How To Stay Safe Online ?

Staying safe online is very important today. Because we live in a digital world now. Threats through the internet are increasing day by day. Everyone are familiar with viruses, trojans, frauds etc now and they are very common. All personal and financial functions are dealing through internet including banking and governing. So how to stay safe online. Well here we go.

Using Complete Antivirus software


By using a complete antivirus software with all type of security including anti-spyware, anti-spam,internet security and firewalls, we can secure the 90%.


Spywares including virus, trojan, worm etc. A virus(Vital Information Resource Under Siege) is a small programme that is designed to do unauthorized functions without the permission or knowledge of the user, using the vulnerabilities in your OS. These things are made to destruct a system completely and is the most dangerous and famous. Hundreds of viruses are identified everyday. Both computer and mobile phone viruses are there. There are mainly spreaded through internet and cracked programmes mainly !


Trojans are different from viruses, because they dont harm your computer directly. Trojans are mainly used to collect sensitive data from one's computer without his permission. They can capture every sensitive informations like usernames,passwords, credit card numbers, wallet codes and every keystrokes. A trojan can easily send the collected data to the creator.The name 'trojan' came from the 'Trojan Horse' which is in the European history. Trojans are really dangerous for your personal information (it is not the hardware or software you are losing!).


Worms are also a form of virus, very simple programmes. These can be simple codes, so they are also called malicious codes. A single worm cant serously harm a system itself, but can self-replicate very fast and spread widely as they are simple. The large spreading can cause a system or a network of systems, down. Worms are first place in variants (some can make new codes appropreatly as anonymous!)


There are other lot of threats on the internet. But the explained are main. Other threat is not from any softwares, but from humans. They are known as 'Crackers' ! Dont be confused with the terms 'hacker' and 'cracker'. The hacker is a good expert in cyber security and working for good. They are also called as 'Ethical Hackers' and 'white hat'. But the cracker is the negative. He uses his knowledge and abilities to crack other's computer, doing thefts, blackmail peoples by collecting their sensitive personal information. But today, most of the people (even for computer experts) dont know the difference betweenthe two terms. They use the word 'Hacker' to explain any hacking and cracking activity. But we have to understand that the ways of both hackers and crackers are the same and they have the same knowledge. Crackes use their knol to harm other people. Both hackers and crackers have deep knowledge in softwares, programming, networking and internet. The common behaviours of hacker and cracker are,


1.Patience
2.Hardwork
3.Ability to use their brain
4.They always stay quiet
5.They want to be alone
The first 3s are the main. Others are my interests!


Crackers make viruses, trojans etc. They know all the faults in a software and can make an another programme to use them. The faults are called 'Vulnerabilities'. We cant make a software with zero vulnerability and thats the theory. Using spywares, crackers can destruct a system or network, use your personal informations for identity theft, stole your credit card numbers and wallet codes to theft your bank account. Now i'm going to explain some other their fraud works.


Phishing


Phishing is the most common and easy way of a cracker for identity theft and collect one's personal information. Phishing is mainly done through social networkin sites like facebook. Here, he make a fake login page for your favourite social neworking site and make someone to reach their fake page. When you see the page, you'll feel it as orginal and enter your information and login. By that time the cracker will get the username and password of you and it is enough to collect your all personal information to do an identity theft. So you have to care with when using social networking sites. Do the follow for your safety against phishing.


1. We recommend you to dont reveal all your personal information publicaly.


2. Always use 'https' connection when using SN sites. It is the secure connection where your data will be encrypted and sent through the network.You can enable it in your facebook and twitter account. Using https connection prevents sniffing.


3. Always care to check the site address wheather orginal or not.Enter the sites through search and that is more safe. Because search engines will block the phishing or fake sites.


4.Use strong passwords with letters, numbers, signs etc that can be remembered by you and should not store them in unsafe places, tell your friends as a joke (even to close friens).
5.Use all the security measurments provided by a website. Like enabling 2 step varification for Google account, password hints, recovery options etc.


6.Note there are lot of phishing sites for famous websites including bank's websites. Beware of them.


7.Be careful with your credit card and bank account information. Use them only in verified merchent sites.


Spam emails and Scams


You may get an important email saying that you've won a lottery of big amount or your bank is asking account details, in a morning ! Please aware of them. These are called Spam and Scam. These emails may lead you to a fake but genuine looking sites that are used for phishing. Most of the e-mail service providers give an advanced spam filter where spam mails will get automatically filtered and deleted in a certain amount of time. Make use of it. And aware that your bank will not ask any personal informations through email. Also if you find a scam or spam please report it here and to your email service providers.


Sniffing


Sniffing is type of search for sensitve information in an online network.When we get connected from a browser to a server, we'll get online. If you have a connection with no encryption, all the data sent and recieved can be sniffed and collected by a cracker. Thats why i told to use https connection. In this connection, all the data will be encrypted using 128bit encryption with a decryption code. So a cracker can sniff the network.


Identity Theft


Using the collected personal data, a cracker make fake email accounts, id cards, social accounts etc. These are used to blackmail a person and ask for money to remove the accounts.Identity theft is very serious for personal information.


Social Engineering


Social Engineering is a new tecnique of both hackers and crackers. This may include physical functions. It is a technique where a hacker make use of common functios, facilities and tools to collect data. Example: search engines. Search engines crawl every page on the internet and available for public. So an expert hacker can enter or collect data for an attack by using different search methods. The crackers may look in trash boxes (both virtual and physical, if needed) for useful data. Collecting data for an attack is called 'Footprinting'.


DDOS Attack


DDOS (Distributed Denial Of Service) attack is really common today. It used to take down a lare website with many online users or a network. The denial of service is done by making an overflow of data to a server. This limits the bandwidth of the server and make it down. Making an overflow of data is called or the situation is called 'Buffer Overflow'. It is also called as an e-bomb. To do this, a cracker need the help of other crackers. It is a team play.


Port Scanning and Attack


Port Scanning is a method to scan free ports on a large network for attack. I'll explain.
Ports are docks or gateways on a system or server for transferring data to an another network or a system. A single system can have so many ports with different port numbers. A system admin can open or close these ports anytime. A hacker can search for these free ports and enter into one's system without his permission and connect to the system to get data from it. They use port scanning softwares to scan free ports. How can we get rid of that ? That's where Firewalls work. Firewalls check ports and determine whether a port to be opened or closed. a firewall filter and analyse all the data send through the ports. Every OS has its own default Firewall. You can use other firewall softwares also.


And How To ?


Using a better Antivirus Software prevents 90% of threats as i've said. The balance 10% should be done from you. Understanding the threats and the ways of  hackers and crackers will help you to stay safe online.
read the article again and again. Tell your friends and all others you connect. Feel free to ask your doubts.