Sacramento resident Frank Yan has taken precautions to online hackers that have tried to disrupt and interfere to his online accounts. Below are tips for safe browsing.
1. Protect your online passwords by using different passwords for each site you are registered with. At a minimum, do not use the same password you use at work or at your bank for sites that are not as important (e.g. a newspaper site requiring registration).
2. Store your online passwords in a secure password escrow tool
3. Make sure that you are running an up to date antivirus application
4. Patch, patch, patch. Make sure that your browser is up-to-date at the latest patch level and that other applications like Adobe Flash are updated. Windows Update will patch Internet Explorer, Apple Software Update will patch Safari, and Firefox can be updated by going to Help. Check for Updates.
5. Do NOT give out personal information (identity and financial) unless absolutely sure that you need to. And, in that case, make sure it is over an encrypted link (https instead of http in the browser navigation bar).
6. Look for signs of an encrypted Web page when providing sensitive personal information (credit card or banking information, SSNs, etc.) online; key identifiers include a URL for the Web site’s login page that begins with “https” and a padlock icon in your browser status bar (the location of this icon will vary based on browser)
7. Do NOT click on links in email. Sometimes a malicious site address is hidden in the link. Don’t click on any links from people you don’t know, and copy/paste links from email to your browser from people you do know.
8. If you are using a web browser from a public computer (not your own computer), like the ones you find at an Internet Cafe, do NOT put any passwords or personal information into the browser. The information could get logged and saved to that computer.
9. Be wary of Internet downloads : Downloaded files like software or other media can hide malware on your computer without your knowledge
10. And remember…if it looks to good to be true, it probably is.
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