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SAFETY ON THE INTERNET

VIRUSES

Proper protection from viruses and other malware is essential for surfing the Internet, especially if your kids use it.  Allowing kids to use the Internet without protection is like allowing them to roam the streets of a major town at night - they could go anywhere and do anything.

In the panel on the left we supply a feed from F-Secure, a leading anti-virus company.  This details the most prevalent viruses currently in circulation and what to watch out for.

Make sure you have anti-virus protection in place before you connect to the Internet.  When I bought my new pc, it came with no anti-virus software installed.  I thought I’d connect anyway and go straight to the F-Secure and download their anti-virus product.  It took just 30 seconds before I got hit with a virus that rebooted my pc every few minutes.  I went and bought a pc magazine with an Anti Virus product on the cover disk and installed from there.  I configure it to update automatically then upgraded to F-Secure.  

For a great range of protection products on a family budget, check out the F-Secure site. We use F-Secure products and can recommend them.  Use the links in the column to the right.

 

EMAIL ATTACHMENTS

Be cautious and you can avoid being the target of a virus or malware.  The most important rule is NEVER EVER EVER open an attachment to an email unless you are absolutely sure it is safe.  If not, then detach it to your hard drive and scan it with an up to date anti-virus program BEFORE you attempt to open the file.  This is especially so if the file ends with .exe, .scr or .vbs.  These files can contain programs (commonly referred to as “scripts”) that can either seriously damage your computer or can collect sensitive data from your hard drive and covertly send it to a malicious recipient.  Even if you know the person it came from, it may have been sent automatically by a virus and not by the person shown in the “from” box.

 

EMAIL CHAIN LETTERS AND HOAXES

From time to time, you may receive an email urging you to forward immediately to everyone in your address book.  Never do this.  Often they will warn of dire consequences if you don’t, or that some terrible virus could wipe files off your hard drive and you should warn all your friends about it.  The truth is that they are nearly always a hoax.  Whenever I receive one of these mails, I first of all check the F-Secure Hoax Index.  In every single case so far, when an email has urged me to forward it on to everyone in my address book, it has been listed as a hoax.  Just delete it and warn whoever sent it to you that it is a hoax.  If you decide to reply to everyone on the email distribution, then use the bcc (blind carbon copy) option to hide everyone else’s email address.  One of the things I hate about these mails is that people just forward them on to everyone, with the result that my email address is broadcast to large numbers of people that I don’t know.

 

MALWARE (ADWARE/SPYWARE)

But there’s more to surfing safe than just anti-virus.  Malware is anything that performs an action on your machine that you are unaware of or have not approved of.  Some applications are known to contain adware or spyware.  These can collect information about you and the sites that you visit and send the data covertly to a host site.  These may not be malicious, but do slow down your Internet connection and you have no control over what data is being sent.  There are may adware/spyware checkers available.  Many of the “Internet Security” products will include a combined anti-virus and anti-malware product as well as a firewall - we recommend the F-Secure Internet Security product - use the link to  get a 10% discount.  

NOTE this link takes you directly to the checkout and automatically gives you 10% discount.  If you want information about the product first, then click on one of the other banners above first.

 

FIREWALLS

A firewall is a means to protect you from yet another danger on the Internet.  As soon as you make a connection to the Internet, other people have the ability to connect to your pc.  A firewall will block them from gaining access to any files on your pc.  There are 2 types of firewall.  A hardware firewall is piece of electronics that blocks unwanted connections.  Most broadband routers have a hardware firewall built in to them.  A software firewall is a piece of software that runs on your computer to block any suspicious connections.  Microsoft XP and the new Vista operating systems both incorporate a software firewall   You have protection with one or the other, but the safest way is to have both installed.

 

IDENTITY THEFT

Make sure you NEVER give away any personal information over the Internet unless you are on a secure site.  If you are using an e-commerce site and making a purchase, verify that the “lock” icon appears to indicate that all data that you enter on that page is encrypted before it is sent over the Internet.  The email system is not secure unless you encrypt your emails.  NEVER send Credit card numbers or passwords in an email as these can very easily be intercepted.

 

CHAT ROOMS

Be very careful about what information you divulge in Chat Rooms.  Remember that not everyone on the net is who they say they are - just check this link for an example of what we mean!!.  It is very easy for a criminal to pose as a friendly person to get information from you that they can then use to access your bank account or other sensitive sites.

 

PASSWORDS

Make sure you’re passwords are secure.  The best passwords are those that do not contain actual words and include a mix of upper case, lower case and numbers.  Think of a phrase and then use the first letters of each word, turning some into numbers.  For example, the phrase My 1st car was a Ford Capri Mk 3 would give a password of M1cwaFCM3.  This is an incredibly hard password for anyone to crack, but is easy for you to remember.

 

ENJOY YOUR EXPERIENCE

The above can seem like it’s all doom and gloom, but as long as you are cautious and put proper security measures in place, surfing the Internet is a very rewarding and enjoyable experience.  Our computers are protected by F-Secure software and this protects our kids from most of the undesirable content.  It also allows you to block web sites, so if you’re unhappy about your kids surfing You Tube for example, then just block it.  It is very easy to override when you want to view a site that the software deems is unsuitable.  Providing you have a very secure administrator password (see the section above).

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