Now that we’re inside our homes trying to avoid COVID-19, our activities have been severely limited. Although it gets dull and boring to stay indoors all the time, it’s necessary to prevent the spread of infection. With that said, a lot of activities that we do indoors often involve browsing the internet.
Whether you’re playing online games, watching movies, searching for photos of cats and other things, all of our activities have to do something with the internet. The internet is a vast virtual space where we can do almost anything.
Want to become a knight and rescue a princess? How about ordering pizza online? What about watching a live concert? With the internet, anything is possible. With that said, not everything on the internet can be useful for us. For one, we also share the internet with criminals and other people who engage in illegal activities.
If you’re not careful, you can get into a lot of trouble on the internet. Most of the time, skilled criminal hackers can easily steal information from you. They can then use this vital information for their crimes. Criminals can also take your credit card and bank details. From there, they can make purchases and spend whatever they can from your accounts.
These are just some of the horrible examples of what bad people on the internet can do to you. To avoid such incidents, we need to be cautious when going online. So, here are some essential tips for you to safely browse the internet.
Protect Your Privacy
One of the most significant issues on the internet is privacy. Once you’re on the internet, you can expect that your privacy can easily fall into the wrong person’s hands. Without proper precautions, people can access private data. One way of avoiding privacy breaches is by installing privacy protection software.
Some of this software can be from trusted software companies such as Kaspersky, Nord, and Trend Micro. These programs provide thorough protection of your system unit through various checks and other useful features. These programs can check if your system has potentially harmful objects such as malware, trojans, viruses, etc.
Features such as webcam protection, Anti-tracking, Password managers, Firewalls, and many others all the more provide your system with extra layers of security. Be sure to update this software to avoid any inconsistencies and incompatibilities.
Avoid Shady Websites
Though most protection software can detect potentially shady websites, you shouldn’t risk it at all. One way of knowing a website isn’t legit is by merely looking at it. If you look at the address bar on the top of your browser, you’ll see the site’s link. On the left of the link will be a “padlock” icon. This padlock means that the website is secure.
Another thing to look at is the website’s layout. See if there are any misspelled words or sentences that are too obvious. These are usually signs that a website is made hastily and on low budgets to scam people who visit them.
Don’t Click Suspicious Ads
Avoiding shady websites are also ways to keep yourself safe on the internet is to dodge clicking ads. Even though some ads might be legit, avoid clicking them altogether. Most of the time, ads will be promising you something that’s too good to be true. These offers are scams and will only lead you to websites with tools that can harm your system.
Update Your Software
Even if you have the best protection software out there, it won’t do you any good unless you update it. Threats on the internet are constantly evolving, just like any other life-threatening viruses in the real world.
If your software isn’t equipped to fight off these updated threats, then you’ll only be causing more problems to your system. Updating your software means that it’s equipped with the latest technology to help ward off potentially harmful threats to your system.
Change Your Password
Speaking of updates, you should also have the habit of changing your passwords regularly. Believe it or not, many people use easy-to-remember things about them, such as their names, birthdays, place of birth, etc. What’s even wilder is that a large population all over the world uses “123456” as their password.
If you have these kinds of passwords, then change it immediately. Cracking passwords with sophisticated tools is difficult, but these types of passwords can easily be broken without any tool at all. All it takes from a clever hacker is a lucky guess, and your accounts are good as theirs.
Takeaway
Now that more of our time is spent online, it’s only proper that we keep ourselves safe and secure. Believe it or not, all it takes for a hacker to steal everything from you is a small, honest mistake. The tips mentioned above will help you avoid such incidents and keep you safe from people who want to steal and use your data for something illegal.
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