The Internet has proven to be a life-changer for the entire world. While only having been around for 38 years, it has changed how humans communicate, shop, enjoy, and even live their lives. However, like everything else in life, even the Internet has its own dangers. With millions of websites full of stuff on it, the Internet is also kind of a virtual minefield. Online safety is something many folks simply ignore. However, that’s a mistake since there are almost infinite things that can go wrong while you’re online. So whether you’ve just started to think about online safety or have been planning for it, it’s very much possible. We have compiled a list of the most helpful tips and tricks that we believe will help you practice online safety and be more secure in general.
Since online safety is quite an abstract topic, we will be detailing a mix of the most helpful tips and tricks. Some of these tips and tricks will be daily habits you can inculcate while others are a bit more specialized you can try to be even more secure. Use the table below to jump to the tip you feel will help.
Tips and Tricks to Stay Safe Online
Keep Your Webcam CoveredTake Social Media with a Grain of SaltBe Vary of Phishing Emails and ScamsPurchase Only from Secure SitesWatch What You DownloadInstall an Anti-Malware SoftwareVPN Is Your FriendAvoid Using Public Wi-FiHave Strong PasswordsUse Two-Factor Authentication for Online SafetyKeep Everything up to DatePreserve Your Identity OnlineBe Careful About Who You Meet OnlineBackup Your Data RegularlyBonus: Get an Air-Gapped Computer
Keep Your Webcam CoveredTake Social Media with a Grain of SaltBe Vary of Phishing Emails and ScamsPurchase Only from Secure SitesWatch What You DownloadInstall an Anti-Malware SoftwareVPN Is Your FriendAvoid Using Public Wi-FiHave Strong PasswordsUse Two-Factor Authentication for Online SafetyKeep Everything up to DatePreserve Your Identity OnlineBe Careful About Who You Meet OnlineBackup Your Data RegularlyBonus: Get an Air-Gapped Computer
Tips and Tricks to Stay Safe Online
1. Keep Your Webcam Covered
If you’ve been on the Internet long enough, you’ve probably seen the photo of Mark Zuckerburg posing at his desk. However, if you notice you will see his laptop in the background with a piece of tape covering his webcam. While you may think the Facebook founder is being paranoid, there’s plenty of good reason to cover your webcam.
Mark Zuckerberg’s laptop microphone and webcam taped over pic.twitter.com/y6ppzI50b7— Dylan Curran (@iamdylancurran) April 10, 2018
In order to practice better online safety, we advise you to follow Mark’s footsteps and install a small piece of tape over your webcam’s lens. However, if you’re someone who uses their cam every day then consider going for a Webcam Cover that you can install and slide over as you wish. Follow this tip right now and make sure you keep that tape on.
Who isn’t on social media these days? From Twitter’s opinion posting to the endless stream of Instagram reels, everyone uses these platforms. However, in our quest to always know the latest, we often sacrifice our online safety. If you’re someone who’s on social media a lot, chances are all your public and private moments are out for the world to see.
3. Be Vary of Phishing Emails and Scams
We have no doubt that you have been contacted by a Nigerian prince who wants to give you all his money. Or perhaps the director of a bank suddenly found decade-old stocks worth millions to give you. We don’t need to tell you that these are all online scams used to gain your personal information.
This also applies to online mails that ask you to update your account details. Whenever you feel like a website is fishy, check the email’s grammar and formatting. Chances are it will be badly worded and very obviously fake. Always remember that if something seems too good to be true, it is.
The next time you’re on an e-shopping website, keep an eye for a small padlock on the address bar. That sign denotes that the connection between your computer and the site is secure and cannot be hacked. Furthermore, if you click it, you will be able to see that website’s official security certificate. This way you can be even more sure of your online safety. Make sure to practice this trick every time you visit just not just a shopping website but any sensitive one.
5. Watch What You Download
We download a plethora of files and media every day. While most of them are relatively harmless, there are times when you might download something extremely risky. If a user ends up downloading a malicious file, it can dig into their system and hide. When the time comes, the malware can replicate itself and infect the computer thereby causing damage. It can even go as far as to lock our files and that not only comprises your online safety but all your confidential data.
Always make sure that the website you’re downloading from is a legitimate one and can be trusted. In order to get a better idea of a website, try searching for it on Reddit threads so if there are any previous victims they can inform you. Furthermore, you can always look out for the padlock up above.
We cannot stress this enough. You must have Anti-Malware software installed on your computer. While Windows Defender does a fairly good job of protecting your PC from online threats, complete safety is not guaranteed. In order to bolster your online safety, it is imperative you opt for a safe third-party anti-malware.
All of us reading this online have a connection through which we use the internet. And if you know that then you also know that we all have been assigned an IP address which is a number that acts as an identifier. This IP address contains details that can identify us including our exact location, ISP name among more details.
When you are online, your IP address is out in the open for anyone to see. So any websites that you visit contain your digital footprint. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) acts as a secure tunnel between your connection and the websites you want to visit. Any data you transfer including details or downloads while using a VPN is encrypted (secured) so no one can read it including your ISP. You also get a random IP address assigned to you for complete anonymity.
When we are home using our own Wi-Fi, we can be almost fully sure that it is completely safe because it’s password protected. However, sitting in an airport lounge or cafe, you’ll be tempted to use their open free Wi-Fi, but you shouldn’t. Networks not protected by a password are vulnerable to all kinds of threats including malicious people sitting nearby.
One of the biggest roadblocks in online safety is having weak passwords. After all, passwords are one of the only things blocking access to our sensitive information. Most people have the pesky habit of having a simple password like 12345 for their accounts. This is further worsened by the fact that people like to have the same password for all their websites.
Vulnerable passwords can very easily be hacked and your data can be lost forever. If you want to stay safe online, then always try to have a strong unique password which is different for every website. If you’re unsure about your current password, go ahead and try out this Password Checker (visit) to test its strength. If you find that it’s weak, opt for a strong password that contains a mix of letters and numbers along with some signs. You can automate this process by going for a password manager. There are a ton of password managers available that you can use.
If you read the above tip but don’t want to go through the trouble of changing all your passwords, two-factor authentication is something you can go for. 2FA is a handy yet secure way to add a second layer of security between your account and anyone trying to access it.
One of the most overlooked yet important things is being up to date. And we don’t mean social media. Whether your computer is powered by Microsoft Windows or a macOS, the companies constantly push out software updates. These updates not only bring new features but more often than not fix critical security vulnerabilities that would otherwise leave you wide open to attack. A computer that is not frequently updated is at a big risk of being attacked online or even offline.
12. Preserve Your Identity Online
We understand that you need to verify your identity for lots of services online. Whether it’s to take a loan for something or open a new bank account, we need to submit our official documents. These documents are often very sensitive and include things like our birth certificate, financial records, driving license, and more. While most of us are pretty careful about this, humans often make mistakes.
Your identity is not just restricted to your documents, it’s also the information that you share with strangers. Shuttered inside our homes due to the pandemic, most of us have opted to socialize with people online. Many people try to find new friends by joining chatrooms like Omegle.
14. Backup Your Data Regularly
What happens when you practice all the internet safety tips but you still get hacked and lose your data? Well, under normal circumstances we would tell you to dust yourself off and move on. However, if you’re like us and backup your data regularly, we would say just reset and you’re good to go!
You might have come across the term ‘air-gapped computer‘ but passed it by. However, if you’re really intent on practicing safety, this is something you can indulge in. Put simply, an air-gapped computer is a device that has never been connected to any network or the Internet. Air-gapped computers are completely isolated from any and all networks.
