Beware of Phishing Emails

Phishing is a term to describe emails that are made to look authentic so the recipient will think that the emails are real - except that the emails are fraud. The purpose of these emails is to get personal information from the recipient. Usually, the phishing emails ask the recipient to update their bank account information or else their bank account will be terminated or suspended. If the recipient believes the email then the recipient is in grave danger as he or she is bound to enter the personal information and submit them to the identity theft suspects. The information they will ask includes your name, address, phone number, date of birth, Social Security Number, bank account or credit card number.

So, how do you protect yourself from phishing emails? First of all, never give out any of your personal information, or fill out any forms in an email. Always check with the real company, for example your bank, to make sure that the email is real or not, before you do as the email instructed. Usually, if you are using online bank services, the URL should appear as ‘https’ rather than the normal ‘http’ to indicate that it is a secure connection. Most identity theft suspects set up a duplicate website of the authentic site, such as PayPal, AOL, Best Buy and eBay to steal the users identity. Report these emails to the real site support team should you come across such emails, to help them bust the culprit.

Steps You Can Take To Protect Your Privacy Online

With more and more people using their computers for business and personal correspondences, sending emails and posting family photos, internet privacy is getting harder and harder to achieve.

You can begin protecting your privacy by putting a password on your computer. Set your computer to turn off after your system has been idle for a specific amount of time. Then require a password to be entered to wake the computer from sleep mode. Using this feature is a simple step that can save your privacy.

Be mindful of viruses. Keep some type of anti-virus software running on you system at all times. There are viruses out there that are designed specifically to steal private information from your computer.

Make a habit of cleaning out cookies on your computer. Every time you visit a web site, you are attacked by these leaches that remember your information each time you come back to the site.

Always read the privacy policy of every web site you visit, especially if you are entering any information. If a site does not have a privacy policy, contact the manager of the site a request to have one posted on the site.

Finally yet importantly, a major precaution you can take to help protect your privacy on the internet is to never under any circumstances send private information via email.

By following these guidelines and using a little common sense, your privacy should be a little safer.

Computer Privacy at Work

Come on who are you kidding? There is no such thing as computer privacy at work. It is work, not home; this computer is not here for your personal use. You are supposed to be using this computer just as you would any other equipment at work. A train engineer would not use his train to take his kids to school, just as you should not use your computer at work to forward that funny email to your sister-in-law. With more and more software options becoming available to help the employer spy on their employees, surfing the internet for your personal use at work is just not something you should consider a wise thing to do.

There are all different kinds of software out there designed to give the employer an eagle eye view of the activity of any computers on their corporation’s network. There is software that can detect when a personal email is sent, who sent it, where they sent it from, which they sent it to and what was sent. Employers can monitor the use of a single computer or they can monitor all activity on all computers. There is software employers can use that will send an alert to their own computer when a prohibited action is performed. Therefore, never use a work computer for any personal activities.

Steps to Protecting Your Home Computer

With more and more people logging on to the internet there is more and more personal information floating around in cyberspace. The vultures of the web are just waiting for a chance to dive into your computer and have their way with it. There are a few step you can take to ensure the security of your home computer.

The first step you can take toward securing your home computer system is with the installation of an anti-virus program. There are many to choose from out there so you should have no problem finding one that is right for you.

Another way to keep your computer safe is to keep your operating system up to date by installing all of the updates as they become available.

Take precautions when opening email, especially messages containing attachments. It is best to only open solicited mail from people you know.

It is best to have a current firewall program running to help keep unwanted users gaining access to your personal home computer.

Remember to make backup copies of all of your important files. Make it a habit to use your system backup often.

Always use passwords that are difficult to guess. Stay away from birthdates and popular names. A combination of upper case and lower case letters mixed among a few numbers make a password hard to crack.

Remember to practice caution at all times when downloading files from the internet and follow these simple steps and your computer should be protected.

Protecting Your Privacy Online

Each time you visit a web site that site can collect an abundance of your information from a single visit. The site can tell what computer you are using, the software on your computer, as well as which sites you visit on the web. Web sites use your personal information to detect your habits for browsing. Be sure to read the privacy policy on each site you visit. If you come across a site that does not have a privacy policy posted, write to the web site administrator and ask that one be put up on the site.

Some people think that it is okay to use their email at the office for the same purpose as they would use a personal account. This belief is far from the truth. Most employers have spyware installed on company machines to keep an eye on their employees. Your level of privacy on a work computer is less than zero.

Teach your children that “don’t talk to strangers” extends onto the internet in addition to everyday life. Tell them to never give personal information about themselves or their family to anyone.

Remember to always clear you history and get rid of all the cookies in your temporary folder and you are off to a good start at protecting your privacy.

Protecting Your Children Online

There is no sure fire way to ensure the protection of your children’s privacy when they are on the internet. There is no full proof software to keep them one hundred percent safe. The main reason is that there just is no comparable substitute for involvement by parents of their child’s internet usage. The best way to protect you children is to keep up to date on how they are spending their time online and which sites they are visiting. There are a few steps that parents can take to better ensure the safety of their child’s privacy online.

Parents should always read the privacy statement on any site their child visits. Look for statements regarding what information the site is keeping and what it plans to do with it. Find out if there is some way for you to control the collection of information. If the site does not have a privacy policy listed, send an email to the persons responsible for the site and request that a privacy policy is posted on the web page.

An important step to follow is communicating with your children. Encourage them to only visit sites of which you approve. Spend time teaching them how to properly use the internet to get the information they need without giving out all of their personal information. Teach them not to talk to strangers not matter if it were in person or online.

Finally, set rules for everyone in the family to follow to further ensure the safety of their privacy.