Internet has connected every nook and corner of the World to itself. Nowadays,anyone can easily access the Internet. One of the top advantages of Internet are that it has improved our communication system. We can send pictures,videos,sounds and other files to our relatives and friends by attaching them to E-Mail(Electronic Mail).
As every action has a reaction,Internet besides of its countless advantages has a lot of disadvantages. These disadvantages can cause serious damage to anyone. Therefore before doing any type of activities on Internet,one should always keep in mind the following top ten security tips to surf the Internet safely.
1.Protect Your Personal Information:
Many social networking sites like Facebook ask you to add your home address,phone number to your profile. But adding these information may harm you directly or indirectly. Cyber criminals can use your personal information to create fake accounts.
2.Keep your Personal data private:
When you upload your photos,videos it goes online on the Internet and any Internet user can view your shared information if you haven’t took the necessary steps to keep your photos and videos private. Many social networking sites including Facebook allows you to share your data with your desired users. So share your data with trusted ones.
3.Remember to check your Privacy Setting:
As we discussed above that sharing your personal data with your selected ones are safe and recommended. Before uploading your data on social networks remember to check your Privacy setting. These setting will secure your data visibility and restricted group of people will not be able to see your data.
4.Choose Strong Passwords:
An important step to surf the Internet safely is that your account password should be strong. Never choose password such “12345” or “11111”. These types of passwords are easily detectable and there is a possibility that anyone can hack your account. Always choose password that have numeric numbers,special characters and upper and lower case letters.
5.Making your smartphone safe:
Smartphones have taken the Internet like storm. Number of Smartphone users surfing Internet through their smartphones are increasing day by day. If you are using Internet on your smartphone remember to protect your smartphone with a PIN. You can also download security apps provided by different smartphone manufacturer to clean your data in case if your smartphone has been lost or stolen.
6.Never talk to strangers:
You have obviously listened from your parents telling you not to talk to a stranger. There are many reasons behind it. May be the stranger contacting you want to physically harm your parents. So,if someone you don’t know is constantly trying to contact you report this situation to your adults.
7.Listen,what adult says:
Your parents or your guardians always worry about your safety and they give you useful tips to make yourself safe from different types of threats. Cyber criminals are mostly attacking teenagers. If you are receiving messages or calls including threats report it your adults.
8.Never open unknown sites:
If you are buying something online always remember to buy it from some trust able websites like Ebay,Amazon etc. While making online transactions you will come across through”secured webpages” which can be easily identified by looking into your browser’s address bar. If the protocol i.e, http, looks like “https” this means that you are now on a“secured”web page. ‘S’ stands for “secure.”
9. Be careful while clicking on links:
Double click before clicking any link. It is possible that the link you have clicked. Modern Email providers like Gmail allows you to send or receive Emails in HTML language. Thus,using HTML language,one can create harmful link and attach this link to your message. Always open email of someone you know. Never open unknown emails.
10. Keep your security software UP TO DATE:
Days are gone when security software were available for only PCs. In the present era,every mobile device has the ability to install security software in it. Keep your security software up to date and enjoy the safe surfing.