More people in the UK are using the internet than ever before, which means there’s a lot of vulnerable users out there. This video shows how some people could be manipulated by their online presence. Anyway here’s 5 tips:
- Always take into account what type of website you’re registered too and whether or not you’re projecting the correct persona – For example if you have colleagues and superiors on your Facebook friends list it might be as good idea to act professional and tag certain posts to only be visible to certain groups of people.
- If shopping online do some research first – Visit Google and do a quick search on the company, for example “<Company Name> Reviews“. Also if you intend on shopping on the website and you use their own Checkout system, be sure to check if it’s safe, which is usually indicated by the website having a SSL Certificate, you can check if they do by using this SSL Checker.
- Don’t use your full real name on “casual” websites – For example you may have a certain hobby and you could be an active poster on a forum that relates to said hobby, if you use your real identity on that website it could soon be the first result someone doing a background check on you finds, which may be good or bad depending on the hobby.
- Make sure your browser is upto date and listen to it! – Most modern browsers will warn you if a website you’re attempting to visit is dangerous, unless you know for certain that the website is safe you should always take notice of warnings.
- Always try to use a verified Checkout system, such as PayPal if possible, this will stop your card details potentially being stored on a vulnerable server somewhere in the world.