As we approach the end of the week, here is some food for thought from everyone’s favourite security platform – Norton.
Friday – it’s a day when everyone starts winding down before the weekend and cranking up their social plans…whether its Friday afternoon drinks, sharing ‘Friday funny’ videos and emails or turning to social networks to check what friends are up to on the weekend. Before going into relax-mode this Friday, spare a thought about those new faces joining our social circles online, what information gets shared on public profiles and what the risks might be.
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Norton Research revealed that adults are spending on average, one whole day (24 hours) a week online – more than one fifth of our waking hours. Two thirds (65%) say they need to log on every day, a quarter (24%) claim that can’t live without the Internet and 41% say they generally need the Internet in their everyday lives. A third (32%) of social network users think they would “lose contact with friends” if they had to live without their social networks. The scope for sharing content is continually growing which in turn, raises the risks. The issue isn’t just confined to computers, with social networking being the most popular online activity through mobile phones.
You wouldn’t share personal information with random strangers in the street, so why do it online?
- An increasing number of toolkits are helping cybercriminals better exploit existing vulnerabilities in systems and software.
- Last year Symantec blocked more than 5.5 billion attacks, 81 percent over 2010.
- The number of unique malware variants increased to 403 million (a 41 percent increase), and Web attacks are up 36 percent.
This Friday, remember to T.G.I.F. !
- TRUST – only open emails or links from people you know and trust
- GUARD – guard your personal information and be careful with sharing updates about your birthday, contact or address details and other sensitive information.
- INSPECT – inspect your privacy and sharing settings on your social network – these change regularly so it’s good to check
- FILTER – filter your friends or followers and think twice about who you add to your network.
Stay safe whether you’re online or off! Products and services that Norton offers include:
- Norton 360 – an all in one security suite that offers superior, easy-to-use protection and backup for all your important stuff
- Norton Internet Security – a comprehensive security solution that provides advanced protection to surf, bank and shop online without interruption
- Norton Safe Web – a website rating service which makes it easy for consumers to differentiate safe Internet Web sites from malicious ones
- Norton Identity Safe – secures, remembers, and automatically enters user names and passwords while protecting users from online threats
*A common initialism for Thank God It’s Friday.
