Online Safety, How Safe Are We

Never ever give out any of your personal information. Hackers make an email look completely legit, like it's from your bank or a service. Do not click on those links, always go directly to the banks website on log on normally, if they want you the message will be there. The last thing you want to experience is identity theft. Pay Pal is is often used by hackers as a front for their emails again never click the links always log on from their home page, it may take a few moments longer but it is better to be safe than sorry.
Do some research before you deal with any company on the Internet. If you want to purchase something online, look for the sellers physical address and call their phone number to make sure it is a working number. I recommend that you don't use any company that does not have a Pay Pal account. Pay Pal does not share your financial information with the company, all they give out is your name and mailing address. Be very weary of downloading free software if it looks to good to be true thats normally means it is. Read the fine print, and if you are not willing to do so, don't download it.

Always use a firewall and anti virus software and set them up to update automatically. It is important that you keep your eyes peeled for anti virus software that can pick up newer viruses as well as older ones. Make sure that your software is installed properly and set your security settings on high to reduce the risk of getting hacked.

Do as much as you can to protect your passwords the less people know the better for you. Last but not least do regular backups of all your files there are a number of easy to use zip file systems now which take no time at all.

If you do not know who to contact when there is a problem, go to http://onguardonline.gov/ it's a good resource of information for online safety.

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