Now I know there are a lot of “safe browsing tips” article out there in the world today. The problem is most of them are aimed towards folks that already know how to protect themselves, for the most part, Online.
Those people are not the ones needing help. The people needing help are the ones that just spend a few hours Online each night and want to find something and happen to stumble across a few bad links and get themselves infested with badness. If you find yourself in this camp, read on.
Surf the Web Like You Have a Brain
The number best thing you can do for yourself is to surf smarter. Don’t go looking for crazy midget midnight cracks for your favorite image editor. Stay away from places that just do not seem right. One tool that will help you tell the good places from the bad places is McAfee’s SiteAdvisor. It will give you the red light and green light warnings for good and bad places Online.
Be More Careful With Your E-mailing Ways
Another helpful tip for folks who might not be in the know would be to be careful what you open in your E-mails. We have all heard the “don’t open E-mail attachments” rule. It is a good one.
Follow it!
I don’t care if you know who sent it - still, do not open it. If you really want to check it out, call the person on the phone or E-mail them real quick and ask. If the say, “Yeah, I sent you those naughty photos of (insert your favorite celebrity here)” then go ahead and open it. If they say, “Hu?” then get rid of it as soon as possible.
Don’t Search Google for Free Crap
Remember that old saying, “If you have to ask, you’ll never know”? Well it is true as well. If you type in to Google “give me free music downloads of (insert famous recording artist here)” you are going to get yourself into trouble.
The days of the old Napster ways have come and gone and it is time to find new ways of finding your free stuff. Look into indy bands, find free tunes on the artists’ Web sites that you actually know, or break down and buy the damn music.
Hopefully this will be a good beginners’ guide for getting around the Web without getting yourself in trouble. The best thing you can do is use common sense - and if you don’t have that, then make sure that you browse the World Wide Web with a friend who does.
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