10 Essential Internet Safety Tips
10 Essential Internet Safety Tips
While the internet has become essential in daily life, it’s important to understand that it’s still full of risks. People can steal your personal information or passwords to access banking accounts and other sensitive information.
To help you improve your online security practices, we've compiled these top ten internet safety tips. So let’s take a look at the best ways you can improve your fiber internet security.
1. Avoid Clickbait and Phishing Scams
Clickbait and phishing scams are among the most common tactics that people use to steal information on the internet.
Clickbait, much like the name suggests, uses something dramatic, like a title or an image, to bait you into clicking a link. Being fooled by sensationalized and misleading content can be avoided by being mindful of where content is posted, and not clicking on obvious exaggerated baits.
Phishing scams are more elaborate and usually require a person to actively communicate with the victim. Phishing is a deceptive way to trick people into willingly giving out their information, like a fake bank email requiring your personal information or a fake website email requesting your login and password.
Never provide personal information unless you’re absolutely sure about the legitimacy of the person requesting it.
2. Be Cautious with Personal Information Online
Be extra careful when sharing your personal information online, like social security numbers, banking details, address, or full name. When you overshare details, particularly on social media, it makes it easy for others to cyberstalk you or even commit identity theft.
Publicly sharing personal information and pictures on platforms like Instagram allows others to create fake profiles and accounts on other websites using your information.
3. Download with Care
Downloading files or attachments can expose your device to malware, viruses, and other threats. When you download any file to your device, always make sure it’s from a credible source and ensure you have an antivirus program to detect any malware in the file before opening it.
4. Use a VPN for Enhanced Security
A VPN (virtual private network) works by encrypting your data by routing internet traffic across secure servers. This process masks your IP address while making your data more secure in the process.
While using a VPN at home can greatly improve your cybersecurity, VPNs are essential when browsing the internet using public WiFi to make your connection secure and conceal your private data from the public network.
5. Regularly Update Your Software
Any software, be it an operational system or an app, is prone to security issues. The way companies deal with this is by frequently updating their software to fix any known issues and implement new features that improve security.
However, new updates can also introduce new issues that need to be fixed, and people can find new ways to breach the updated security. That’s why software updates happen so often, and why it’s important to always keep everything up-to-date.
6. Utilize Antivirus Software
Antivirus software works as a wall between malware and your devices. It constantly scans your system and any files you download for potential threats to prevent your device from being compromised.
To effectively use antivirus software, you need to always keep it up-to-date. New and different threats are created every day, and methods to prevent these threats need to be created every day, too. Running regular scans to ensure everything is clean is essential to keeping everything running smoothly.
7. Choose Strong, Unique Passwords
Using long and strong passwords consisting of many different types of characters, like numbers, letters, and symbols, is crucial for protecting personal information online. Avoid using weak and predictable passwords like “12345” or your birthday date, as they can be easy and quick to guess.
Be careful when sharing a password for a WiFi network connection, and always opt to use password managers and two-factor authentication when available. These significantly improve your security and help you manage multiple passwords.
8. Practice Safe Online Shopping Habits
Online shopping provides convenience when purchasing a variety of things, like food, clothes, and even appliances. However, this convenience gives people a chance to steal your information and money with fake websites and product pages.
When you go shopping online, always look for a “https://” in the URL with a padlock icon to ensure your connection is secure. You should also always look at reviews and look for credible sources to ensure that the website you're browsing is real and secure. Always be mindful of a deal that looks too good to be true.
9. Secure Mobile Devices
Modern mobile devices come with a variety of tools that can increase your security to unlock apps and the device itself. Features like facial recognition and fingerprint scans can go a long way toward ensuring the safety of your device and other apps.
Reviewing app permissions settings can also help you keep everything secure by only allowing your device to share the necessary information. Using a VPN on your mobile device is another great way to avoid unnecessary information being shared online.
10. Back up Your Data
Losing your data can happen at any time, to anyone, due to many unforeseen reasons, like a device break, malware attacks, or even accidental deletion. To avoid losing crucial data in an unexpected crash, make sure to perform backups at regular intervals.
While physical backups are cheaper than cloud backups, using a combination of both can ensure you have more control over your data.
Internet Safety
By employing all of our safety best practices for internet usage, you will be significantly safer from any online threat. While it might take a bit of work to implement some of these, they’re essential to keeping your digital life safe and secure.
If you’re looking for the best internet security with more stability and faster speeds, contact a reputable ISP. Fidium Fiber can help you improve your network security with great fiber internet, so check for availability in your region right now!