MALWARELIST.net – Your Information Security Source

Web surfing academy: staying on the safe side

Internet is teeming with malware, viruses, and fraudulent schemes that pretty easily hook careless users.

In this article we are focusing on the essential aspects of safe browsing – it’s a must-read for web surfing pioneers and a nice refresher for seasoned internet users.

Fraudsters are getting smarter

Malicious software and various data theft schemes are becoming more intelligent. Thus, if let’s say, a suspicious letter was delivered to your inbox, the origin of which you doubt, you should better move it to the trash; and if you opened it, do not open the apps, click on links or download any attachments. If the email directs you to some homepage, where you have an account, it is better to open a new tab and type the address to the page manually – an invisible layer on the login page may hijack your passwords in a matter of a second.

Update your software regularly

Turn on automatic software update on your phone, tablet, laptop and computer – the outdated software is likely to leave the loopholes the hackers make use of for their malicious actions.

Watch for HTTPS signs

Well, it gives you a little bit of extra protection. Yes, https certificates’ reputation has been somewhat spoiled in the recent years, but at least it gives you some confidence – the business you are dealing with took some time to get it running. When using web for entertainment, e.g. gambling, a totally fraud-rich niche, making a choice of casinos with https is a wiser decision – the corporate level security projects like casino.com put https certificate in place by default.

Think twice before acting

When surfing the Internet, stay sharp when you get a juicy proposal in any form, which requires immediate action and asks for personal or private data – chances it’s another piece of scam or fraud are really high.

Watching your cookies use carefully

Cookies stand for the data on visit of a web page, stored on your computer. Cookies provide information on the last time you visited this page, your user name, and even log you in automatically. While it may be totally handy, enabling cookies at aspiring services and websites is not recommended. The risks are obvious – your data may be hijacked.

The trickiness of storing everything under one roof

At many websites registering a new account could be as quick as 1 click – you can tie your profile to the one you have at Facebook or Google. This means that in order to perform an authorized login, you can use the same passwords, or if you are already logged into the environment, the ‘input’ will be executed automatically. Quite handy, isn’t it? A convenient solution that saves time, but you should keep in mind that losing control of your Facebook or Google account, means losing access to all the other media, which are connected to the social network.

Public WiFi-networks

Publicly available WiFi-networks, the ones that don’t require any passwords, put your personal info in jeopardy as your device becomes relatively easy to invade. If your home WiFi-network is not yet protected by a strong password, it is the right time to use it. This will increase your privacy and protect you against WiFi fraudsters, hunting for your credit card and payment system credentials.