Tips For Safe Family Internet Browsing
 

Today, it is difficult to imagine a world without the Internet. Since its introduction a few decades back, the Internet has become a synonym both for fun and knowledge. It has become a medium that caters to people from all walks of life, working in different environments, and having different requirements.

Because it has become so important to us, it is vital that we take a few steps to ensure safe family Internet browsing. Let’s have a look at some the tasks that we can do to ensure this:

1. Keep Your Personal Information Safe: Be vigilant about giving out your personal information such as your complete address, telephone numbers, passwords, and so on over the internet.

2. Prevent Spam: Avoid giving your main e-mail address when you are posting on an online e-mail bulletin or blog site. It is recommended that you create a separate web-based email account for this. This will help you prevent unnecessary spam mails to your mail box.

3. Keep Your Money Safe: Security is one of the biggest issues related to the Internet today. The best thing to do in order to keep your money safe while being on the Internet is to not make any online purchases. However, if you have to do it, then:

   • Ensure that the Web site you are buying from is a secure site and supports encrypted transactions. 

   • DO NOT give out your credit card and other information unless the web site you are purchasing from is reputable and secure.

   • Avoid filling in your social security number, bank account details, and other personal and confidential information unless it is really necessary.

4. Do Not Believe Spam Mails that Promise to Make You Rich Quick: If one had a mantra to get rich quick, they would be using it themselves not sharing it with you. Never open and believe spam that sound too good to be true—they might contain virus/spyware that might strip you of your confidential information and steal your important data to use it to make you poorer not richer.

5. Enhance the Internet Explorer Security: Over the years Web browsers have been enhanced to improve their security features. For example, Internet Explorer 7 comes equipped with security features that enable you to detect and block suspected and reported phishing websites, block unwanted pop-up windows, control web browser add-ons, receive notification when a website tries to download files or software to your computer, and view digital signatures that provide you with information regarding the published content you are trying to view. You can also configure the security, privacy and content settings of your Internet Explorer (Internet Explorer > Tools > Internet Option) to control the way the Web browser controls the Web sites displayed on your computer.

You may also opt for a third-party tool to incorporate parental control to your web browser in order to control the Web sites your kids are allowed to access.

6. Good Antivirus and Antispyware Programs are Worth the Effort: New viruses and spyware are released daily. Over time, they have become a major threat to Internet users. Many of these viruses, such as the iexplore.exe virus, disguise themselves as other legitimate files, so that it becomes really difficult to detect and remove them. Therefore, to keep your Internet safe for you and your family, it is critical to have antivirus and antispyware tools on your computer.

Depending on your budget, you can either choose from paid anti-malware tools from Symantec or McAfee, or free tools such as the AOL free Active Shield. You must perform full system scans using these tools to get rid of unwanted virus and spyware programs. For example, you can use a good antispyware tool to completely remove Mirar toolbar from the Internet Explorer window and prevent browser hijacks done by this spyware toolbar. You may also use a good registry cleaner tool to perform regular registry scans and remove any malicious information added to it by various malware programs.

Finally, you must turn on the real-time protection feature of the tool, to prevent unsolicited e-mails and other malicious data from infiltrating your computer.