The World of Online Theft: Cyber-crime
Everything that we do today is connected to the use of computers in one way or the other. Be it the credit cards we use or the data we store online, we rely on computers and the internet to make this possible. There are people who try their best to misuse the information we provide online, for their benefit. Such programmers, are known as hackers, and they have all the means to access our data, rob us of the money we store in our banks and misuse our data and pictures, etc.
CyberCrime up by 40% in India.Source
Such an act is punishable under the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. Cybercrime has been on the rise in the past few years. The home ministry of India logs a 40% increase in cybercrime every year. Obscene publication, transmission of unauthorized contents, credit card and banking frauds are the widespread cybercrime faced worldwide. Other cases include phishing, scanning, spam, malicious code and website intrusions.
Protect yourself from Viruses.Source
There are ways to protect oneself from being a victim of such malicious activities. Some of these ways are listed below:
Protect yourself from Viruses.Source
1. Use an Anti-Virus: Antivirus Softwares might take up a few MB of RAM on your PC, but they make sure that any wrong clicks don’t land you up with a corrupted OS or leaked data. Buy a licensed Anti-Virus such as Kaspersky, AVG or Norton. They will be the shield between you and the million of viruses that lie hungry on the web.
2. Use More than One Email: Your email account is your kingdom, where all your details lie. Be it your banking details, your private letters, or your personal data, such as Date of Birth, everything is stored on your email accounts. Use separate email ids for separate needs, such a banking, social networking and shopping. This will help keep things simplified and you don’t risk losing all your data if one is hacked.
3. Shop using verified sites: The internet is filled with spam and phishing websites. One wrong click and you could lose your money to the wrong seller. Use sites which are verified and hold safety certificates. Sites such as Amazon.in and Flipkart are verified sites and are safe for fulfilling your online shopping needs.
4. Ignore Popups : Popups are ads which link to separate sites, mostly to spam pages. These links often lead to viruses or malwares. Ignore these popups and save yourself from getting hacked.
5. Don’t store your card details online : Never, EVER, store your card details online. Hackers look for such accounts where they might find banking details. Even if you are careful, sometimes, you do end up getting hacked, and storing highly sensitive information such as banking details could lead to major loss. So better safe than sorry, don’t store banking and card details online.
These are some ways through which you can keep your shield up against hackers and viruses. You can always look for more tips on google and other threads.
