The following article has been contributed by Abie, a freelance blogger and contributor. It has been published with permission of the author. It does not necessarily represent the views of PreppingToSurvive.com.
Many people mistakenly believe that crooks, who wish to commit crimes like burglary and others, must be physically present to be destructive. As a result many people focus on protecting their homes using traditional security measures like installing security system, using sophisticated locks and more. But because of technology, crimes nowadays can be committed even without being physically present on the scene. And aside from material possessions, criminals can also steal data, information and worse, even your identity.
The world that we live in now is so sophisticated and advance that we enjoy the benefits of having easy access to the Internet at home, at work or even when we are mobile. Imagine we can chat in Yahoo, update status in Facebook, check emails, and download pictures and videos and more anywhere we are as Internet connection is very easily accessible. But with all these benefits of being able to go online comes great security risks too. We expose ourselves with the different disasters that loom the online world like virus and spyware attacks, identity theft, hacking and more every time we go online.
That is why to prevent any cyber crimes and disasters from hitting us, here are some of the tips that one can follow:
- Use strong passwords. Passwords are our first line of defense against cyber criminals and it is what protects our different accounts like our email accounts, online banking accounts and the like. That is why when selecting passwords, it is important to use passwords that are difficult to guess. Avoid passwords such as nickname, birthday, surname, email address, significant dates, etc. Use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, alphanumeric, symbols and more when creating password, it should at least be 8 characters or more and remember to change your password frequently.
- When in doubt, delete. Virus, spyware, adware, malware and similar attacks are commonly spread via emails and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. That is why it is very important to scrutinize the email attachment or the link first before opening it as it can contain malicious codes or executable files that can infect your PC and the whole network. If you don’t know the sender and if you are doubtful of the content, never open it just to be on the safe side.
Keep your firewall and virus software up to date. Everyday, new viruses are coming up. Firewall and virus software are created then to prevent and protect our computer systems from these viruses. It is therefore important that firewall and virus software should always be updated to make sure that it has the needed patch to stop new viruses and attacks.- Use only encrypted wireless network. When connecting to the Internet via WiFi, avoid connecting to unencrypted public wireless network that does not require a username or password. This type of wireless network does not offer security features such as WEP (wired equivalent privacy) or WPA (WiFi protected access) so it is more vulnerable to cyber attacks.
- Use secure URL. When entering important information over the Internet like bank and credit card details, make sure to use only secure URL. You can check if it is a secure URL if it begins with an https instead of just http. All data transferred via secure https URL are encrypted using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) for added security and protection.
- Maintain Backup. Always make sure that you back up your system regularly so you can restore your data and system in case of failure brought by these cyber attacks.
Cyber attacks are one of the security threats and disaster that we should also be prepared for. Following the tips mentioned above is one step of protecting your system and the whole enterprise from any cyber crime and disaster that can happen.
Author’s Bio: This is a guest post by Abie. She is a freelance blogger and is currently working as a content writer for a site about survival food supplies.
PreppingToSurvive.com 
June 13, 2012 at 8:32 am
Two members of my family recently had their emails hacked and were very unhappy about it. Of course, they didn’t use very secure passwords. I keep telling them to change their passwords using a random password generator, but they haven’t listened yet.
June 13, 2012 at 10:21 am
What a pain, millenniumfly! Having your email hacked is can cause all sorts of problems. Hopefully they’ve learned their lesson.
Joe
March 23, 2013 at 6:36 am
I have read this post and if I could I want to suggest you some interesting things or tips.
November 8, 2014 at 6:07 pm
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May 18, 2022 at 5:30 am
At present we are not secure on any online platform. Hackers play with your information all the time. They can hack anyone’s information at any moment. So we should make all kinds of accounts more secure.