Cyber Safety

General Internet Safety Tips

1. Be careful about what you put on the web. It's on there forever and can be used to trace back to you at any time.
2. Keep track of who you interact with on the internet. Some people may not be who they seem to be.
3. Know that privacy is just an illusion.  Even personal information on social networks can be easily recovered by anyone
4. Don't open any links in emails or chat rooms that look suspicious or unfamiliar. Also, never open any strange files that your computer may have downloaded from an email or a website.

Cyberbullying

"Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place over digital devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets. Cyberbullying can occur through SMS, Text, and apps, or online in social media, forums, or gaming where people can view, participate in, or share content. Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else." (www.stopcyberbullying.gov)

Forms of Cyberbullying

1. Flaming - Online fights using electronic messages with angry and vulgar language.
2. Harassment - Repeatedly sending nasty, mean, and insulting messages.
3. Denigration - "Dissing" someone online. Sending or posting gossip or rumors about a person to damage his or her reputation or friendships.
4. Impersonation - Pretending to be someone else and sending or posting material to get that person in trouble or danger or to damage that person's reputation or friendships.
5. Outing - Sharing someone's secrets or embarrassing information or images online
6. Trickery - Talking someone into revealing secrets or embarrassing information, then sharing it online.
7. Exclusion - Intentionally and cruelly excluding someone from an online group.
8. Cyberstalking - Repeated, intense harassment and denigration that includes threats or creates significant fear. 

Identify Theft

Identity theft is a form of stealing someone's identity in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person's identity. 

Criminals can steal your identity by finding any of the following:

• Social Security Number
• Credit Card Information
• Bank Account Number
• Personal Identification (license, passport, etc.)
• Stolen Passwords

You can protect yourself by creating a strong password, checking your credit report frequently, and keeping your information to yourself.

If you suspect identity theft, report it to  FTC (Federal Trade Commission) via http://ftc.gov/idtheft. 

Computer Viruses

A computer virus is a computer program that can replicate itself and spread from one computer to another.

First things first, always be careful when downloading files off of the internet and make sure you're downloading files from a trusted source. Viruses must be executed to have any effect on your computer, so there are a couple of file types that have no chance of containing a virus. These files are predominantly sound, image, and text file types.

Trojan horses disguise itself as another file, such as a computer game or a Word document, and then activates once.

Emails can contain harmful files, including both computer viruses and Trojan horses. Viruses found in emails can't harm your computer unless they are executed, or opened. As you can see there's a theme here, be smart when you download and only open files that you know are safe.

You can keep your computer save through anti-virus software, such as McAfee and Norton.

Source: https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/cyber-safety/