Tips for safe e-mailing

E-mail or electronic mail is one of the quickest medium of communication. Most of us have our personal or official e-mail Ids. We can send not only simple text but also files, pictures, videos etc as an attachment with an email.  However, it’s important that your personal information remains secure and safe and that you aren’t open to viruses or hackers.

Some precautions to be taken for safe e-mailing. Few of them are described below:

·         Your password is your master key. Do not share your email password with anybody and make it a habit to change your password regularly.

·         Most of the time, we click on reply button to send a reply to a mail received by you. Try to avoid the same since hackers use different methods to redirect your mail to their own mail account. Always compose a new message and type the recipients email address. If you want to click reply button to send a reply, please check the e-mail address shown on the address bar.

·         Don’t open attachments from anyone you don’t know. It may contain malware, spyware, virus or Trojan which harm your computer and collects sensitive information.

·         Always Log out or sign off from your account once you finished your work

·         Keep your personal information personal – don’t share bank or credit card information by email.

·         Make sure that you have antivirus software installed and keep it up to date.

You should watch the online activities of your children

It is very much important that you should keep a close watch on the online activities of your children. There are lot of cases of Cyber Grooming, Cyber Bullying and Cyber Stalking against children who are active on Internet. You should make aware them about the traps in cyber world and safe use of Internet and other online activities like online gaming, online chatting etc.

Grooming means that an adult is getting to know and befriending a child with the intention of sexually abusing it. Grooming doesn’t have to be online, but the internet gives perpetrators the anonymity to act more freely and access to children who are not under direct parental supervision. If your children spend more time on online and try to keep their activities secret or they oppose you when you try to control them, it might be a clear indication that they are going to be the victim of Cyber grooming.

Cyber bullying or cyber harassment is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic means. Cyber bullying and cyber harassment are also known as online bullying. It has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers. Cyber bullying is when someone, typically teens, bully or harass others on social media sites. Harmful bullying behavior can include posting rumors, threats, sexual remarks, a victims' personal information, or pejorative labels (i.e., hate speech).Bullying or harassment can be identified by repeated behavior and intent to harm. Victims may have lower self-esteem, increased suicidal tendency, and a variety of emotional responses, including being scared, frustrated, angry, and depressed.

Cyber stalking is a crime in which the attacker harasses a victim using electronic communication, such as e-mail or instant messaging (IM), or messages posted to a Web site or a discussion group. A cyber stalker relies upon the anonymity afforded by the Internet to allow them to stalk their victim without being detected.

Please instruct your child about the necessity of safe browsing and protect them from online abuses.

Always educate your children about the necessity of privacy settings in social media platforms.

Monitor your child’s online activity always. Install necessary tracking tools in your computer to do so.

If your system is equipped with a built in camera or a web cam, always cover it if not in use. You may aware, a hacker can get into your system and access the camera to record your movements.

Do not allow your children to install any unwanted software tools or other gaming tools downloaded from untrustworthy web sites. It may lead to install any spyware on your system and steal the valuable information from your system.

Do not click any suspicious links received through e-mail or any other means. It may be a phishing link that may lead to a false web site that exactly looks like the website you want to browse.

Always use licensed software. Pirated software do not provide you enough security.

Always update your software with latest updates. It is very much necessary to stay secure.

Remember, your child’s safety is in your hands. Educate them.

Stay Safe on Social Media

Social Media is one of the most popular medium of communication today. We are using social media sites like Face book, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. and such platforms are one of the  perfect targets for scams.

Here are some of the basic precautions to stay safe on social media:

1.  Use a strong password.  The longer it is, the more secure it will be.

2.  Use a different password for each of your social media accounts.

3.  Set up your security answers.  This option is available for most social media sites.

4.  If you have social media apps on your phone, be sure to password protect your device.

5.  Be selective with friend requests. If you don’t know the person, don’t accept their request.  It could be a fake account.

6.  Click links with caution.  Social media accounts are regularly hacked.  Look out for language or content that does not sound like something your friend would post.

7.  Be careful about what you share. Don’t reveal sensitive personal information ie: home address, financial information, phone number etc.  The more you post the easier it is to have your identity stolen.

8.  Become familiar with the privacy policies of the social media channels you use and customize your privacy settings to control who sees what.

9.  Protect your computer by installing antivirus software to safeguard.  Also ensure that your browser, operating system, and software are kept up to date.

10.      Finally, Remember to log off when you’re done.

Stay secure on Cyber World: Few Tips

There are few steps given below to browse secure on Internet. Following them strictly will reduce the risk of losing your valuable information.

1. Always remember that somebody is watching your activities. You are an attractive target to hackers who sniff around the net. Don’t think that ‘I am Safe”

2. Physical security of your device is as important as logical security. Please lock your systems (Desktops, Laptops and Smart Phones etc.) so that no one can use it while you are away. If you are using some external devices like external hard disks, flash drives etc. please do not keep it unattended. Keep them in a safe locker.

3. Always follow the secure password policy. Use a strong mix of characters to form your password. Don’t use same password for multiple sites. Do not write your password anywhere just to remember it and sharing your passwords with others will harm you. People use easy to guess and similar passwords for the simple reason that they have too many and they can be hard to remember. But remember, it is one of the biggest security mistakes. An ideal password needs to be hard to guess. It should be long, have capitals, special characters and it should not be related to something someone might know about you (e.g: date of birth),

4. Do not click on email links or attachments you do not recognise. If it’s unexpected or suspicious for any reason, don’t click on it. Double check the URL of the website the link takes you to: bad actors will often take advantage of spelling mistakes to direct you to a harmful domain. Malware – a malicious piece of code - could get on your machine when you open an attachment or link.

Clicking on unknown links may lead to “phishing” sites that harvest usernames and passwords.

Pay attention to suspect emails as more and more hackers are getting sophisticated in the way they write them. 

It may be easy to avoid the email which claims you have won lottery.

5. Hackers can harvest usernames and password using fake WebPages designed to look like the ones you use, such as your bank or your Face book account.

You put your username and password in and in real-time while you are doing that, they are doing the same on your banking page. They are not storing it for later but robbing you real time. Hence sensitive browsing, such as banking or shopping, should only be done on a device that belongs to you, on a network that you trust. Whether it’s a friend’s phone, a public computer, or a cafe’s free Wi-Fi—your data could be copied or stolen.

6. Beware of sharing sensitive information such as your vacation plan, your work details etc. on social platforms. Criminals can befriend you and easily gain access to a shocking amount of information

7. Beware of Pop-ups. If we are generally aware about suspicious attachments, we might not think that closing a pop-up window might make us vulnerable to hacking. When you are shopping online for instance, and get an ad pop up, clicking and closing on one of those might actually install a malicious piece of code on your machine that may lead to steal your sensitive information by hackers.

8. Back up your data regularly, and make sure your anti-virus software is always up to date.

Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India released an e-booklet titled ” A Hand Book for Adolescents / Students on Cyber Safety”

The Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has come out with a booklet on cyber safety for teenagers titled “A Hand Book for Adolescents / Students on Cyber Safety” keeping in mind the increased use of smart phones and other internet of things (IoT) by teenagers and students and the various incidents of cyber bullying, cyber grooming, email fraud and dangerous games like blue whale etc.

 The booklet also explains various kinds of cyber crimes like identity theft, job fraud, email spoofing and how children can overcome them.

It advises teenagers against accepting friend requests from unknown people on social media.

The Home Ministry last year set up a Cyber and Information Security division to check the rapid growth of cyber crimes and cyber threats. It now aims to introduce the cyber crime handbook in schools as a component of the school curriculum.

This hand book also describes about online gaming frauds, online transaction frauds and safeguard for social networking profiles etc.

The 38 page booklet that is available online on the ministries website is prepared in consultation with cyber crime experts. It is a good steps towards making awareness to the teenagers and students about the traps in the internet world and how to be secure.

This hand book is beneficial for others also.

More about Passwords

Make your password complex but easy to remember.

Use mnemonics.

Eg: - if your password is iloveyou@123 write it as 1l0v3y0u@123 (here i is replaced with 1, o is replaced with 0 and e is replaced with 3 so that it could be hard to break by a hacker and easy to remember by you. Otherwise iloveyou@123 is an easily breakable password.)

Security tip of the day

Passwords are just like your locker key.  Do not share it with anyone.

 Keep the password little bit complex by using upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters.

Do not use dictionary words and something that related to you.

Change your password regularly.

Do not keep it in writing, just remember it.