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When surfing the web, take steps to maintain your privacy:
Don't talk to
strangers.
News groups and Chat rooms are not secure.
Email from you tells recipients your address. Use a third-party such
as ZeroKnowledge to
email and do other transactions anonymously. Or, use a
third-party cyberpunk such as the Anonymizer.
Such third-parties might not be perfect, but helpful. Even if
off-line be careful not to give out information that can be joined
with on-line information --- like having your Social Security Number
in a public file or giving out your address over the phone. Beware of any
stranger appealing to your sympathy, fear, sense of duty, vanity,
laziness, lust, guilt or greed.
Don't accept
food from strangers.
Cookies can be a
delightful treat to you from sites, enabling them to store on your
hard disk the information you want them to have so that each visit
to the site will have your preference remembered. However,
like any treat, in the wrong hands, it can be used maliciously by
the unscrupulous to store information that you would rather they not
store. Dumb cookie ingredients: where, what, when, and
how often. It can only be a smart cookie if you provide the
information. You are in control
!!! You can block all cookies using
browser settings; you can opt-out from receiving cookies from
particular site advertisers such as DoubleClick; you
can manage cookies with programs such as Opera; and, you can delete cookies
from your hard drive --- manually or with your browser's
assistance.
Don't allow
eavesdroppers.
SSL browsers scramble messages; only the
proper receiver can unscramble the message. That's cryptographic,
i.e. encryption encodes messages and decryption decodes
them. But, often encryption is used to mean both encoding and
decoding.
Require positive ID.
Your browser can give a warning before
loading unregistered controls and scripts.
SSL
browsers make sure the receiver is not an imposter. They demand a
certificate issued to the site by a Certification Authority
(CA) such as Equifax ,
GlobalSign , and VeriSign
. That's authentication.
Suspect
messages with broken seals.
SSL browsers detect even
the slightest message tampering. That's integrity
validation.
Detect non-secure
sites.
SSL browsers display a security icon --- a
locked padlock in the lower left corner of the window for example
--- to indicate a secure site. Or, you can look at a site's address.
If it just reads "http" and not "https", the site does not use
SSL technology. Communicating in a non-SSL site
brings up a warning message box from most SSL browsers. Check
the browser's Help menu.
Update your
browser.
Get the most recent version possible to
obtain the latest security technology.
Microsoft freely provides
security bulletins and help.
Look for SSL
as a browser feature. A browser with this feature
will display it proudly in ads. 128-bit encryption is better
than 40-bit encryption.
Use a
browser from a trusted source.
Leading browsers
are from well known companies. As new browsers become
available, check out the browser's development company. For
example, do they have a write-up in a credible magazine?
Whether buying, borrowing or downloading, obtain your browser from a
reputable source. Try Netscape, Microsoft or Opera.
Don't take their
word for it. Verify browser security level with a
tool such as a browser
checker.
Erase your
tracks.
If you share your computer with others, you might consider emptying your browser cache so others
can't see where you’ve been surfing. Also, consider the Recycling Bin, Address Bar,
the Favorites, Bookmarks, and Recent Documents areas as potential footprint keepers to clear.
Fight fear with
fact.
Don't let fear-mongers and tech-bashers
cancel your surfing plans. Surf with confidence that it is unlikely that your
computer will catch a virus simply by visiting a web site. Considering the millions of computers that would be affected, wouldn't that be front page news?
Get bulletins from
Microsoft about potential vulnerabilities and how to eliminate them.
Further info:
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Surf Safely