Rohin Rana
With a staggering 15-17-year-olds being online and almost everyone having access to the internet today, cyber safety education is critical in helping us stay protected.
The popularity of digital and online games is rapidly increasing and it doesn’t look like it will slow down. Not only more people are playing games, but they’re also watching other people play through live streaming.
As a society, we should understand the consequences of sharing our personal information online. Given the high prevalence of technology in our lives, awareness of cyber security programmes and online safety activities should be monitored to check all attacks that are aimed at exploitation. Safer Internet Day was organised on February 5 to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones.
Attackers might use information technology to access personal information, business trade secret or use the internet for exploitative or malicious purposes. Common types of cybercrime include online bank information theft, identity theft, online data theft and unauthorised computer access. More serious crimes such as Ransomware attack are also of significant concern.
DOs
- While you are using banking websites, shopping or paying your bills online, first check if the website’s URL begins with ‘https’. Also, check whether the website is secure with Padlock icon, which indicates that the connection is secure.
- Go for uncommon and hard to guess password. Never keep identical passwords for different online accounts. Try changing your password after every 45 days. Create a password with minimum eight characters that has a mix of uppercase, lowercase letters, special characters, and numbers.
- For social media communication, use an email address that you do not use for personal/business communications.
- Avoid using free, unsecure Wi-Fi for shopping or banking on the internet and even for logging into your social media profiles. On using free Wi-Fi, our information can get hi-jacked in un-secure networks.
- Always opening any bank’s website by manually typing its URL in the address bar. Never access it from an email address or a message received in your mobile phone. Never click on links or download attachments in unwanted, unexpected emails, even if such emails look like they are from a known resource.
Don’ts
- Don’t show your personal information public on social media sites and the internet in general.
- Avoid clicking/checking ‘Keep me logged in’ or ‘Remember me’ option on websites, specifically on public computers.
- Never use any of your personal information such as name, date of birth, address, etc., as your password.
- Never respond to pop-up ads that may come up on your screen. Close such pop-up adds immediately from the task manager by pressing Alt+Ctrl+Delete.
- Avoid visiting inappropriate websites or websites that you are not fully aware of. Always sign out of online accounts, when you are finished. This is important when you are using a public computer.
- Last but most important, never download unwanted apps in your mobile phones. These apps ask for your permission while installing it in your mobile phones. Once the permission is granted, these apps can control your mobile phones and all personal information, images, documents etc. can get exploited. Moreover, avoid saving your credit/debit card information on websites, web browsers or mobile phones. Never share your personal/bank details on mobile phones, e-mail, SMS, even if the caller/sender seems genuine.