New Zealand Netsafety Week 2021

Another year, another opportunity to make sure you have your internet security and safety on point. And what better way to check on our net safety than New Zealand’s 2021 Netsafety week – which happens to be this week from 26th – 30th of July! The threat of cyber attacks is an all too real possibility and your data is at risk if your online security is compromised. 

You might think “Oh well I have nothing to hide, so what does it matter” unfortunately your browsing habits aren’t the only thing at risk. If you’ve ever entered your address online, say on a retail website, uploaded a picture of yourself to a social media platform, or engaged in buying cryptocurrency your data could be at risk in the unfortunate case of a cyber attack. 

System breaches and platform hacks can make it easy for attackers to obtain private and sensitive information about you and even your family. 

Personal data is big business and no matter how irrelevant you may think it is, someone out there can use that information for nefarious purposes. 

We take crypto security and internet safety very seriously here at Easy Crypto so we thought we’d pump out this article with some handy tips and tricks to increase your overall security online

Ok, so what should I do?

It’s critical to have your internet security sorted just in case the unthinkable happens. Malicious threats come in all shapes and forms, and they will take whatever they can get – whether that be your money, your online presence, or holding your data ransom.

If they can leverage it, they’ll go for it. Thankfully prevention is a good method for keeping sneaky hackers and bad actors out of your private business. 

So what should you do? Let’s take a look at some ways you can improve both crypto security and internet security. 

Install a Privacy Browser

A good place to start is a Privacy Browser. I personally use Brave, a crypto integrated browser that is centered around privacy and protection of personal information. 

Brave blocks data-grabbing ads and trackers meaning your activity and search data isn’t being siphoned off to some shady company who then sells that data to big advertisers, who then use your own data to target products and services to you. 

Do you ever wonder why you get a targeted ad after you’ve been searching (or talking about) something super specific? Your search history is being monitored and your phone is probably listening out for specific keywords to then filter that information onwards. 

Keep your wits about you! Brave has TOR integration in incognito mode for an extra layer of privacy if needed, as well as DuckDuckGo search engine integration by default (You can change back to google or your preferred search engine if you like, DuckDuckGo is just the default setting). 

Brave has also integrated an ingenious method of distribution of their crypto token BAT, essentially it utilizes your attention and pays you for providing your attention to targeted ads that you have played a part in curating.

So, unlike the advertising corporations who take your data and advertise to you without flicking you a dime, you are compensated with BAT for providing your browsing data and responding to targeted ads, this isn’t mandatory though and if you do not wish to engage with this you can turn this function off.

Read more: Click here to learn more about the BAT Token.

When opening a new tab in Brave you will see all of your privacy stats as well as a rad scenic image! This is a good way to keep track of what Brave is doing for you. There are other Privacy focused browsers as well namely, Chromium, Tor, Firefox, Opera, and the like. But I’ve focused on Brave as this is the one I use.

Learn more: Visit the official Brave website to download.

A guide to safer browsing

It goes without saying, implementing safe browsing practices is a sure-fire way to keep your data safe and secure. While online, it is crucial you ensure the websites you’re engaging with are legitimate and safe, more often than not people have been duped by scam “look-alike” websites often referred to as “Phishing Websites”. 

These are websites that are designed to look like other popular websites to dupe the unsuspecting patron into giving up critical data such as passwords, email addresses, physical addresses, money, and credit card information. 

A sure-fire way to identify a phishing website is to look at the URL address, usually, they will have one letter off, or a number in place of a letter, and sometimes, a completely wrong but similar-looking address.

The practice of Phishing is prominent in the crypto industry, meaning you have to be extra vigilant with your crypto security! Binance is one exchange that is vocal on being vigilant with websites trying to appear as Binance. 

If you are engaged with crypto (or anything online really) you should make it an absolute priority to check the website URL for every website you enter, this small step could be the barrier between you losing your data or money!

Another thing to look for is if the website you are on is using HTTP or HTTPS. HTTPS is a more secure version of HTTP as HTTPS uses TLS (SSL) to encrypt normal HTTP requests and responses. Meaning HTTPS is far more secure, keeping your data safe! 

Moving forward, Antivirus software can be a huge barrier for bad actors and those with nefarious intentions getting your precious data. It’s highly recommended you have some form of Antivirus software installed before you begin browsing the web, privacy browsers can only do so much!

There are plenty of options when it comes to Antivirus software, free, sorta free, and paid. I’ll leave it up to you to decide which best suits your needs.

There are plenty of good free antivirus software applications out there, though their functionality may be limited, it’s an extra layer of defense where there was none previously. Most will do a good job quarantining and removing potentially serious threats. 

An added tip: Most antivirus programs will now have safe browsing options that can be turned on in the settings which adds a layer of security to your browsing experience, this can be handy as this can help identify potentially dangerous websites and links while browsing.

Further reading: Click here to explore our library of security topics on our Learn Site!

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