How to make sure your secure online?
Websites used to be just a means for gathering information but now you can do anything online from shopping for groceries, buying your lottery ticket, banking online and much more. This means there is a bigger risk of security needed to keep up with the amount of users using these services daily.
The most common method of security is Secure Sockets Layer. A Secure Sockets Layer is uses a cryptographic system which has 2 keys one for the client machine and the other for the server machine. All data sent over SSL is secure and the most common use for SSL are for when the user is submitting valuable information such as credit card details and usernames and passwords. Whenever you are submitting your data always check for the https:// rather than http:// and also for the security sign at the bottom right hand corner of your internet explorer browser. To check try clicking the differences below:
http://www.web21k.com
https://www.web21k.com
You should also be aware of spyware and Trojans sitting on your computer as SSL will not stop these programs from stealing your information. Spyware sits as a program on your computer and spies on your information. A Trojan can be destructive to your data but can also send data back to another computer and this can be dangerous. To secure yourself you need a firewall, either your windows firewall or a 3rd party firewall such as Zone Alarm or Norton Internet Security and also you will need a piece of software called Spy Bot or Ad Aware.
Lastly you always need to make sure your data is fully backed up. If you use a web based email system and store data online always make sure that the server is backed up
Copyright Web21k
By Sam Howell - 14th April 2007
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