HOW TO STAY SAFE ON THE INTERNET

Hi friends, it's a lovely Monday so let's start it of with a new topic. Since you are already reading this, that means you are connected to the internet. But the question is this: How safe are you while you are connected to the internet? That's what we are going to be looking into today.

Internet security is as important as security in other aspect of our life, but most times we pay little or no attention to how secure our internet connection is.

So going straight to the point, how do we stay safe on the internet?

  1) Your Internet Connection: 

Obviously, the first thing to be considered is how you are being connected to the internet. If you are connected to the internet through your service providers data bundle, you are safe. But if you are connected through Wi-Fi, two things are involved.

And if you are connected through a private Wi-Fi like your home Wi-Fi, company Wi-Fi, etc then you are safe. But if you are connected to a public Wi-Fi, my friend so many things are involved.

Now what are the risks involved in being connected to an unsecured public Wi-Fi? First, the owner of any public Wi-Fi can access, view and collect sensitive information on your phone like messages, contacts, etc. And the advanced Wi-Fi hackers can steal the passwords of your social network accounts, and in some situations they can also access the PIN NUMBER of your mobile banking apps.

  2) Phishing Links: 

Wait, you think that's a typo error? Not so, phishing (pronounced fishing) is a process whereby fraudsters/hackers embed a malicious link into a genuine looking SMS or email pretending to be someone or a brand you trust. What happens is that once you click on the link, instead of the link taking you to the genuine website, it redirects you to the hackers website and ANY information you drop on this website gets stored on the hackers database.

In Nigeria now, the trending thing is for these hackers to send you an email claiming to be one of the commercial banks (the ones I've seen most is GT Bank & Eco Bank), asking you to update your account profile or register for the recently introduced BVN.

  SOLUTION

NEVER click on any link you get via email or SMS if you do not absolutely trust the source of the email or sms. In a scenario where you don't know whether or not to trust the source, simply copy out the link and write the web address one by one by yourself on your browser. By doing this, you would avoid any malicious link in the email/SMS.

  3) Suspicious Websites: 

Whenever we are online, we are always visiting one website or the other. Normally there's nothing wrong with this, until you attempt to do an online transaction. Whenever you want to make an online transaction, you should make sure you are doing so on a secured website. So how do you identify a secured website? Whether you are using your mobile phone, tablet or system, I would suggest you get either the Avast antivirus, AVG, or CM security (for mobile only). Each of these antivirus softwares have a feature that alerts you whenever you are on an untrusted website, so with this you can be sure if you are to go on with that transaction on the website.

Well, that's it for today. And if you have any question not covered by this post, feel free to ask using the comment box below.

   BONUS: 

Anytime you are browsing and you see a pop-up asking you to download an UNKNOWN app, please don't, cos most of these apps are malwares.