7 Tips You Should Use To Protect Your Computer And Yourself On The Internet

The internet is a scary place. Most of you have probably had experiences with a computer virus at some point. Did the virus make your computer go really slow? Did the virus force you to reinstall your operating system? Sadly, these are some of the more lucky results. It's possible for viruses to steal your information, send e-mails from your account, and a lot more. Hackers can also do just as much and even more. So how do you go about protecting yourself? Here are 7 tips that will show you how to keep you and your computer safe.

1. Safeguard your information! Be very cautious about giving your personal information out over the internet. You should never give it out to someone in an e-mail. If you plan on buying something online, double check to make sure you are on the official website of that online store. Also, make sure there is an "https" before the URL. This indicates that the website you are on is secure.

2. Be very cautious about clicking hyperlinks in e-mails. It is very common for criminals to pretend to be official businesses, friends, etc., to get you to try to click a hyperlink in an e-mail. What's the worst that could happen? Well, clicking a hyperlink alone can be enough to infect your computer.

3. Keep your protection software updated! This is probably the most important tip. You need to make sure that your spyware protection and virus protection is up to date. New viruses are being created every day, therefore you need to make sure to update your protection every day. If you aren't keeping your protection updated, you aren't really protected from the latest viruses.

4. Take advantage of your browser security features. These days, browsers like Internet Explorer and FireFox come with great security features. Don't skip out on using these!

5. Don't give out your passwords to friends! This is so important. Even if a friend has good intensions, what if a friends computer has a virus? Then someone can still get your passwords. There is no reason to give your passwords out. Also, make sure to create a secure password. This means creating a unique password for each website. You also want to use passwords that are a mix of letters and numbers.

6. Backup your computer often! Believe me, if something happens to your computer and you lose all your files, you will wish you did this. Backing up your computer can be done in under an hour, and it will save you many weeks of trying to replace everything if you lost all your files.

7. Get an emergency plan figured out. What if your computer is hacked? What is the first thing you are going to do? Are you going to run a virus scan first? Unplug the internet? Take it to someone to have it looked at? Figure out what you will do so that if the worst happens, your first response is getting the computer fixed instead of figuring out how to.

If you follow these 7 tips, you will have a much more secure computer then you may currently have. I would estimate that 90% of computer users don't follow these tips. So become one of the 10%, and be on your way to keeping yourself and your computer protected.

Good luck!