I think that all anyone wants is to be safe when connected to the internet. Am I right? It should not cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars and countless hours of time just for going online to buy a pair of shoes. That is insane and it should not happen. You should not have to worry about your identity being stolen and exploited to the highest bidder just because you decided to enter information about a home loan of which you are interested. Well, I am here to tell you that the fact of the matter is, this is the world that we live in and that is the harsh reality. It's not all bad though, there are ways that we can combat this and make going online and being connected more safe.
As a matter of fact, one would say that it is common sense and common knowledge of a few things that will go a long way in that purpose. If you follow these simple guidelines, you will make yourself a little more safe when connected to the internet. Let's discuss a couple of the guidelines that are the most obvious, shall we?
Passwords
This is something that is really simple to do, but yet it is one of the first and easiest ways that a criminal can take advantage of you, passwords. The guideline here is to change your passwords frequently, at least once a month for sites that hold sensitive data. Also, make sure that when you do update your passwords, do not use something obvious like your birthday or something like that. Make sure that the password is random, and that it consists of both numbers and letters and also special characters. And, I should not have to say this, but do not give your password out to anyone!
Email -Think before you click!
Please, let's stop clicking on each and everything that we see in our email inbox. To be honest, you should know what is coming to you in email. Or, you should at least know what looks familiar to you when you are sorting email. if you run across something that you do not recognize, do not click the email! You should also make sure that you have some sort of anti-malware/antivirus software that can scan the email before you open it. And lastly, do not click any unknown links.
Educate yourself
This is the last guideline, or bit of advice rather, in regards to staying safe online, educate yourself! The more you research and study ways to stay safe, the better off you will be in the long run. There are tons of websites, blogs, and forums created specifically for methods and techniques about being safe while connected. There are many other things that I could discuss, but these are some of the main guidelines. For more, you can read my paper that I wrote on the subject. I will post a link to my paper once it is made available. But for now, just check out some of the feeds that are provided here on my blog.
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