Abine

With the recent wave of high-profile data breaches, business hacks, private information dumps, and financial network intrusions, internet security and privacy have gotten quite a bit of press. A lot of the online security basics are pretty well known: Have strong passwords, don’t open email attachments sent by strangers, and chances are there’s not really a foreign princess waiting to enrich and possibly marry you if only you’d share your account information. However, there are more specific privacy and security issues that can instigate misery, embarrassment, financial catastrophe, and even loss of your job. For instance, do you know your employer’s BYOD policy? Do you know how to remove personal information from Google ? Do you know if your anti-virus/anti-malware software is up to date? The following list outlines some common internet security threats and mistakes and how those threats can be diminished or resolved with a bit of research and a little proactive ris...

The internet is a massive marketplace of products, services, and ideas. Unfortunately, the sheer mass of all three on the internet means that inevitably, some of them are going to be regrettable. The problem for consumers is distinguishing between the products, services, and ideas that are useful and trustworthy, and those that aren’t. The problem for businesses is assuring those customers that their product or service is trustworthy, dependable, and high-quality when there are so many out there that aren’t. A surprisingly high percentage of businesses respond to that problem with misconceptions. Those include disregarding the issue as meaningless, as random opinions on the internet are to be taken with a grain of salt; deciding that the internet is so vast, there’s nothing to be done about it; and the belief that responding is useless because who can tell a quality organization’s legitimate responses from a disreputable one’s dishonest excuses? The fact is, online r...

The internet is an often a frustrating double-edged sword. The more convenience and opportunity that becomes available, the greater the risk of your personal information being exposed and exploited. For every branded coupon, loyalty card, product, newsletter, or website registration that requires your email address, there’s a new addition to the aggregating digital footprint your email address leaves online. The wider that footprint gets, the easier it gets for parties you don’t want anything to do with following your tracks. The good news is that the choice doesn’t have to be between “avoid anything that requires you providing your email address,” or, “accept all risk associated with malicious, criminal, or simply annoying misuse of your email address.” There’s a third option: a disposable email address. So, is it worth it to use an anonymous, disposable email address? Avoiding Spam Any online security expert who knows their business will tell you that the more e...