How to stay safe online?

•  How to stay safe online?

           We use our smartphones extensively in our daily  lives in almost all the things that we do. Be it surfing the web for various information , to connect through social media or banking , there are things that are extremely important and personal and the revelation of which can endanger our very lives as there are no dearth of traps and ensnares in the online world. So here are some ways , abiding which you can truly protect yourselves in the online space.


 1.  Use a lock ( Pin/pattern/fingerprint/face) :- 

Though it's a basic thing to do, you will be amazed to find that so many people even now don't use any lock as they want to avoid that  little hassle. But if they lose their phones their entire data finds itself  in the stranger's hands and can be used for any foul purpose, damaging your personal , economical and social life !


 2. Review App Permissions:-

While downloading apps from the play store, we often tend to neglect what permissions the apps are demanding for and carelessly accept to download it.
From time to time we should review if the permission wanted by an app is really required or else you should not allow it.

Example- There may be a music player which is asking permission for contacts, camera  etc. but apparently these permissions are not really required, so we should turn these permissions off as they may spying in your personal information!


 3. Download from official sources :-

Only download apps from official source, such as Google Play for Android, Appstore for iOS based devices.

 Don't forget to enable Google play protect which scans apps in the background and removes any suspicious apps.

Another important thing to do is to go to the settings menu and find security. Then go to the 'unknown sources' option and turn that off. Now, even if you accidentally downloaded any apk file from sources other than the Google play appstore , it will block the installation in that device .

 4. Choose strong Passwords :-

Google account is very crucial as it's linked with the various apps we use. So from time to time we should  do a security check up of our account linked with the smartphone or any other smart devices .  Sometimes we tend to ignore it and use very simple and hackable passwords such as '123456', your name , birthday etc., or same passwords for multiple accounts , which leaves our data unprotected and can be used by others to play foul on you. So it's very important to use a strong, unique passwords which contain upper case, lower case, alphabets and numbers. In case you’re afraid you might forget all the different passwords, use password managing software to help you keep track of them all.

 5.  Fake news :-

We see and hear a lot of things on the internet and think them all to be true but many of it may not be absolutely true . They might be a fake news or a media . So we should be more careful about believing and sharing things with people on the internet. In recent times a lot of fake news have gone viral through WhatsApp and other such social sites as a result of thoughtless sharing . As netizens we should be more responsible about what we share to others which in turn protects us from online fraud.

 6.  Secure websites :-

 So many of us believe that we have no such valuable data or nothing to hide which in turn sacrifices our internet protection and hackers can easily get access to your contacts, call logs, media files , valuable documents.

So we should change this attitude and consider only visiting safe sites i.e. sites which always have " https"  in the url bar.
You can use a plug-in called "Https Everywhere" to automatically encrypts all the sites you visit.

 7.  Messaging Apps -

 Only use messaging apps which encrypts your messages and therefore not easy to hack  such as WhatsApp,Facebook messenger, Telegram etc.

 8.  Conversations over the phone :-

Any phone call can easily be tapped and it does not happen only in suspense movies!

Use a special app called 'Eagle Security' that track and store the location of all cell towers, or “bases” or cell towers.
If it notices some "base" moving about the city or the signal disappears from time to time it marks it as suspicious and notifies the owner of the phone.!

9. Open Wi-fi zones : -

Sometimes we find the services of free wi-fi zones and tend to use it without much thinking, which can be very risky.

You should use the services of free vpn providers, like VPNbook or Freevpn which encrypts all the traffic you are using through the  wi-fi. You can also install the browser TOR. When configured correctly, it won’t let anyone know where or who you are.


10. Adwares :-

Adwares comes  often disguised as seemingly harmless advertisements which can get access to your browser history to send you more targeted ads, track your location, and even disable your antivirus! To avoid all that mess, it’s better to install ad blocking on your computer and other smart devices.

I hope you will be benefitted from this article and I will be really grateful if you share this with everyone you know to appreciate the hard work. Keep visiting my site for more such informative articles..

Thanks!

Subhajit Surai

Author & Editor

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