danbury home security systems advice and tips guide
Do You Know How To Improve Your Web Browser's Internet Security? By Paul Wilcox Less like the key, really, than a car - browsers provide the means for traveling around the Internet to interesting destinations. Unfortunately, sometimes uninvited passengers climb in. On rare occasions, they even 'carjack' you.
So, what can you do to stop them?
There are quite a few things that you can do, the first being choosing an alternative browser. Microsoft Internet Explorer has the majority of the market, but there are others such as Firefox or Opera that can offer more security.
Even if they're not actually more secure, these other browsers are not as likely to be targeted simply because the people who attack them prefer to go where they'll get the biggest bang for the buck. Until laws change and software vendors get more serious about the security of their products, the best way to avoid being targeted is to lay low.
Education is another key to 'hardening' browser security.
There are dozens of options in Internet Explorer and other browsers that control what components triggered during surfing are allowed to do. Very few users have much knowledge about what they're for or the effects of setting them one way versus another.
For example, should you disable Javascript, leave it enabled or set it up to prompt you every time a website uses it? In this particular example, it depends on your tolerance for annoyance. If you disable it entirely, some websites just won't work. And if you set it to prompt you, you may get a lot of messages popping up if you frequent sites that use it.
It's an undesirable trade-off to be faced with, and one which we can hope someday won't be necessary. But in the interim, it isn't necessary to be a computer geek to experiment and read a bit to find out what these settings affect. The first time you're infected and lose a day recovering, you'll wish you'd spent the two hours finding out.
Proper use is the final leg of browser security. Do you practice 'safe browsing'? Some sites prompt to download ActiveX controls (little programs), dialers, adware and other dynamic content. Do you really know what's likely to happen when you say yes, or are you trusting the source? Trust is necessary, but as the old saying goes 'Trust, but keep your eyes open'.
Most users are unaware of the extent to which using a browser opens up their system to the rest of the world. Being on the Internet means not just seeing, but being visible. And accessing sites usually means being accessible. It isn't just harmless cookies that can be downloaded to your system. Once executable programs are downloaded they often have free rein to your entire system.
To learn more about how you can protect yourself from internet security threats, visit the Online Security Toolkit at www.onlinesecuritytoolkit.com, where you'll find helpful information about spam, spyware, viruses, identity theft and more.
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