Staying Safe

By Dirk J. Hedlund
Originally Posted May 11, 2005

    Have you listened to the news or picked up a paper, lately?  If so, you've probably encountered a story or two about identity theft, computer viruses, or the latest bug in your computer's operating system that is leaving you exposed.  Short of unplugging all the cables to your computer and taking up the abacus, how can you stay safe?

    I get asked that question, in some form or another, all the time.  My standard answer is one we've all heard before.  It's the old mantra that goes something like "Firewall... Updates... Antivirus..." repeat.  But recently I was thinking, is that all there is to it?

    Part of staying safe on an Internet-connected PC is to stick to the trusted sites.  Think of a child that is just learning to swim.  You don't just throw her into the deep end and hope for the best.  You start her out in the shallow, roped-off area, and gradually move into deeper water as her skills improve.

    For example, I get a lot of questions that are basically asking, "How safe is it to order things online."  I usually start my response with a "That depends..." and there follows the disappointed look on their faces because I'm not giving them a definitive enough answer.  If it would help, try asking yourself whether or not your trust the site you're about to make a purchase from.  If you aren't sure, don't buy there.

    If you're buying from a well-known and well-trusted site (Say, for example Target.com) and the site is using encryption to protect the transaction, then you're probably safe.  But if you're not completely sure about any of those things, you're moving out into deeper, and sometimes shark-infested, water.  As a general rule: Don't buy from sites you've never heard of, and don't buy from sites that don't protect the transaction with encryption.  (Encrypted sites are generally easy to spot by the presence of the padlock symbol, usually located in the lower corner of your browser window.)

    A word of caution: Some people have turned to tricks to trick you into giving out your private information to them.  The Internet term for these people is "phishers" (pronounced like fishers).  The hooks these phishers use are faked or spoofed email messages, and you are the phish.  By using convincing enough bait, they try to get their phish to bite.  Once they've done that, they've caught you.  Phishing attacks used to be pretty easy to spot, but now they're more sophisticated, and the messages themselves can look quite genuine.  As a general rule: Never follow a link that was sent to you, that then asks you to enter any kind of personal information.  You can't be sure where that link is really taking you, and you could be handing your information over to a criminal.  For more information, I recommend reading through this site: http://www.antiphishing.org/.  You should also look into the online privacy policies of the places with which you do business.  If you ever use eBay, you might also want to look at this site: http://pages.ebay.com/securitycenter/stop_spoof_websites.html.

    What about just surfing the Internet?  How do you stay safe doing that?  You could just stick to the shallow end of the pool again, but eventually that's going to get boring.  In addition to the mantra mentioned above, I recommend using an alternative browser, such as Mozilla's Firefox, available here: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/.  It's a very popular browser, with a ton of features and add-ons.  I use it a lot myself, except for some sites that are just made for Internet Explorer and don't work right with anything else.  But I think that number of sites will go down as more and more people start using alternative browsers.

    Because browsers are just software, and there's no such thing as bug-free software, I recommend a little extra safety found in another tool called Privoxy (short for Privacy Enhancing Proxy), available here: http://www.privoxy.org/.  After a brief download and a little setup, Privoxy will filter out a lot of junk you might run into while surfing.  It works with almost any browser, too, not just Internet Explorer.  The default settings are good for most sites, but it is completely customizable to meet your needs.  In fact, it's only real weakness as I see it is that it is SO customizable it can get confusing for a lot of people.  This is only a small problem though, since the defaults are fine most of the time and it can be easilly toggled on and off if needed.

    So, treat your email with suspicion, try an alternate browser, stick to the shallow end of the pool, and repeat your mantra.  Do these things, and feel a little safer while working or playing on the Internet.

    Dirk Hedlund is a computer consultant with Klatt & Associates, CPA, PC.  He can be reached at dirk.hedlund@klatt-assoc.com , or by calling (515) 232-5642.