Safer Online Shopping and Practices

Presenter: Brian MoatsStudents Active In Leadership

If you would like to follow or download this power point

www.brianmoats.com/safershopping

Overview

We will be discussing online shopping and other safer online practices

Why to protect yourself? Who to trust and not to trust? What not to do? Where can you acquire legit free tools to

protect you?

The Main Reason to Practice Safer Online Shopping

To Protect Your Valuable InformationTo Protect Your Valuable Information VERYVERY few places will require your Social Security

Number If you are asked for it, make sure you never send it in an

email and on non-trusted websites AVOID POP UPS!!! Don't give credit card information without confirming

it is legit and properly protected Read Privacy Policies

Signs of a Protected Website

Go to Ebay, Amazon, or some online site you can purchase from

In the address bar, you should currently see HTTP://www.sitename.com or something similar

Now go to the login in section You should see

HTTPS://www.sitename.com or something similar HTTPS means “HTTP Secure”

Know Who You're Dealing With

Believe it or not, not all websites are safe, secure, and legit.

There are many types of people that know how to make a simple website and want to steal your money:

Phishers

As it sounds, Phishers (pronounced “Fishers”) send out Spam emails or Pop-ups (Bait) in hopes of tricking you into giving them your “valuable information” (Prey)

They may use such words as

“Free” “Validation” “Update” “Important” “Notice” Too many explicit

words

Free Software and File-Sharing

An example of this idea is Napster Limewire Kazaa FTTP

They offer “free” music, videos, photos, and software...

however, is there a hidden cost?

Tools of their Trade

These identity thieves and hackers have many tools they can use to take advantage of the internet user

All of the following are forms of Spyware Adware Tracking (often in form of “cookies”) Viruses Worms Trogans

Adware

Adware is usually a piece of software that gets installed on your computer that cause Pop-ups and other ads to show up on your computer

Examples of Adware include: CoolWebSearch Internet Optimizer Zango Gator

Often they seem to be search tool bars

Emails

Spammers love to send you email If you don't recognize who a email is from, then

don't open it. If a subject line looks questionable even if from

a friend, ask that friend about the email before opening it.

Never click the links given in emails, they may be spam taking you to a “Spoof site” (fake site that looks like the real site)

Protective Software

There are a number of pieces of software out there that can help protect you from these “Spywares”.

Prices range from Free to $200 for home users The Free software is effective, but often has less

bonus features that can assist in protecting you

Anti-Virus Software

Protect you from many viruses, worms, and trogans.

Offer features like spam blocking for email A few good anti-virus softwares include:

Norton $80 ** McAfee $80 *** AVG Free ***** Avast! Free ***

Prices based on basic home user version The * represent my personal rating out of 5*s

Spyware Protection

Find and delete Spyware, Trogans, Worms, and the other thief tools

Some offer real time protection and others you have to run manually

Examples: Lavasoft Ad-Aware Free Spybot Free Bit Defender Free Spyware Doctor $30

Firewalls

Also protect you from people trying to hack into your computer

Some of the anti-virus softwares come with Firewalls

Windows XP and Vista have built in firewalls... A free firewall I have tested and liked a lot is Zone

Alarm

Another Practice Do Regularly

UPDATES!!! Make sure you download updates for:

Operation System (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc) Web Browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc) Anti-Virus Spyware Protection Firewall Software Updates

Password Management

Passwords selection is something VERY IMPORTANT

Passwords grant access to emails, computers, and many other places that contain important information

Password Discussion

PASSWORD NO-NO'S No Part of your name No Significant Others No Birthdays or Ages No Simple Words No Short Passwords

moats21

Password Ok-Ok's 7-12 characters Non-words with #'s

ts27ot310lk c01le6e

Backups

Do backups of important files Computers will fail or die and files will be lost Good things to use for backing up files:

CD/DVD's but make sure you make new copies every few months (buy a good brand too)

Thumbs/Flash Drives External or Space Hard Drives NOT FLOPPIES

Find out who to contact when things go wrong

Make sure you are ready when something goes wrong

You don't have to know exactly who to contact in every situation, but at least teach yourself how to find out quickly

Sit down and watch the person who helps you and maybe next time you will know how to help yourself

Links to Some of the Free Software

AVG – free.grisoft.com Ad-Aware - www.lavasoftusa.com Spybot - www.safer-networking.org Zone Alarm - www.zonealarm.com

Questions?

Again, this power point will be available at:

www.brianmoats.com/safershopping

Also on this page is a survey