Internet safety rules – 7 online remedies

Adam January 1, 2022 0 Comments

You can talk as much as you like about the traditions of mothers and grandmothers, but today it is no longer possible to live without the Internet. Now the World Wide Web is our everything: there are books and reference books, millions of recipes and tips for style and health, distance learning and business opportunities, forums and jokes, films and TV shows.

On the web, we are building our own digital home.

Any home must be protected: on the Internet – from scammers, hackers and just not too decent people who strive to get into your soul or pocket. And they have a lot of opportunities to do this.

To prevent this from happening, you need to follow simple rules for safe Internet use and do not hesitate to install helper applications: the shields of your networked home.

1. Antivirus – alarm or security guard

To pick up an Internet infection on the Internet is as easy as shelling pears. It is worth downloading some (in fact, infected) file, or even just visiting an unreliable site, and your device slows down, installs a bunch of incomprehensible and unnecessary programs, starts sending data to some spiteful critic, and sometimes even refuses to work at all.

High-quality antivirus – such as Kaspersky Internet Security – will prevent you from accessing an infected site, check everything on your computer and cure files from possible viruses.

2. Password manager – key keeper to all doors

Never use the same password for different accounts. This, alas, is what more than half of Russian Internet users do.

What does it mean?

Having obtained one key (username and password) – for example, using a phishing site that pretends to be your favorite social network and finds out the coveted key – the fraudster will break into all the doors.

So always check the website URL – even one different letter or number can create a trap. And, of course, use different passwords, change them often and remember their difficulty level.

To make the password difficult, and at the same time – not to forget it, a password manager will help – for example, LastPass… Such an assistant will pick up a truly secure password and save the keys to each of your digital doors.

3. Virtual Private Network (VPN) – an invisible roof

By the way, your own device and nearby neighbors always keep track of your location: via Bluetooth / AirDrop, WiFi, GPS. It’s so easy to find you, hack you – and, again, find out your password with all the consequences.

To disappear from the map, you need to train yourself to ignore public WiFi, turn off Bluetooth or AirDrop after use, and trick satellites using private virtual networks – VPN… Such a network – for example, Windscribe – will cover you with an invisible “roof” and show that you are now in another country.

4. Wiretapping and prying blocker – your curtains on the windows

To hide from prying or malevolent eyes and ears, use dedicated apps like camera defender Webcam On / Off and microphone silencer Micro Guard FREE…

Such “curtains” will not allow eavesdropping and spying on you, and will also tell you who tried to do this: what applications and sites tried to send data from the camera and microphone somewhere on the network.

5. Ad blocker – grid on your windows

On the Internet, as in a good garden, you can find any fruit. True, annoying bulky advertising banners get bored at every step.

These colorful and noisy advertising flies can just be annoying, or they can bring some kind of nuisance into your digital home.

As a grid for your digital windows and doors, you should use an ad blocker – for example, Adblock plus… Such an application will clear the site of ads: all inappropriate banners will disappear from the screen; only information from the creators of the site and some useful advertisements will remain.

6. Internet Footprint Eraser – Universal Broom

Not only cybercriminals should cover their tracks – it won’t hurt you either: the less information you leave about yourself on the Internet, the safer your stay there.

To erase all of your tracks, use a versatile digital eraser – for example, Privacy Eraser Free… The eraser removes everything that you managed to do on the Internet: browsing and search history, temporary files, passwords saved in the browser, data about the trash can and system events – in general, everything that could tell at least something about your existence on the Internet.

7. Browser Without Tracking – The Stealthy Exit

As the well-known phrase says, “it’s not clean where they clean up, but where they don’t litter”. In the case of the internet, this is also true. It’s good when you can remove all traces of your online presence. Better yet, don’t leave them.

A special search engine will help here, which will not track your actions and send a report on these actions anywhere. This is how it works DuckDuckGo: This browser and search engine simply does not collect any information about its users, including the search history.

This means that, having searched the Internet for a jacket you like, you will not come across an advertisement for its sale for a month after that on every second site.

And the simplest solution is, of course, incognito mode in browsers.

Bonus shield: private social media profile

Of course, it’s impossible to get rid of social media altogether. Closing your profile and posting late will protect you from a few more online and real troubles: from annoying fans to Internet rude trolls.