Safe Browsing:

A. Internet Safety

• Learn how to understand a websites address/URL. All websites are written as a Domain Name (like Google, Yahoo, CNN, etc), a period, and then a Top Level Domain (like com, net, gov, etc), which is how you get the URL google.com. Take note that when you type google.com into your web browser's address bar and hit Enter you'll notice that your browser adds additional information to the URL to make it read: http://www.google.com/. In this discussion, the http:// and the www. aren't terribly important, but the / following google.com is. On the internet, the part of a URL that is most important when determining the validity of a website is the domain directly preceding the / in the web address. What this means is any site that's part of Google will almost always have "google.com/" as part of the URL. The URL for Gmail, for example, is http://mail.google.com/ and the URL for Google's phone is http://www.google.com/phone. Since both of the above addresses contain "google.com" directly in front of a "/", you can be pretty certain they"re legitimately part of Google, but a URL like google.com.phone.com/googlephone isn"t. People running malicious websites will often try and steal your information by tricking you to log into a fake, or "spoofed", website. Someone trying to steal your Gmail login information so they can use your email address to send spam from might send you an email pretending to be Google. In this email, they could ask you to log in to a fake version of Gmail"s website with the URL gmail.com.somesite.com/ or somesite.com/gmail.com, or even google.somesite.com/gmail. Since none of these URLs contain "google.com" followed by a "/" you can be fairly certain they"re malicious and not from Google. Also, make sure you"re reading the URL that"s indicated in the web browser's address bar and not in the link you clicked on since it's very easy to mask a link like on the internet. Click on: http:/www.google.com/ to see what I mean. Be exceptionally careful if you're being asked to log into any online banking site since very few, if any, banks will ever require you to go online to conduct or confirm business. As an example, Bank of America will almost always ask you to verify any changes to your account over the phone or in person just to help protect your account from online hackers. If you have any questions about the validity of a specific URL, feel free to email us here.
• Avoid using a search engine, like Google or Bing, to find programs you want to install. Often malicious sites attempting to infect your computer with a virus or spyware will masquerade as purveyors of a legitimate software company or service. Use only trusted download sites; like download.cnet.com or ninite.com to download software from. And even then, only download programs you know are worth using.
• Avoid searching for fixes to your computer. Boost computer speed, spyware removal, registry cleaner, etc. These search terms are filled with scams and frequently install spyware and unneeded ad based programs.
• Be very cautious about which links you click on, even on trusted websites. Make sure that you click on the correct link. (See image below) Even on legitimate websites, advertisers attempt to trick you into clicking the wrong link. These links may contain spyware or unnecessary programs that will further slow your computer down.
• Make sure you check the URL for the software before you click the link. You want to make sure it does not look like a sponsored or advertising link.
• Choose strong passwords with numbers, letters (lower and upper case), and symbols (!@#$%^&*()_+). The longer the password the better.
• As a general rule you do not want to answer secret questions honestly. A question like "What is the name of your favorite pet?" may be known by family, friends, and acquaintances, so unless the secret questions are very hard for anyone other than yourself you should provide a unique and false answer.
• Use virtual credit cards if your bank or credit card company provides this feature. These are one time use credit card numbers you use for one-time purchases of items on the internet. This decreases the likelihood your credit card number will be stolen.



2. Email Safety

• Never open e-mail attachments from people you do not know. Do not install anything sent to you via e-mail. If there's any question about the authenticity of an email, either reply to the sender (if it's from a person), or ignore it.
• Never log onto a website directly from a link inside an email. Frequently these sites are fake and designed to steal your personal information. If you receive an email from Paypal, Ebay, Amazon, your bank, etc, read the email then go to your browser and manually type in the address. Ensure the web address (URL) matches the website exactly. Ebay will always ebay.com not ebay.webdeals.com. See A1 above for more information.
• Your e-mail password should be very strong. Your email address can be used to retrieve passwords for many sites you log onto every day.
• Multiple e-mail addresses should be used to increase your personal security. An email address for signing up for newspapers, Facebook, etc. Another email for personal relationships. And finally an email for high security sites like your bank account, credit card accounts, utility accounts, etc. You should never log onto your high security email account with an unsecure wireless connection. Examples of unsecure wireless connections are airport wifi, coffee shop wifi, bookstores, etc.



3. Recommended sites and software solutions:

Below are a list of programs and websites we generally consider safe for Windows based machines:
• Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware:
• Microsoft Security Essentials: http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/
• Music playing and management software:
• Songbird: http://www.getsongbird.com/
• Winamp: http://www.winamp.com/
• iTunes: http://www.apple.com/itunes/
• Video Players:
• VLC: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
• Defiler: http://hellninjacommando.com/defilerpak/
• QuickTime: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/
• Photo Management Software:
• Picasa: http://picasa.google.com/
• Bit Torrent Client:
• uTorrent: http://www.utorrent.com/
• As far as more general downloads go, http://download.cnet.com/ can generally be trusted as a site, but individual applications can be spyware ridden or otherwise ineffective.

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