We can’t think our day without Internet these days. It is becoming a part of the items that we use every day like newspaper, telephone, television, mobile or car. Though the percentage of such people is relatively lower, nevertheless this amounts to millions of internet users. All these people might use net for a variety of reasons like studying, checking mail, communicating, shopping, playing games, banking, trading, publishing, watching movies and scores of other activities. They interact in cyberspace which is beneficial, economical, and convenient but also comes with lots of risks, growing rapidly over period.
With the increasing traffic to cyberspace, there has emerged number of cyber criminals who are developing new means to exploit, harm or manipulate users. It has become immensely important that the general internet user needs to know about the security measures that one must take while being online.
Let’s take a look at some of the basic yet most important safety measures:
1.We begin with installing a branded and versatile security software that can save you from hackers, identity stealers and false email makers. The software must be one that gives you virus protection and also acts as a firewall. You should update it on a regular basis.
2. Even after installing the software, you have to make sure of certain things like not to open mails especially attachments from unknown or suspicious people. You must not download free software just from any site but only reputed sites. People should be aware that such free softwares sometimes act as a tool for planting malicious adware and spyware.
3. Internet fraud is a new phenomenon. We have known real life frauds and scams and now things have become easier for vagabonds and crooks to use internet to fool people, rob them of their money, information and other things. We caution you against dubious lottery mails, inheritance notifications, fraud auctions and job offers. There are sites that ask you to pay a small registration fee to get you work from home jobs, which are fictitious.
4. Cyber stalking is another problem that many people face when using internet. It happens when you frequent a chat room, write a blog regularly or put up pictures of yourself and family in a separate website of yours. It is very common with public figures or celebrities. This kind of threat involves things such as making an identical profile in some social networking site and sending out negative messages, abusing people, etc. it could also be a case of putting up your morphed pictures, giving away your phone numbers in porn sites. Last but not least, a cyberstalker can send you mails to threaten or bully you.
5. With the coming of internet, people of all age group have become vulnerable when seeking love and relationship from dating and matrimony sites. It is advisable to be extremely cautious about falling into traps of sexual criminals. The dating sites might have profiles of people who are not trustworthy at all. When a woman decides to go for a date with somebody whom she has met online, she must make sure to meet the man in a public place. She should also confide in a friend or family member about this new person and the place where she is going to meet him.