Cyber Safety

Viruses, Spams, petty calls, phishing, vishing, hacking, worm attacks, cyber terrorism, credit card frauds, pornography, Trojan attack, IPR violations, email spoofing, email bombing, email spamming, flooding a computer resource with more request it can handle, forgery and, ultimately a system crash; are few of the threats which come inherently with the Internet connection now.

Internet has spread like wild fire since its invention. It has enhanced the effectiveness of humans and governments. The quickness in transferring data is what has given it such a huge success as a potent medium of communication. The documents and data available on any subject is so huge that it has added to the effectiveness of students, scientists, researchers and surfers dying for information also.

Then, there comes the black side of it. Several names have been cited in the beginning; which are more than enough to give headaches to its users; and its ramifications and repercussions has increased manifold. Suicides, murders, bullying etc.due to cyber crime is on a rise. And so, it is time now to equip yourself and your system to handle these threats properly. Although, there are a plethora of books and documents available on the subject, but, its time now to have a recap on the cyber safety module to tame this deadly monster.

In countries like India, where safety awareness from cyber crimes are very low, the need of a safe surfing practice should be inculcated among Internet users, and they must be kept posted about the various threats, and methods to thwart them. Few of the safety steps to safeguard your selves and your systems are:-

* Install a good anti-virus software(e.g. McAfee, Kaspesky, Quick Heal, Norton etc.) into your system and update it regularly. The freebies available on Internet do not give proper protection from a number of threats.

* Activate the firewall, and if possible activate the windows defender also.

* Do not respond to the spam e-mails. The banks never ask information via email.

* The security setting in the Anti-virus should be at maximum.

* Make friends on the social networking site you are familiar with; and never give your full information on these sites: fake identity can be made in your name and everyone in your friend-list will believe it: bullying and blackmailing will start thereafter.

*Edit and review the security setting in the social networking sites.

* Using virtual key boards in financial transactions on the Internet, minimises the threats of an account hack.

* Change your account password regularly; make passwords which are hard to guess. Using Upper cases lower cases and alpha numeric keys with numbers and special characters is the best option for making your password very strong. e.g. Delhi%123456.

*  Use the parental control in the anti-virus programs to protect your children from pornography, gaming and other such sites.

* Do not click on the links you do not believe.

* Use https:// in place of http and see a green signal on the address bar to ascertain yourself that it is not a fake site. It is secured hyper text terminal protocol.

* Block pop-up windows from your browsers. They may contain codes, which will pave the way for the hackers: they will steal information from your system without your knowledge.

* Use e-mail service of renowned providers, which come equipped with tracking the source or originator--luckily the 'Google' has it.

* In security setting in e-mails, use your mobile number as the password reset request medium. If you have already done it, fine; otherwise, do it immediately.

* Do not click on any suspecting ads, as they will ask you for approval to gain control of your account; and if you grant them the privilege, you are gone.

* If you fall prey to any of the vices of the cyber criminals, please report to police in your town. Every city now has a cyber cell.

* Know the cyber laws prevailing in your country. In India it is IT act 2000, IT amendment act 2008 etc. You can visit yourself and have a deeper insight into it by visiting -- http://deity.gov.in/content/cyber-laws.

These are few of the steps to safeguard yourself, your children and your system from various threats that come with the Internet. So, be alert and surf with caution. Happy surfing!