Simple steps for safer surfing

With several recent high profile hacking incidents and data leaks appearing in the media, most notably Sony's PlayStation incident as well as Sonypictures.com being broken into since April 2011, can you be truly secure as a user of the internet?

The fact that a firm as large and notable as Japanese electronics giant Sony has been the victim of several successful large scale attacks, resulting in the compromising of more than 100 million customers' account information suggests that no one can be safe on the internet these days. E-mail addresses, passwords and telephone numbers of users were stolen, as well as in some cases, potentially their credit card details, leading Sony to temporarily shut down numerous websites and the PlayStation Network. So is it time to give up on the internet as a way of buying goods and storing information? Far from it.

In this article, several simple techniques will be discussed that you can use to help you keep yourself, and your data, safer on the internet. Just as you need to be aware of certain things while crossing the road or driving to work, you can do a lot to protect yourself while using the internet. To use a classic media term, think of these principles a bit like the 'Information Super-Highway Code'. These are simple behaviours that you can use to remain safe, even if some of your data is stolen from a company that you have dealt with.

It's safe to say that most people in the UK will have either bought something through the internet, or know someone who has. With the boom of companies like Amazon.co.uk, and the majority of high street stores and supermarkets providing an online service, e-commerce is here to stay. With that in mind, let's discuss some principles of how to shop online safely.

Wherever possible, pay with a third party service, such as the widely used PayPal.co.uk, which does not share your financial details. The fewer places that your bank details are kept in, the less chance they have of being leaked. When shopping online try to stick to sites that you have heard of, such as major companies, household names or places that other people have received good service from and recommended to you. You have a much better chance of avoiding fraud or receiving substandard goods from places that have a reputation to protect.

You should also consider having a password 'chain'. The passwords for your e-mail account, eBay account and PayPal account, for example, should all be different. If any one wishes to make fraudulent purchases in your name, they should be forced to steal several separate passwords instead of just one. When using this method if any one of your passwords are stolen, you are still kept safe, and have time to take action. Remember, you should always avoid writing your passwords down or telling them to anyone, just as you would for the PIN number to your bank card, so make sure you pick ones that you will remember. There are tricks to making 'strong' passwords, and information on creating strong passwords is available freely through searching for it on the internet.

E-mail, apart from in very specific circumstances, is not at all secure (just look at how many leaked e-mails have embarrassed Members of Parliament!), and as such you should never use it to send any information that you wouldn't speak publicly of, or publish to be read by strangers. Using this principle alone, all kinds of scams to try and get your details can be avoided. Your bank knows better than anyone how insecure e-mail is, and will never ask for your security details or account details to be sent in this manner.

Another annoying factor regarding e-mail has been the explosion of spam in recent times. Unsolicited e-mails, called spam, are generally from people who have obtained your address in order to try to get money out of you, or can even be used to damage your computer by introducing viruses and similar nasty programs. If you receive an e-mail that doesn't look right to you for any reason, don't open it, even if you know the sender, without checking that the person genuinely sent it to you and that its contents are legitimate. An easy way to reduce the amount of spam e-mail that you receive is to sign up to one of the many well known free e-mail providers that boast spam protection as one of their features.

Another excellent way to deal with the issue of spam is to have a main e-mail account, with which you only talk to your friends and colleagues, and an entirely separate account which you use to sign up to websites, social media and other online services. This second e-mail address will catch the vast majority of the spam that is aimed at you within it, and is the 'public face' of your internet presence. All of your more important e-mails that you want to spend time dealing with will be contained in your original, relatively unmolested, e-mail account.

These are just a few examples of the kinds of ways that you can make free use of the internet, and minimise the risks that are out there. The technology of the internet has huge potential to improve all of our lives, and the ease with which we can access information and other services through it is truly unprecedented. Bear in mind these principles, and be on the search for other techniques like these to add to your repertoire, and you can make use of the internet to its full with much greater confidence.

by Mark Cousens
Company Director of PCDoctor - Swindon Ltd