Great Online Safety Tips

We’ve all heard of various ideas to keep our personal information secure when we’re online, but it’s always good to be reminded…check these out:

-Never respond to spam – Even if you’re responding to be asked to unsubscribe – your amount of spam may triple

-Never send anything in email you wouldn’t want to see on a billboard in Time Square – email is not secure, so that means if you have to give your SSN to someone, tell them over the phone.

-Never open an attachment you weren’t expecting – watch out for generic greetings like “thought you’d like this” or “this is so funny!!!” This is true on social media sites as well; if you get a notice for a free iPad, it’s probably not legitimate.

-Don’t post your email address in a public forum or message board – you’re just asking to be put on spam email lists. You can still give people a way to reach you by using a simple trick – instead of typing me@myself.com, write meATmyselfDOTcom. Computers that troll the web looking for email addresses to steal won’t recognize it.

-Don’t use file-sharing networks – such as LimeWire, BitTorrent, etc. – they’re fertile ground for malware (a catchall term that applies to all malicious software,) and it can prove to be a huge headache.

-Don’t use weak passwords – if you base your password on your name, zip code, or the word “password,” you’re a huge target for thieves. The rules for creating strong passwords are 1) avoid English words, 2) use more than 8 characters, 3) mix in upper- and lowercase letters, along with some numbers or punctuation marks.

-Never surf naked – that means don’t use the Internet without installing an anti-malware program, such as Norton or Trend Micro.