How to stay safe and secure on the internet: Ultimate Guide

How to stay safe and secure on the internet ?  This question must have come at least once in the mind of all internet users.  This is because in today's digital age where everything is available online, how can criminals stay behind.

Now, this internet has become like heaven for these people because here very little hard work can bring a lot of money. So we common people like you have to work a little cautiously, otherwise, our hard-earned money will be stolen by these cybercriminals in one stroke due to our little carelessness.

This internet has completely changed our lifestyle, whether it is reading news, or enjoying any entertainment, or doing any research, booking our holidays online, shopping and selling things, and many more.

In such a situation, keeping yourself safe on the internet or cyberspace is much more complicated than locking the door of your house.  With the development of technology, our devices have also developed, due to which we are now using devices like smartphones, tablets which we can easily carry with us and these internet-connected devices further increase our online risk.

How to stay safe and secure on the internet

The World Wide Web (WWW) is a wonderful resource for us, but like all great things, it has risks, so there are also risks with it.  But here is the good news that if we follow some security measures properly then we can reduce these online threats to a great extent very easily.

So today I thought why not provide you people with information on how to keep yourself safe and secure on the internet.  So without delay let's dive into it-

1. Check The Firewall

This firewall may sound a bit strange & difficult but it is a very important thing to protect your computer.  If you are using a Windows-based system, then you have to go to the control panel and then type “firewall” in the search box.

If your firewall is "on" or "connected," then you don't have to do anything else you will have to turn it on. These firewalls will not allow many criminals to reach you.  With this, never share the resources of your computer with anyone else whom you do not know.

2. Make Sure To Backup The Data

Backing up your important data is a very good thing to do.  Because very often it happens that due to some reason like a computer crash or any power outage or surge, or due to any lightning storm, our data gets corrupted many times.

In such a situation, if we keep their backup, then it will be easy for us to get the data again.  Whereas nowadays internet users are very much affected by ransomware which encrypts our system due to which we have to lose our data.  To avoid all such problems, we must make a backup of our data.

3. Stay Away From Rogue Websites

It is a bit difficult to find a rogue website because they look like normal websites but if you pay attention to some things then you can easily stay away from such websites.

You should always look for the green lock in the address bar where the code prefix should contain “HTTPS://” at the beginning of the URL when you are visiting any banking sites, or filling your credit card data somewhere or somewhere accessing your webmail.

Apart from this, be a little cautious about shopping sites as well. It is very important to note that never open the links that came in the email, but go to their official website and open them. Because some hackers or crackers can mail you with some duplicate link.

4. Stay Away From Tempting Deals

If you ever come across some such deals which are not even possible in your favor to believe, then keep away from them because these deals are often clickbait and they are only to attract the customer so that they click that link and go to their phishing page. These can also be spammy links.

5. Don't Share Your Sensitive Information

No matter what happens, but never reveal your sensitive information on an untrusted website.  Also never share your bank details, credit card number, social security number with anyone.

And never provide complete information about yourself in your social media profile, because if your account gets hacked then all your information will come into the hands of hackers.

6. Do Not Open Unknown Emails

These days crackers or hackers try to hack us through emails also so try to avoid any emails which come from an unknown or suspicious source.  Never open the attachments that come with these emails. 

These links are often spammy & are used for hacking and phishing.  Always keep your distance from them.

7. Protect Your Mobile Life

Our mobile devices are equally precious to us and also vulnerable to online threats as are our PCs & laptops.  Even mobile devices have more new risks, such as risky apps and dangerous links that come in the form of text messages on your mobiles.

Be very careful before clicking them and never answer messages sent by strangers.  If you want to download the app then do it only from official app stores after reading the users' reviews.  Apart from this, install antivirus or security software on your mobile and try to update them from time to time.

8. Always Be Up-To-Date

If you will always keep your computers and mobile phones updated, then you can eliminate up to 90% of security threats before they arise.  So if you believe me, enable automatic updates in your systems.

Final Words:

I want to tell you one thing clearly that even all the security around the world cannot save you from yourself.  So you have to learn a lot of things yourself and apply them properly.

• Never open those attachments about which you are not even sure. These attachments are the most common way for malware to spread.
• Never fall into these phishing scams.  Show some wisdom.  These online accounts are often hacked through Phishing.

• Never click on links from unidentified sources.
• Never install “free” software from unofficial sources because these “free” packages often come with spyware, adware, too.
• Never share passwords with anyone and always keep yourself updated with online security news.