On the occasion of the Safer Internet Day which is celebrated every year on February 9th to remind all surfers that the internet is a beautiful place but requires the right awareness of all the dangers more or less hidden inside, we see here a nice summary, summary but as complete as possible, regarding the main risks and problems that can be encountered by connecting to the internet, browsing the world wide web, using apps and chat and communication programs . The article is valid for everyone, for the more experienced, for the youngest, for the oldest, for parents of boys and girls at the first experiences and especially for those who want to use the internet and take advantage of all the advantages and possibilities it offers. with peace of mind, without suffering from those anxieties that can afflict us when we do not know the place where we are well.
The dangers of the internet to be known, to be careful of and to face when necessary can be summarized in 9 broad categories.
1) Sites with malware and viruses ready to infect your computer.
Browsing the internet it is really easy to click on the wrong link and open a site that loads malware onto our computer. Fortunately, if an updated antivirus is installed on your PC, this virus will almost always be stopped before it can harm you. The biggest danger, besides that of an antivirus that mistakenly lets the virus pass, is that of not realizing that it has risked an infection that can compromise the functioning of the PC or the integrity of the data. Precisely because of the lack of attention by many people, Ransomware viruses such as Cryptlocker, which encrypt personal files and ask for ransom, have spread in the last year.
Fundamental, in recognizing and avoiding sites with viruses, is also the use of a browser updated to the latest version, which is protected against all the bugs discovered to date.
Among the most dangerous sites that can contain malware are certainly adult sites, piracy sites of any kind, almost all torrent sites (always with piracy), illegal download sites (such as movies and music) and crack.
Ideally, if you have to visit such a site, it would be better to navigate using a sandbox.
2) Online privacy always in danger
It is quite obvious that if you want to use the Internet participatively, then subscribing to forums, social networks and chats, you need to sacrifice part of your privacy. On sites like Facebook you are obliged to give the real name, on other sites it is still necessary to leave an email address through which you can, if you wish, trace its owner. Basically, in the normal use of the internet anonymity cannot exist and if someone was interested in knowing who we are and had the right hacking talent and skills, they could theoretically know everything about us.
Protecting online privacy however does not mean preventing a hacker from spying on our life because, unless we are persecuted by a stalker or do illegal and hidden things, we say that no one hardly such a good person will waste time hacking our lives. Online privacy, on the other hand, means keeping some sensitive information confidential, such as our credit card number, our passwords, where we are at all times, what we are looking for on the internet and so on.
In this regard, we have written several articles:
- Protect internet privacy and see what the web knows about us
- 5 mistakes that endanger privacy
- Total online privacy with TOR
3) Unprotected sites
This is a danger factor which is still ignored by most people.
Websites are not all the same and are divided between secure sites, where the information that is transmitted is encrypted and cannot be intercepted externally and normal sites that transmit in the clear. Navigaweb.net is currently an unencrypted site, which does not mean it is not secure, but since it does not require a password login for its use, it does not need information protection. All sites where the password must be entered must be of an encrypted type and this protection can be recognized by the padlock on the internet address and by the https prefix instead of http. When a site is in HTTPS and has no certificate errors, then all the information we send, including access passwords, credit card or bank account number, is not visible on the internet to anyone, not even to the site operator to whom this information is sent. It goes without saying that in all sites with http and without https you do not have to share personal information.
If we still use a non-https Email service or such a superficial online banking service, change absolutely and immediately.
READ ALSO: Always open sites in HTTPS, with secure connection and encrypted data
4) Phishing
Among the dangerous sites in general, a particular category is that of scam sites such as unknown and not recommended shopping ones or, worse, fake sites, which seem identical to famous sites and which are created to steal access passwords in accounts .
Creating fake copies of banking or shopping sites is one of the most used techniques by hackers to steal web account passwords and it's called Phishing. Phishing always works through a message that can arrive via Email, via Facebook, via SMS, via Whatsapp etc. The best way not to fall for this type of trap is to never write passwords and important data (not even via email) if not on the official account sites, recognizable by the address written on the top of the browser and by the HTTPS with green lock .
5) Spam
The danger of spam is, today, much lower than a few years ago.
Spam would be the whole category of junk messages, advertisements, phishing and viruses or useless communications. Fortunately, today the main top e-mail services such as Gmail and Outlook.com have an effective anti-spam filter that regulates the reception of emails.
6) Disinformation
Although it may be part of the Spam category, misinformation on the internet has become a real danger in the past year due to the spread of false news from the hoax sites that we must learn to recognize in order not to make a fool who believes to anything they read on the internet or on Facebook.
7) Online dating
This is one of the most serious internet dangers for young people.
It sounds bad to say it but a responsible parent should check if their children chat with strangers via the internet, whatever the circumstances. You can chat with a stranger in an online game, in a casual dating site, in a social network, in a forum and in any other chat. Whether for sexual, dating or purely playful reasons, it is important not to get too unbalanced in giving personal information: do not say the real age, do not say where you live, do not say which school you go to, do not say real names of family or friends and I wouldn't give the phone number. Online predators are very good at pretending to be normal kids and they know how to exploit the weaknesses of adolescents like even the best psychologists, driven, in the most serious cases, by that terrible disease that is pedophilia.
8) Cyberbullying
Chatting with strangers can be dangerous because you never know who is behind the keyboard, but chatting or exchanging messages with people you know can also be a danger. Cyberbullying works roughly this way: if one is made fun of at school or by friends, one of them may publish a video or photo on Facebook or other social media that can embarrass the victim.
Another case of cyberbullying can come from anonymous messages that heavily insult the victim even with threats.
The Cyberbullo, compared to the real bully, is strengthened by the fact that there is no control and that he can say what he wants without looking his victim in the face, or even anonymously, hiding behind the keyboard. In one case or another, it would not be so difficult, at least on a technical level; on the other hand, it is much more complicated to defend oneself from the psychological level, for which the help of a parent or an expert may be needed.
Just to look around, however, it would be an excellent step forward already to cancel the account on Ask.fm, one of the sites that best lends itself to online cyberbullying.
9) Total ignorance of IT security
This is an obvious danger, so widespread that one is surprised.
It is possible that still today the most popular password in the world is 123456 "> 10 Online security tools and privacy against any spy, interception or hacker
- Protect website accounts so as not to lose possession of them
- Protect children, family and ourselves from the dangers of the internet
- Online security guide against hackers, phishing and cyber criminals
