10 Tips to Keep Your Family Safe Online

1. Secure your home Wi-Fi network.

Your home Wi-fi permits your children to access the internet from everywhere your house, that makes it harder for you to stay an eye on them. If it’s not secured, intruders would possibly use your bandwidth, or worse, compromise your network security by infecting your computer with malware or causing their malware attacks from your system. therefore what to do? confirm your Wi-Fi extremely secured: use a powerful word for your router enable wireless encryption to stop strangers from “seeing” your network and prohibit access to that.

2. Phishing for Data

Another purpose to discuss together with your family is their attitude towards suspicious online behaviour. one among the numerous ways in which members of the family will infect others with malware is to fall for phishing scams. once they see an email that comes from an untrustworthy source, it goes without saying: don't to click it or download any attachments. (The possibilities they need to be won the lottery are slim, particularly if they never entered it within the 1st place.) it's crucial that they do not trust links included within these emails.

A good recommendation is to encourage your family to use a unique email for looking activities or social media accounts, and another for business, personal or banking functions. And, of course, use totally different passwords for every of your email accounts.

3. Use a password management system.

Passwords are the first defence against hackers for many people and it’s no secret that it’s typically a flimsy one. Bolster your defence with a password management program. better of all, this way you only got to keep in mind one password.

One of the foremost important online threats is leaving your personal accounts vulnerable to unscrupulous people. Your best line of defence is to make secure passwords that are close to not possible to crack. Of course, remembering multiple, hard to guess passwords is troublesome and is commonly the reason why most of the people don't follow such recommendation.

A lot of web users think a straightforward word like “password” or “123456” is sweet enough. These are simply hackable passwords that you simply ought to avoid at the least prices. Instead, you would like to create positive your members of the family totally perceive the importance of exploitation robust passwords for all of their online accounts.

A combination of higher and lower case letters, symbols and numbers are smart and no password ought to be used for more than one account; this way, even if a hacker gains access to at least one of your accounts, they won’t be ready to gain access to others.

There are password managers, like LastPass or 1Password, that assist you to generate robust passwords while safely storing them. although using a password book or writing down your passwords is a simple thanks to keeping track, it is disastrous if it gets into the wrong hands. it's conjointly commonly counselled within the security community that everybody updates his or her passwords on a daily basis for further safety.

4. Keep social networks secure.

There’s a decent chance that a minimum of one person in your home is on a social network. sadly, social networks became a draw for cybercriminals. Keep an in depth eye on your friends’ social network accounts. If somebody messages you who hasn’t done this in a while, then be suspicious. Your friend’s account could are hacked.

On social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, it's common to reveal personal info, however, be aware this might be exploited. you must educate your relatives and kids on the way to modify social media privacy settings to make sure they don’t expose their personal life online.

Be frank and inform your youngsters on why they shouldn’t reveal their address or telephone number to strangers or post sensitive information online. help raise their awareness of the risks related to talking to strangers, or worse, arranging to meet with them. though the web—social media in particular—can provide an excellent variety of advantages to us, it's essential to understand the way to safely handle your personal info to boost online privacy.

5. Ensure safe live online gaming for your kids.

Live online games, like Xbox Live, enable children or teens to interact with their friends during a fun method, however, may expose them to net security dangers such as bullying, harassment, and predators. make sure your child doesn’t reveal his identity while enjoying games – have him use a nickname and an avatar; monitor his play and always check who he’s enjoying with; activate the protection measures within the game consoles – use the parental controls they offer.

6. Download and install software from trusted sources only

Free games, music, movies etc. are up for download everywhere the net. they're also terribly tempting for youngsters. however, a number of them contain spyware and different varieties of malware that may compromise your whole family’s web security. build a list of trustworthy downloading sources and have your whole family stick with it. Also, browse carefully the licence agreement before putting in a brand new piece of a software system and confirm your children ask for your permission before they download or install something.

7. Don’t give out personal information to strangers.

This may look like common sense, however, ne'er provide out your bank info to somebody you don’t know. There is a lot of scams and it’s straightforward to induce caught up in the cash being offered to you. If it sounds too smart to be true, it most likely is. as well as bank info, it’s dangerous to allow your address and full name to strangers. This info will aid them in stealing your identity. 

8. Look for https:// in the URLs of the websites you make online transactions from.

“S” in “https” stands for “secure” and should appear in every bank or online shop address. If the family member is a keen online shopper, advise them to always look for this internet security sign and shop from trusted sources. If they find a new cool online shop, have them research it. Also, if you/

9. Keep all your computer programs up-to-date.

The out-dated software package has security holes that may simply be exploited by hackers and viruses. That’s why you've got to create certain that each one the programs on the devices you and your family go online from is up-to-date. A Vulnerability Scanner, like the one in BullGuard net Security, will spot the out-dated software versions and notice the needed updates. they bank or shop from your home Wi-fi, confirm it’s secured

10. Back up every important file on your computer.

You ne'er recognize once your computer would possibly break down, whether or not due to malware attacks or some silly accident. you have got to create certain that each important item on it stays safe and sound. as well as your precious family photos of your youngsters growing up, family anniversaries and holidays