Online Protection Getting Any Better?

The Internet is amazing but it is also a scary place to spend your time. Every day it seems like there is some new threat using the internet to try to cause people harm. In this article we will look at some of those threats and teach you some things you can do to protect yourself from them.

Online Security Threats

Call it hacking, call it Trojan horsing, call it whatever you want: they are all security threats. There are millions of them out there just waiting for an unprotected system to come along so they can invade, hijack and force you to look at the blue screen of death while the bots use your computer for nefarious purposes. This is why it is incredibly important to make sure that you’ve got good security analytics software installed. AVG, AdAware and Malware Bytes are some of the best to use. Run them regularly to keep your computer free of issues.

Spam

The problem with spam is not just that it gets sent to you. The problem now is that spammers have gotten creative and will insert code into the mail that can infiltrate and copy information from your profile to then spam everybody who has ever sent you a legitimate email. They will also capture your email address for future mailings by including an “unsubscribe” link in the message. Do not ever click this link. For that matter, do not click any links in any mail that you did not specifically ask to have sent to you. Just delete the mail and add the address to your spam filter. Spam filters have gotten a lot more sophisticated over the last few years.

Phishing

These are emails (or phone calls) that are designed to trick you into giving up your personal information. They are designed to look like they come from legitimate sources like PayPal, the major banks, airlines, Amazon.com, etc. Usually the mail will say that there are problems with the account and to click on the link in the email to get everything straightened out. The link then sends you to a dummy site that looks exactly like the legitimate one.

If you receive an email from anybody saying that there is a problem with an account or a purchase, go straight to that company’s official website or call them on the phone. This way if there is truly a problem you can solve it and if it’s a scam you won’t be affected by it. And definitely never respond to anybody claiming to be a legal representative of a millionaire or billionaire who wants to bequeath you a ton of money in exchange for your information.

These are just a few of the major security threats facing Internet users today. The best way to keep yourself safe is to practice basic common sense. If something seems iffy, click away from it, run a scan on your computer to make sure it’s clean and then move on to whatever it is that you wanted to do.