Internet Safety – Page 5 – Anti-virus Software, Spyware Protection & Firewall

Jon March 16, 2010

10 Online Safety Tips for Kids and Families.

You don’t need us to tell you how important online safety for your family is, especially if you have kids still living at home. Local and national news sources help illustrate this point almost every day with stories about online scams, Internet perverts, and worse. But today we’re going to help you prevent any more of those stories by giving out some basic online safety tips for you and your family.

With the proper guidance, you can help make sure that you’ve done everything you can to help your kids surf safely on the Internet. Take a look at the list we’ve compiled below and see if there’s anything here you haven’t tried yet.

Always sit with younger children when they’re online. Keep a few bookmarks that they can easily access to get to kid-friendly web sites.
Help your kids create fun online nicknames that don’t give away personal information.
Keep any computers that are connected to the Internet in an open area where your children can be easily supervised.
Ensure that your kids aren’t sharing personally-identifiable and/or sensitive information with people they meet online. Examples of info to keep private include:
- his/her real name,
- the physical address of their home,
- whether or not their parents, guardians, or other responsible adult are home,
- any phone number (home or cell), or
- passwords.
Let them know that it’s not OK to use the Internet to gossip, cyberbully, or threaten anyone online, even if they mean it as a joke.
Let your children know that it’s OK to tell you if something (or someone) on the Internet makes them feel uncomfortable or threatened.
Make sure they know it’s never OK to meet an online friend without parental permission.
Set clear rules for appropriate Internet use. Things you should consider are the types of web sites that are off limits, specific Internet hours, and what (if any) information can be shared online.
Talk to your children about what web sites they visit and who they’re chatting with.
Talk with your kids about computers and be open to their questions.

The online safety tips we’ve listed above are a good starting point for any family with children who are old enough to use computers, but they are by no means an exhaustive list. Monitor how much your kids use the Internet, see what’s working and what isn’t, and stay involved.

If you think we’ve missed anything, or if you have a story about how your family talks about online safety, please leave a comment below. We’d love to hear from you.

Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/inferis/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

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Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: cyberbullying, cyberstalking, etiquette, Internet Safety, privacy, social media, social networks, tips

Jon March 3, 2010

Making Facebook Safer for You and Yours.

With over 400 million active members at the time of this post’s release, half of which log in at least once per day, Facebook is at the top of the web site food chain. With numbers like that, chances are that if you’re reading this post you’re also a Facebook member, and if you are, there have been a lot of changes in the last few months with regard to Facebook account settings that you may not have updated recently.

You may have updated a few settings when you first set up your Facebook account, but it’s a good time to review what your current settings are and make any changes necessary. We’d like to show you 3 things you can change, update, or do to make your Facebook profile safer and help ensure that only the information you want people to see can be seen.

Account Settings:
It all starts with a good password. Since Facebook allows you to store a lot of personally-identifiable information, it’s even more important to ensure that the password you use to access Facebook is strong, unique, and known only by you. If you’re not sure how to create a strong password, check out our blog articles “12 Tips for Making a Good Password” and “Bionic Passwords: Better, Stronger, and Faster“.

To change your Facebook password, click on Account > Account Settings > Password. You should then be prompted to type in your old password (as a safety precaution) and your new password.
Privacy Settings:
The Facebook privacy settings page has 5 different sections that you can modify, each of which we’ll discuss separately below. For specific details on each section see the actual page itself.
- Profile Information:
  This section allows you to determine who can see information like your birthday, photos, posts, comments, and information of that nature.
- Contact Information:
  This section allows you to determine who can see information like your cell phone, home address, website URL, and IM screen names.
- Applications and Websites:
  If you allow Facebook applications to access your account (including games such as Mafia Wars and 3rd party tools like Twitter), this section allows you to determine what, if any, information those applications can access. You can also select what information your friends can share about you, too.
- Search:
  This section has 2 very important settings: who can see your search results, and whether or not your Facebook page can be accessed by search engines.
- Block List:
  Have a virtual stalker on Facebook, or just really tired of someone? You can add them to your Block List and not have to deal with them any more (for the most part).
Watch what information you publish:
Think twice before publishing anything that is personally identifiable to Facebook or any other web site. Phone numbers, addresses, work locations, and schools you or family members are attending are all examples of things that you might want to keep under wraps. And if you do publish them to your Facebook friends, be sure to double-check all of your Facebook settings (noted above) to make sure that only the people you want seeing them can have access to them.

Please be especially careful with releasing any information regarding your home address online. Making your home address public isn’t something a lot of people do, but new tools, games, and features on many new phones, web services, etc. allow you to post geolocation data like GPS coordinates, and those can be just as dangerous to make public as your address. Read our blog post “Stranger Danger: Geolocation Features and Internet Safety” for more information.

For more information, check out the official Facebook safety page at http://www.facebook.com/safety/.

Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/88526923@N00/ / CC BY 2.0

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: facebook, Internet Safety, Internet Security, phishing, privacy, social networks

Jon February 10, 2010

Stranger Danger: Geolocation Features and Internet Safety.

Location-aware features are becoming more and more prevalent in today’s online services and tech gadgets. From GPS in the latest smart phones to adding a geolocation tag on social networking sites like Twitter or even Google, its easier than ever to let people know where you are any time of day or night. But with the ability to publicly display your location lies an inherent risk for being a victim of cyber-stalking or worse.

When it comes to technology and online services in our digital world, it’s easy to forget how all the strings tie together. As we tweet, blog, or update our Facebook statuses during the day we’re supplying everyone who can see our profiles with sensitive data regarding our day-to-day activities. From what and where we had lunch to when we’re going to bed, every time we post anywhere we’re opening our lives a little more. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but basic precautions should be taken, especially with tools that can display our location on a map.

Thinking of geolocation data as sensitive information is important not only for your privacy, but for the safety of yourself and your possessions. Because of this we recommend that, if you add geolocation info with your online posts, you exclude certain places from being published. Examples of recommended sites to exclude are:

Your house:
GPS data these days is so accurate that if your geolocation data is posted online it can show you not only your general neighborhood, but the precise location of your house. With a good satellite image from Google maps it’s even possible to discover what kind of car you drive and where good hiding spots are around your home.
Where you work:
For most people a large part of the day is spent at work. Geo-tagging from work allows anyone wishing to follow you to easily track where you are when you’re on the job.
Schools & daycare:
Our children are our most precious gift, and showing the world where they go to school or daycare is just about as dangerous as doing it from your home. Resist the urge to post location information when you’re waiting at the school pick-up circle.
Vacation spots:
We already know that tweeting can potentially lead to a home burglary, and if you add your geolocation tags to your vacation posts when you’re out of town, you’ll not only let criminals know you’re gone, you’ll let them know how long your house will be empty.

It may seem far fetched at first, but here’s an all-too-possible scenario: Person A follows Person B on Twitter, and vice versa. Person A likes to tweet a lot about everything she does during a day. On her profile Person A has a profile picture of herself, her first and last name, and the latitude/longitude of her current location updated whenever she tweets. If Person B is an unscrupulous character, he can cyber-stalk Person A to his hearts content and begin to build up his own profile on her: Where she works, where she shops for groceries, who her friends are, what her neighborhood is like, and when she’s at home or running around town. Mix in real-time geolocation tagging and he can not only follow her online, he can take his stalking to the real world.

While geolocation tools and services can add a fun, new dimension to your virtual life, you need to understand the risks of opting-in to them. Just be sure to not share any location-based information that can put stalkers close to you.

Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanegorski/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: cyberstalking, Internet Safety, Internet Security, privacy

Jon November 19, 2009

How to Identify and Prevent Cyberbullying.

Today’s kids are spending more and more time online in chat rooms, texting via cell phone, and using every digital gadget available to them to communicate with their friends. Not only are they chatting with friends from their schools and neighborhoods, but they’re also meeting new people online and talking with them, too. In most cases the chats are fun and friendly, but there is a growing concern over a dark side of these digital discussions: cyberbullies.

What is cyberbullying?

The National Crime Prevention Council defines cyberbullying as: “Online bullying, called cyberbullying, happens when teens use the Internet, cell phones, or other devices to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person.”. Emails, IM‘s, Twitter posts, text messages, MySpace pages… any digital resource can, and likely has been, used for the purposes of cyberbullying.

Warning signs of cyberbullying and harassment.

There’s a large variety of ways that a bully can harass a victim online. A few examples are creating or altering photos in a suggestive manner, continually sending the victim hateful messages, rallying a larger group of people to humiliate someone, and spreading false rumors in order to hurt or embarass the target.

Everyone reacts differently to harassment, but there are some classic warning signs that somehing is wrong. The victims of cyberbullying may:

Become uncharacteristically withdrawn or antisocial
Have trouble sleeping, or possibly have nightmares
Avoid going online or using their cell phone
Unexpectedly shut down a computer when others come near
Ask questions about revenge, death, or suicide

At the first sign of any of these, or other unusual behavior, parents, teachers, and other responsible adults should take note and talk to the child. Catching these things early is a key to prevention. And if you come across any bullying, make sure to save any evidence (save emails, print the screen with chats, etc.).

Cyberbullying in the news.

In recent years there have been several high-profile stories in the press regarding cyberbullying. Not only do these stories bring to light the wide-ranging impact of cyberbullying and other forms of digital harassment, but they also illustrate that it’s not just teens bullying other teens. Here are a few examples:

Adults targeting children in revenge schemes via Craigslist
Online predators using an online game to find a victim
Groups of kids and adults harassing an individual with tragic results, such as the MySpace suicide of Megan Meier

How do we stop cyberbullies?

Early detection of harassment is key, though it’s not always easy to find. Staying on top of your child’s internet and cell phone usage is one way to be in the loop. And don’t worry about keeping tabs: it’s not snooping or invading their privacy, it’s looking out for their well being!

We’ve come up with a short list of 5 cyberbullying prevention tips to help parents and their children stop cyberbullying in it’s tracks:

Report cyberbullies:
As with any bully, make sure that your kids know that it’s not OK for this to happen to them. They should also tell a responsible adult: parents, teachers, etc. Parents and other adults should take the information seriously and should report any instance of harassment to the authorities (police, school administrators, etc.)
Education = prevention:
Talk with your kids and let them know the ramifications of cyberbullying: fear, embarassment, and other negative reactions.
Consider a contract:
There are plenty of examples of fair use contracts between parents and children online that have clear, concise rules of internet and cell phone usage. Find a few examples and discuss them with your kids so that they know what is expected of them and get a written promise of compliance.
Look for warning signs:
Red flags that show up when a child is the victim of a cyberbully include (but aren’t limited to): being nervous when downloading emails or IM’s, becoming angry when online (or just after going offline), being uncharacteristically withdrawn from friends and family, the unexpected absence of any cell phone usage, and avoiding any time online.
Get informed, stay informed:
Keep an open door policy with your kids so that they know they can come to you at any time to discuss problems that may arise both online and offline.

Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/pimkie_fotos/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: cyberbullying, Internet Safety

Jon November 12, 2009

3 Things Your Username Shouldn’t Say About You.

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

From “Romeo and Juliet“, by William Shakespeare

The creation of a username (or user ID) for any online service or account is often overlooked as a topic of Internet safety. Although the username you create for your bank’s web site may not be viewed by many people, your email, social network, and instant message (AKA “IM“) usernames will be viewed by dozens, hundreds, or maybe thousands of people (depending on your popularity online and/or the openness of the service).

When choosing a username it’s best to not take any chances. Crooks, predators, fraudsters, scammers… anyone with ill intentions might be able to wedge their way into your life to cause problems. There are 3 types of personal information found in many usernames that might be useful to the bad guys, which we’ll discuss below.

Note: In the sections below we use various usernames as examples. These are not intended to be the usernames of actual people, and any similarity is purely coincidental.

Age

This is especially important for children, as their usernames can be displayed to all kinds of unsavory characters online, from sexual predators to cyberbullys. When helping your child select a username for themselves, be careful not to reveal their age.

Here are some examples of age-defining usernames:

Little15 Shows the age of the user.
Bobby1997 The full year of the users birth.
Kewl95Dude The partial year of the users birth.

Location

Area codes, city/county names, zip codes, phone prefixes… there are many ways to give a crook or scammer information on where you live. Remember the movie “You’ve Got Mail“? Tom Hanks’ character used his building number in his username (“NY152”). Rich guy, building in his username… there’s some quick and easy info for a baddie to pick up on. Don’t be that guy (or gal).

Here are some examples of location-defining usernames:

Alice90210 The zip code of the user
Derrick212 The area code of the user
KingCoKyle The county of the user. (e.g. “King County”)

Gender

Whether you’re a man or a woman, it’s easier to identify people when you know more things about them. If, for example, someone wanted to cyber-stalk you, it would be easier to pick you out in a crowd if they could eliminate half of the group by only looking for one sex vs. the other.

Here are some examples of gender-defining usernames:

LadyInRed
MisterMan
MrsHotPotato

A few things to note

We’re detailing suggestions, not absolutes. If you’re 87 years old and decide that HappyGramps87 is the username for you, then you’ll probably be fine since age is much more of an issue for children. And, of course, there are things that shouldn’t need to be said like putting things like your PIN or Social Security number in your username. Just use your best judgment and do what you think is right. And safe.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Internet Safety, social media, social networks

Jon September 15, 2009

Staying Safe Online (and Offline).

For all the good that the internet brings to us, it can also be a dangerous place if you’re not careful. Identity theft, burglars reading blogs, and many other issues can catch you in their web if you’re not careful. Because of this we have a few suggestions to help keep you and your family safe both off- and online.

Keep Personal Information Private

It’s easy to reveal too much information on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. These sites usually have online forms where you can input your email, phone number, and even home address. Keeping spam out of your inbox is one thing, but with today’s sophisticated criminals and increased use of the internet by organized crime, you have to be careful with your home and family information.

Remember that anywhere you publish your home address might provide an opportunity for a burglar looking to case a neighborhood to find his or her next victim. Just as you wouldn’t put your Social Security number anywhere for the general public to see, keep as much personal information under wraps as possible: home address, work address, home phone number, etc.

Watch Those Pictures and Videos

Sharing pictures and videos with family and friends is great, especially with the ease of use that most gizmos and gadgets have today; but be careful not to let anything personally identifiable leak out accidentally. Pictures of your home are fine, but make sure that nothing that can identify you or your family is visible. For example, anything like a street sign near your home or the name of the school that your kids attend can be dangerous to post since they can be used to track you down in real life. The same goes for your cars. Even news and entertainment shows blur out license plates for the sake of privacy and security. If your pictures have any elements like that, it’s a good idea to cut- or blur-out those things.

Don’t worry though, because you’re not going to have to spend a lot of cash to buy a photo editing software package like Photoshop (a wonderful, albeit expensive, piece of software). If you don’t have photo-editing software, you can find plenty of free online tools that let you blur, clip, or pixelate pictures without emptying your wallet. A few good ones are Pixlr and Picnik.

Don’t Reveal Too Much

Be sure not to give away too many details about your daily activities. Most people have a general pattern they follow day-to-day as they go to school or work, and criminals can use that information to their advantage. If you post info online about going on vacation, a ball game, or even the grocery store, then those who might use that information against you could be given a perfect opportunity to slide in when you step out. Instead, try posting your activities after the fact, with the added benefit of being able to show pictures of the fun you had (keeping in mind the photo safety tips above).

One Last Thing…

Don’t get us wrong.. it’s not like posting a picture online is going to immediately ruin your life. Well, not any family-friendly photos, at least. Some of the examples given may seem extreme, but they happen, and you need to be aware of them. But like with most things in life, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Exercising a little extra caution before clicking that “submit” button can help curb any potential hazards and keep you and your information safe.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: identity theft, Internet Safety, Internet Security