College – Internet Safety

On the Internet you can connect with friends, play games and create your own content, but sometimes things go wrong.

To help you stay safe on the Internet, we will show you safety information on how to protect yourself online.

Have a look below.

Basic Internet safety tips

Here is some top tips for staying safe on the Internet:

1. Read a website privacy policy before giving them any personal information. This will tell you how they use your personal information and if  they will share it with any other companies. 
2. When buying goods online check that you are using a secure connection. Usually they will use an SSL certificate and will publish its details on their website. If they do not, DON’T purchase anything from their website. 
3. Never provide your personal or bank details to anyone online. 
4. Never share your passwords with others. This will help prevent others accessing your accounts and pretending to be you. Also never email anyone these details even if they appear from a creditable source. Banks will never ask for these details online. If you receive an email claiming to be your bank, then immediately report this to them. 
5. Don’t place sensitive information on your social media profiles e.g. date of birth, place of birth etc. People can apply for credit cards etc. using these details in your name.
6. Talk to your children if you have any about what to do if they see something that makes them feel scared. Show them how to turn off the monitor and explain it’s not their fault if they see something upsetting. Tell them that if this happens they should tell and appropriate adult. 
7. Make sure that you have antivirus software installed on your computer and it is updated regularly. This will protect your computer from viruses which can sometimes allow others to access your personal details.

Security

Internet Security is extremely important as you need it to protect your computer from viruses, hackers and Scammers.

There are many different types of Internet security, but the one crucial  piece of software you must have is Anti-virus.

What is Antivirus

Anti-virus is a good thing to have on your computer/laptop because it stops virus from getting into your system and deleting important information from your hard drive.

How to know if your computer has been hacked or caught a virus

• New programs have been installed on their own

• Computer passwords have been changed

• Email spam been sent

• Unknown/strange programs wanting access

• Computer doing weird/random things on it’s own

How to protect your computer from hackers

1. Choose a secure passwords (A mix of capital letters, lower case letters and symbols create a strong password).
2. Turn off automatic login/remember password options.
3. Don’t let others use the computer when you aren’t there.

Anti-virus also protects you from websites that could be harmful, and protects you from rogue emails as well.

With anti-virus software it is important to make sure that it is always up to date, as thousands of new viruses are created every day.

There are many versions of Anti-virus software out there and most of them are free such as:

• Avast
• Norton
• MacAfee
• AVG

These are all used by millions of customers and are all safe to use.

Privacy

Your privacy on the Internet depends on your ability to control both the amount of personal information that you provide and who has access to that information.

Here are top tips for maintaining your privacy on the Internet:

1. read a website’s privacy policy.
2. Do not share more than you need to.Choose how private you want your profile or blog to be.
   • Do not post anything online that you would not want made public.
   • Restrict details that identify you or where you live.
   • Keep your account numbers, usernames, and passwords secret.
   • Only share your primary email address or Instant Message (IM) name with people who you know or with reputable organizations.
   • Enter only required information—often marked with an asterisk (*)—on registrations and other forms.

Usernames and Password safety

How to protect your online password

• When you’re using a public PC you should never select the automatically saved password button because people will be able to log into sites such as your Facebook, Email or Twitter.
• Never Write down your password somewhere that other people can find it.
• A good example of password protection is on YouTube, it is called step-2 verification so when you log into your YouTube account and you enter your password you also have to put in a number code which you can receive through voice calls or SMS messages and even if someone knows the password they will also have to put in the code.
• When you’re Logging into a PC make sure that you never leave your password where anyone can get to it because they can use it to log into your computer and erase all your data and never make it a simple one such as: 1234 or qwerty

Internet Browsers also store passwords which can be handy in your own home but not out in public or on someone else’s computer. Here is how to stop them automatically storing your password:

Chrome:

1. Launch Google Chrome.
2. Click the Tools menu in the upper-right corner and select Options.
3. Click the Personal Stuff tab.
4. In the Passwords section, click Show saved passwords.
5. From the list, select the AOL website and click Remove to clear the AOL Username and password.
6. Click Close.
7. In the Form auto fill section, click Auto Fill options.
8. Clear the check box next to Enable Auto Fill to fill out web forms in a single click.
9. Click Close.
10. Click Close again.

Firefox:

1. Open Firefox.
2. In the Tools menu, click Options.
3. Click the Security icon.
4. Clear the check box next to Remember passwords for sites.
5. Click OK.

Backup’s

It is important to always save your work regularly because at any time a file could become damaged or corrupted by a virus or a hack.  

To make sure that your work never gets lost, save your work not just on the desktop but also on a USB flash drive and preferably Cloud storage this is important for college students to know because if you have work saved throughout the year and it get deleted and you don’t have a back-up it could be bad.

Here is a list of memory unit to store files on:

• USB flash drive
• External hard drive
• SD card
• Cloud storage
  

Links

A quiz about how much you know about Internet safety:

• http://accidentaloutlaw.knowthenet.org.uk/

BBC internet safety site:

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/topics/safety-and-privacy/internet-safety-for-kids