Security Issues

Security Issues

- Securing your password(s)
- Viruses
- Credit cards & buying on the Net
- Firewalls

Securing your password(s): Passwords are the most important component of your security on the Net.

Never, ever give away your password to anyone.
Never, ever write down your passwords..
Never, ever use passwords derived from your name, ID, your spouse's or children's name.
Never, ever use passwords that can be found in dictionaries of any language.
Good passwords should contain lower and upper case letters, as well as digits and punctuation characters.

Do not use your bank's online services and other important services from public computers. There are a lot of thieves around who install programs which capture, save and mail keyboard strokes.
Do not re-enter your password when a software/web service asks you to enter it again for no apparent reason.
Please keep in mind that no serious service will send you en e-mail instructing you to point your browser to a certain location and confirm your password.
Always keep in mind that the Internet is NOT secure; whatever measures one can take.
Eavesdroppers are more abundant than you think there are and it too easy to steal passwords from data packets floating around the network.

Viruses make use of people's ignorance to spread. Mail attachments are the most abundant tols used to spread viruses; either intentionally or unintentionally. DO NOT open files attached to e-mail messagesr; especiially the ones which have file extensions like EXE, COM, VBS, PIF.

The chances are that you shall receive an infected e-mail from someone you know at least once a week because viruses make use of people's address books to send out infected mail. It is good idea to reply to the sender asking for a confirmation of the mail with the attachment.

Beware the "greeting cards" or "cool programs", "cool screen savers", "programs that will speed up your computer", "programs that will enable you to download faster", "programs that will fix bugs".

Having an anti-virus program installed on your computer doesn't mean that your computer is immune to viruses. The bad guys are always ahead of good guys.

Credit cards & buying on the Net: Think twice, or better still, three times before you submit your credit card information on the Net. Check the network address (URL). There are many fake web sites like www.amozon.com that prey on customers who might mistype a well known address.

Firewalls: We strongly recommend (in fact, urge) that you use a Firewall program to which will check and control traffic to and from your computer. ZoneAlarm is a very good free firewall program. Visit ZoneLabs site to find and download a free copy of ZoneAlarm for personal use.