The internet is a strange and wonderful place. It’s also confusing and dangerous. And it’s no longer optional. We require the internet to work, communicate, and buy stuff. We all live here now. While I don’t want anyone to be afraid of the online world, I do want you to be suspicious, and maybe a little bit uncomfortable.
I would like to share a few tips for staying safe in this crazy online world.
Information is the currency of the internet. The good guys want your information, and so do the bad guys. It’s difficult to get around without giving any of your information away. I’ve lost track of all the accounts I’ve signed up for. I’ve lost track of all the platforms that now have my name, email address, and one of my many passwords.
Okay. Our first mistake was handing out our information like free candy, but it’s not the end of the world. I mean, your name isn’t a secret, and neither is your email address. But what about that password? We’ll get to that password in a little bit. For now, we’ll just assume that your basic details are out there for the world to see. That’s not so bad, is it? Well, that depends on you.
We hand out our information too easily. The more comfortable you get with doing that, the more likely you are to get duped.
We use email on a daily basis. It costs next to nothing to send and receive. But most importantly, anyone can send you an email, and they don’t need your permission.
Anything clickable in an email is a link, even if it looks like a button or an image. The website on the other end of that link can be any website. That website can look like any website. It might look familiar, and it might even look legitimate.
Don’t give it any information.
Not even if it tells you your bank account has been hacked, and you need to act NOW. Not even if it’s coming from your own email address and they threaten you. Not even if they ask you to change your password.
Email scams and phishing hurt a lot of people. They can be subtle, or urgent. They might want something big from you, or something small. And anyone can fall for it.
Recently a WhatsApp message was circulating about Shell giving away free fuel. According to the message, they had a surplus caused by a drop in demand due to the pandemic. Shell currently has a warning up on their website about this scam. If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is too good to be true.
Scams like this are so effective because they propagate on the hype-train powered by people we know and trust. We trust them, and we trust what they send us. And this means that someone might fall for something that you sent them.
Remember that password I mentioned a few paragraphs ago? Well, what if we use the same password for all of our accounts, and we enter it into one bad account? That bad guy now has all our passwords. He also can start guessing variants of it.
The problem is that we have hundreds of accounts. We can’t make a unique strong password for each one and remember them all in our heads. The solution to that is either using a password manager or at the very least having unique strong passwords for your most sensitive accounts.
We want to trust people. Online, you shouldn’t.
🤨
Don’t even feel bad about it.
A healthy dose of cynicism can keep you safe. Your spidey senses should be tingling every time a website asks for sensitive information. You should feel like someone is watching you when you enter your ID Number, credit card details, or change your password. Even more so if the website is not one you visit regularly. If you don’t have to enter that information, or you’re not sure if you can trust the platform, then don’t.
Knowing it’s not safe goes a long way to keeping you safe. Trusting everyone and everything is silly, but we do it.
