of this great invention and try to use it for malicious purposes. Every time we navigate in the internet we are expose to some kind of danger, but if we are smart enough we will be able to not fall into the tramps.

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Here are some advices to take in consideration when we are in the internet.

  • Passwords
    • How many of us know a person that has a very awful password, if we he/she share his/her password so freely, well… there’s a problem. When we are creating accounts to some websites and they ask us for a password, we need to create strong password. Try combining letters (both capital and lowercase), numbers and special characters. DON’T share your passwords with any one, unless you truly trust the person you are sharing it with. Don’t use the same password for different websites, try using a different one in every website.
  • Internet Browsers
    • To be able to navigate in the internet we need a browser to do that. There are plenty of browser out there for you to choose from. When you have selected your browser, you have to make sure is up-to-date.
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      check the security settings in the browser to make it more secure. Some browser have the characteristic of adding add-ons, and some of those are about security. So be sure to check some security add-ons.
  • Pop-ups and Advertisements
    • Many of us have seen this type of emerging windows, that said “You are the 10,000 visitor” or “Win a free iPhone 7+”. We need to be careful with this things and NOT click on them. Sometime even clicking the red cross in the corner is not recommended. The best thing to do is to end the program completely by pressing CTRL+F4 (in windows) or Command+Alt+Esc (in Mac). Another tip will be to install add-ons that block this things.
  • Downloading or Streaming Media
    • There are millions of webpages that offer this type of services. In this cases we need to be very careful and only use webpages that we truly trust. Because sometimes when we download things from suspicious websites, they can download malware, also. When streaming, some webpages may ask you for “special” plugins, do not download those plugins AT ALL.
  • Limit the information you share
    • With all the amount of social app that are now a days, is very hard to keep up. But one thing is clear, do not overshare. I know that sharing is caring, but if you expose yourself TOO much, you may be in risk. Am not saying not to share, but to share consciously.

This were some tips that you need to take in consideration the next time you are in the internet. Remember the internet can be a fun place, but it is also a dangerous one. You just need to be smart to where to access and always have an eye open to any suspicious thing.

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Stay safe

A.C.

References

http://www.dell.com/support/article/mx/es/mxbsdt1/SLN265941/en

http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Safe-on-the-Internet