A review of Internet Privacy
It’s almost impossible to believe just how much the internet has transformed all our lives. Today there’s a whole world of information at our fingertips where before we’d had to have gone to the library – and even booking a holiday can be arranged from the comfort of our own homes.
And that’s not to mention how it has transformed the way that we communicate with each other with emails making letters all but redundant and Skype enabling us to make video calls to and from everywhere in the world.
But it’s also enabled the unscrupulous and criminal to get in touch with us easily too and made maintaining our privacy more important than ever.
Almost every week there’s a new online scam or fraud being reported so it’s vital to stay one step ahead of the cheats and one of the best ways of doing this is knowing what the latest scams are.
They almost invariably begin with an email and the most common are known as “phishing”. In these you’ll receive an email encouraging you to visit a bogus site – often pretending to be your bank – and the scammers hope that you’ll enter your login information that they can then use to access your real account, with potentially disastrous consequences.
Although these false sites can look convincing at first glance, closer inspection will often reveal spelling mistakes and other tell-tale signs. However, it’s best simply never to follow a link that you are not 100% sure about.
Another popular scam is the email telling you that you’ve won a large amount of money in a lottery, or even been left it in someone’s will. In these cases the scammers often try to get you to send money to release the non-existent funds. In these instances it’s best to stick by the maxim that if it sounds too good to be true then it very probably is.
Many other scams involve getting you to inadvertently download viruses, Trojans and other nasties onto your PC, tablet or even phone which can then do anything from clearing your hard drive to stealing all your personal information.
If this all sounds scary enough to stop you ever venturing online again, it shouldn’t as there are a number of precautions you can take to keep your information safe.
For a start, make sure that your anti-virus protection is up to date and you know the risks that are out there. Reading articles like the ones that you can find on the Norton blog will help to do this.
Secondly, make sure all your passwords are as safe as they can possibly be. Again, there’s plenty of online advice that will help you to do this.
Finally, make sure that you use the highest levels of encryption, perhaps even using a Virtual Private Network, to keep your identity safe online.
So as long as you use all three together you should be able to surf the net free from the dangers of scammers, phishers and other tricksters – and that really will be a digital revolution.
