Online Security
Staying Safe Online with Gloria
What is cybersecurity?
The digital world can seem scary when taking your first steps to learn about it, but these helpful cybersecurity tips will help keep you safe on your journey:
Many sites will require you to create an account which can seem scary at first but we can take it step by step.
What is a SCAM
Online scams are a pretty big deal and can make it seem scary when going online for the first time but there are a few tips on how you can stay safe:
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Don’t give out your personal information on websites you don’t trust or to people asking for it. This includes stuff like your address or banking details.
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Don’t give out your password to anyone. Websites will only ask for your password to login so don’t give it out anywhere else. For example, in comments, in an email and if customer support is asking for it as its most likely a scam.
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Keep your privacy settings on for your accounts. This will limit how much information people can see about you on each site. For example, on social media sites you can limit how much information people you are not friends with can see like what city you are from or who your friends with on the site.
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If you ever get an email saying there is a problem with your account it is best not to click any of the links in the email even if they seem trust worthy. It’s best to just go to the site and login in normally to see if there is a problem with the account.
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Take seriously any warning: some sites may give you a warning when you try to enter them. It’s best to just leave those sites as they could be dangerous. Just like in real life if an area looked suspicious you wouldn’t visit it.
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If you are downloading a file make sure it’s from someone or a site that is trust worthy.
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Be careful who you are talking too online as not everyone is who they claim to be and may be trying to get your information. This is stuff like fake social media accounts.
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Don’t trust everything you see online. If something seems too good to be true it probably is. For example, people on social media offering free money or items and be aware of fake news.
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If you plan on making purchases online make sure it’s from a trusted website like amazon. If you see an item at a price that’s too good to be true then it probably is and it’s best to not make the purchase. Also never give out your banking details on any page other than the purchase page.
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When entering a new site you’ll get a small pop-up talking about cookies. Digital cookies are used to gather information about you and remember you settings for that site. You’ll usually have the option to “accept all cookies” or “decline all non-essential cookies” it’s best to decline as this will give the website permission to remember your account so you don’t have to login every time while declining cookies that gather your information.
Create your Email Address
First, you will need to create an email address. The best place to do this is either Google Mail (Gmail) or Outlook. Your email address can be something as simple as your name which will make it easy to remember.
Next it will ask you to create a password which can seem overwhelming at first but here are some tips. Most sites will ask you for your password to be:
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at least 8 letters
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at least one capital letter
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have one or two numbers
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a symbol which can be something as simple as a dash (-) or a question mark (?)
An easy to way to make a password is adding together two things you like for example if you like to paint and your favourite food is pizza then paintpizza would be enough letters.
You can then simply add a number, a capital letter and a symbol so we take paintpizza and make Paint-pizza1 and you have an example of a password.
Now you may be asked to enter a phone number for extra security. This is what’s known as two factor authentication. This is simply an extra security step for your account that will keep it safe, and it works by sending you a unique code to your phone when you login. Simply just enter this code if asked when logging in.
Well done you should now have an email address!
Create accounts online
Now that you have an email address you can now create accounts on other sites. The sign up process will be similar to when creating your email address but with a few differences.
Instead of making an email address you will be asked to make a username which can be anything you would like it to be. You will also be ask to verify your account after you make it which means checking you email account and finding the email from the site you signed up on.
Simply click on their email and there should be a link for you to click which are easy to notice since they are usually blue and underlined or there will be a button saying something like “verify account”.
When making new accounts on different sites it is best not to reuse the same password so you should create a new password for each website.
