5+ Tips to Ensure Maximum Online Security

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on May 1, 2008

Security is one of the biggest issues that has been bugging Internet users for a long time and unfortunately there is no permanent cure or solution for it.

Recently my Universiry organized the International Symposium on Security Technologies where guest speakers from around the world discussed and shared about the new techniques being developed to keep individuals safe on web and in their real life.

Karen, from the Google Security Team, has likewise shared 5 tips to ensure maximum online security. Let me present a summary of these tips:

1. Do not Reply to Unknown Emails

Never reply to emails asking you to giveaway your confidential information as no good company will ask you do it through email. Such emails often lead to your account being hijacked and finally you lose all your sensitive information.

2. Do not Click on Suspicious Links within Emails

Mostly you will get emails asking you to perform an operation or action by clicking on a link. There is a possibility that clicking on one such link may lead you to a webpage that steals cookies from your browser thus grabbing all your login credentials. The best way to handle suspicious emails is to prevent yourself from clicking on any link provided within the email.

3. Do not Giveaway Sensitive Information on Websites at Once

If you are on a website that is asking you to enter your login credentials make sure the website is really the one you are supposed to be visiting by looking at the URL in the address bar. Moreover for sites asking for credit card information, make sure the connection is secure i.e. (https://) with a padlock sign.

4. Do not Visit Websites Offering Fantastics Prizes

The websites offering "Free iPods" and "Free Cash Prizes" are mostly the ones seeking out to grab sensitive information from your browser or installing adware/spyware secretly on your PC. The best practice is to avoid clicking on banner of such sites or even visiting them directly. If there is an offer that seems genuine, just Google through forums to see whether if the site with such offers is truly legit or not.

5. Do not Use Obsolete or Insecure Browser

It is more like saying, do not use Internet Explorer 6 at all. It doesn't alert you if an object tries to hijack your browser. Always use modern browsers like Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3, Opera 9 etc which come installed with phishing filters out-of-the-box.

You can find more articles devoted to online security on Google Blog.

  • http://techalerts.blogspot.com/ Keshav Khera

    One more thing: Read good blogs for security tips :P ;)

  • http://www.sizlopedia.com Dj Flush

    Haha true! thats the most important of all :)

  • http://www.passpack.com Tara Kelly

    And… stop reusing your passwords across multiple sites.

    So even if you do accidentally get caught in the phishing net – only one account will be compromised, not all.

  • http://www.miraclestudios.in M.Blog

    I would like to add one point for security to this list:

    Please always look into the email ids in the sender’s list.

  • http://techmalaya.com Syahid A.

    Nice set of advice Dj. Number two is one of most common way of spreading viruses.

  • curious george

    Hello,

    I just wanted to say that I appreciate your website immensely! I used some of your tips to improve the security of my pc.

    The desktop contents and work I had been doing were hijacked with the info being sent to some university in texas since April 16, 2008, but that was all I could get from the source code snippets I found while searching my HDD with AgentRansack.

    Later, IE6 popped up while I was browsing with Opera 9.27 (which didn’t make any sense), and repeatedly tried to get me to go to some website to get rid of a virus that had been detected. I was finally able to shut down IE6 after several attempts.

    Then, I kept getting recurring popups on my desktop wanting me to click on them to open my browser and go to a website which would rid my PC of the alleged infection. The only way I could get the popups to stop was by clicking on them and changing their extensions to txt. Deleting them didn’t do anything but increase the intensity of more popups appearing on my desktop.

    I had already initiated a full scan with McAffee which couldn’t even detect the malware from the inside. I ran a quick Whois network file and found that the NetBios ports I had previously shut down were still open after disabling them from the Local Area Connection Adapter’s TCP/IP protocols. This was in addition to downloading a security patch from ms that was supposed to take care of the XP vulnerabitlity. All it did was hide the information while still allowing the ports to be opened. Hmmm, that burned!

    Anyway, I cleaned the HDDs and reformatted them completely and used a recovery program to check if I had gotten everything out. After reformatting and loading backup files (no operating programs), and reinstalling the software I use, I used your tips to finally get those two pesky ports closed (135 and 445). I am still working on getting my proxy to work which now blocks my abiltiy to get online now that these LAN ports have been closed.

    Besides any suggestions, I was wondering if there is a way to completely hide and operate another second desktop that isn’t threaded into the previous vulnerabilities seen in ms software to prevent detection of the second desktop as an additional preventive measure?

    Need to end for now, but wanted you to know that your site is really great and I hope you keep it free and running for a long time.

    Thanks Again,

    cg

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