Online Safety – Phishing Attacks

Keeping safe online & avoiding the ever present threat of phishing attacks or the risk of identity theft, really is not that difficult.

It is simply a case of training your mind to spot the potential doorways to disaster & then keeping these doorways securely locked ! After all you would not keep your valuables in an open bank vault would you..?

Now I know there are probably a few of you reading this, that will be muttering to yourselves ” what the hell does this have to do with blogging..? ” and yes you are right, it doesn’t really have a great deal to do with blogging, other than the fact that if you are a blogger, then you spend some time online & therefore you can also be at risk.

What prompted this post was the fact that I myself received an attempted phishing attack in my email this morning, but what made me chuckle was the fact that it was supposed to be an email from HSBC Bank, stating there was a security issue with my account ! Funny that, cos I don’t have an account with HSBC hahaha.

So having forwarded this dick heads email to the relevant department at HSBC, I decided it would be a good idea to go over a few details I had mentioned in a previous article Online Global Threats & if by doing so it prevents just one of my readers from getting scammed or ripped off then it is well worth writing.

15 Steps To Secure Your PC & Identity

1. Always Do Everything Possible To Protect your Computer

2. Get good anti-virus software & make sure it is updated regularly

3. Get good anti-spyware software & make sure it is updated regularly

4. Get a better firewall than the one built into Windows Note: A quality firewall will check traffic coming into your PC & also check traffic leaving your PC. Windows firewall does not do this.

5. Keep your computer up to date with any security patches available from Microsoft.

6. Make sure your email account is set to block spam emails.

7. Use an up to date web browser. Note: Anyone still fumbling around with the likes of IE6 is asking for problems. Upgrading is free so get it done NOW!

8. Always take regular backups on your PC, if the worst happens it is then safe to format & then restore all your data.

9. Always encrypt your wireless connection. Apart from allowing people to leech your bandwidth, you also run a high risk of getting hacked.

Avoid Rip-offs When Shopping Online.

10. When you’re shopping online, look for clear signs that you’re buying from a reputable company.

11. On an online auction site, spend some time learning how it works and try to discover who are reputable sellers.

12. Use safe ways to pay, such as PayPal, Alert Pay or credit and debit cards, but always ensure that the URL to any payment page starts with https:// & not http:// The additional “S” signifies a secure site where your data is encrypted.

13. Use your common sense to avoid scams – if it sounds too good to be true, it more than likely is too good to be true!

Taking Care Of Your Identity Is Crucial

14. Avoid identity theft by using an up to date web browser and blocking bogus emails with a spam filter as mentioned above.

15. Always use strong passwords, simple 4 letter passwords can be broken in under 1 hour! Therefore always use a password that has a mixture of upper & lower case letters, numbers 0-9 & assorted special characters <?@$£&~#>. Remember your password is a key, so treat it as such.

Finally don’t give away too much personal information on blogs, social networking sites & emails. This is one area that many people are guilty of neglecting. Take emails for example, how many times have you seen an email that contains a persons first & last name eg. thomas.john@hotmail.com & if this is not bad enough, you then check the guys profile and there’s his date of birth, his home address & telephone number!

Hahaha and this is the sort of person who, when they become the victim of a phishing attack or identity theft, will then ask WHY ME..? The answer  is quite simply because your an IDIOT Mate !

I hope this article has the desired effect and teaches more of my readers how to keep safe online & avoid phishing attacks or identity theft. If any of you need further information on this subject then I can highly recommend a site called Get Safe Online , they have far more information on this subject, than I can post here.

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Posted by Steve (Admin) on Apr 24 2011. Filed under Web Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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