Commonly Employed Threats 249
online banking. The same is true in an office, where a nosy coworker peering over a
cubicle wall or an unscrupulous network administrator spying on a workstation can
snag a password.■ Don’t save personal information casually on shopping websites. Most shopping sites
offer to save a credit card and address information for easier checkout in the future.
Although the information is supposedly secure, many thefts of such information have
occurred recently.■ Be careful about posting personal information. People love to chat and share or post
the details of their personal lives on social-networking sites such as Facebook. They
give the public access to their information and then complain about privacy issues.■ Keep your computer personal. Internet browsers such as Internet Explorer and Mozilla
Firefox make it easy to store passwords and form information. Anyone who opens such
a web browser can check the browsing history, visit secure sites, and automatically
log in as you, if you opt to have the browser save your password. Avoid storing
passwords—or, better yet, password-protect your computer and lock it when not in
use. Make a second account on a computer for other people to use so information is
kept separate, and make sure that account is password-protected and not given high-
level access such as that available to an administrator.The majority of risk factors can be controlled through the simple steps outlined here:■ Control the online environment by using the current version of a reputable web
browser. A browser like Firefox performs the following safety actions:
■ Prevents you from going to malicious sites
■ Scans files you download
■ Blocks pop-ups
■ Helps safeguard personal data■ Watch the sites you visit. Tools such as those provided by antivirus vendors can help
identify which links are safe. Know something about a website before you go there.■ Watch what you do online with personal information. For example, do not post
information on Facebook that you would not be comfortable sharing with the rest of
the world.■ Avoid unsecured wireless connections.
■ Lock your computer with a password when it is not in use.
■ Do not save credit card information for every site you visit.
Also consider that when you upgrade a browser to a newer version, some
provide an extensive library of plug-ins, extensions, and add-ons that can
make the browser more secure than it would be on its own. For example,
a browser such as Chrome offers extensions like Ghostery, Adblock Plus,
AVG Antivirus, and others.