How to stay safe on the internet

How to stay safe on the internet

 

NOTE: This thread doesn't include much at the moment, however it will continue to expand over time.

Last edited: 15/02/2023 | 1:40PM

 

Contributors:

@RealNickk

 

It is really important to stay safe online as people can gain access to information you don't want them to, whether that being private information from your social media pages, files and whatnot. This thread will provide you with many tips and tricks you can use to stay safe online, you may not find uses for them right now - but you will be prepared for any future endeavours.

 

Table of Contents:

1. Password management
2. Two factor authentication
3. Antivirus software
4. My alternative to antiviruses
5. Private information
6. Data protection

 

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1. Password management

If you are one of those people which use a single password for everything, I am disappointed in you. However after reading further, that may change. You see, there are many online database breaches which provide public access to private information such as your email(s), username(s), and password(s). If you would like to see if you're included in any data breaches (probable), you can do so here. People have recommended password managers like LastPass (their database was breached in August 2022) and Bitwarden which store randomly generated passwords inside of your own personal vault, but for your safety, I recommend you don't use these. My alternative is to use a string generator and generate a password above 8 characters, including numbers and special characters for that extra security measure (most sites require numbers and special characters too, so this will be helpful). You'll want to write these passwords inside of something like your notepad along with any other important informations such as emails or usernames. This is the only way to guarantee complete safety without the risk of any intruders stealing your passwords, that is unless, they take your notepad out of your drawer. If any of your accounts get breached with these newly generated passwords, all you need to do is simply re-generate a new one and update your account with that new password.

 

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2. Two factor authentication

Consider this as an extra security measure, some online services offer this. If you have took advice from the first topic and changed all of your passwords and stored them somewhere safe, this isn't required - it's completely optional. However, it doesn't hurt to have an extra bit of protection, right? The way two factor authentication works is it asks you for a 6 digit code after entering your password. You can't write these codes inside of your notebook unlike passwords, as they get re-generated automatically every 30 seconds - 1 minute. There are many two factor authentication services online such as Google Authenticator, Authy and authenticator.cc. Please note that some of these services are device-specific and aren't available on multiple platforms. If you are going to use any of these services, it is important to make backups frequently if you plan on switching devices. Two factor authentication mobile apps mostly only request your phone number, instead of an account.

 

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3. Antivirus software

Antiviruses essentially attempts to prevent malicious programs from attacking your system. It scans newly downloaded files and checks if it's malicious. Personally, I don't use these as I create game cheats/exploits (whatever you want to call them) which get flagged frequently, however that doesn't stop you from using them if you want to. These are called false positives which occur frequently for some people depending on what programs/software they use (mostly happens when an application doesn't have a signed certificate). Some antiviruses that I recommend are Kaspersky, Malwarebytes, Comodo and Avast.

 

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4. My alternative to antiviruses

As I stated earlier, I don't use antiviruses due to them being an overall annoyance and causing problems for me. I've learnt to be safe without them over the years and decompile untrusted programs using decompilation tools such as dnSpy/dnSpyEx, JetBrains dotPeek for C# applications and HexRays IDA (Interactive Disassembler), Binary Ninja and Ghidra for C++ applications. There are many tutorials which show you how to use these tools on YouTube. Malware analysis is a great topic to learn about in general. If you are a complete nerd and want to go all out on this, I have a PDF called Practical Malware Analysis.

 

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5. Private information

Don't share your full name (first name is generally alright, but if you need to use a last name, use a pseudonym), don't share your face unless you want it to exist on the internet forever, don't give people nudes because you know deep inside that picture's going into a group chat full of perverts that'll share it around, don't connect personal social media with internet social media, don't give people your personal email or passwords, don't give people your personal phone number unless you completely trust them (Use a VoIP if you absolutely need to share a phone number with someone you don't fully trust), don't drop your address, don't take pictures of your house, don't ever share biometrics information, and there's much more, just use your common sense and you'll be fine.

 

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6. Data protection

There are many free VPN services out there which hides your IP address and all of your activity. If you would like a free service, I strongly recommend ProtonVPN, don't use anything like NordVPN if you want your activity to be hidden (they will spy on you). When you're entering unknown websites or opening a link from someone you don't trust, you're going to want to do that inside of a browser which you don't use (has no cookie data or saved passwords). Brave is a fast and easy to use browser (Chrome fork) which allows you to open new (private) windows with Tor. You will want to do this when you want to check out unsafe websites and whatnot.