10 Myths For Safe Surfing

Personal security services don't only refer to one's safety in real life, but also to the safety on the Internet. Experts say that the security level assured by specialized products grew in the last years. Also, webmasters have became more cautious and the bad boys concentrate mostly on social networks like Facebook or Hi5. For a regular user, the risks of surfing the Web might not be as high as for a company. Therefore, experts in this domain launched 10 myths for safe surfing in a company.

The main enemies are kids. This is totally false. The enemy doesn't have a particular age and most web criminals do their job for one general reason - money. Only in September, 2010, 100 hackers from USA, UK and Ukraine were arrested. With the help of the Zeus trojan, they managed to get over $100 million. On the other side, the 17 years old Australian who hacked Twitter and redirected all the users to adult web sites did this job only for fun.

An updated antivirus will keep the company's computers clean. This is false again. A strong anti virus will deal about 25-50% of the threatenings. The rest is free.

Many directors want to get only Apple computers, thinking they are safe. It is true that a company that doesn't have Mac computers is has more chances to be attacked by hackers, but it is also true the fact that the more companies get Mac computers, the bigger the hackers' interest will be.

Some web sites can be trusted, it's true. But this isn't the biggest problem. The danger migrated from e-mails to social networks. Facebook is often given as a strong example. Users forget about security on such web sites, therefore they become vulnerable.

Games consoles are safe. Or not. Many directors install such devices in the recreational rooms, for their employees. They refuse to understand they're actually a hole in the security system.

The same goes for smartphones. The stronger they become, the closer they get to the computers. People use Internet through them and just like hackers attack computers, they go for smartphones as well. There's absolutely no difference.

About 48% of the security problems in companies are caused by employees. This is the opposite of what managers believe, that problems come from outside.

Strong passwords are not always a good remedy. A strong password is just as useless as a weak one, if they're used for more accounts. Most likely, you'll notice that not just your Facebook account was hacked. Therefore, aim for unique passwords for each of your accounts.

Apple sold over 3 million iPads, while BlackBerry and Samsung are planning to launch such devices in the close future as well. Directors believe they don't represent a danger when it comes to security. But as they run the same operating systems as smartphones, they should think again.

Last, but not least and maybe the most important, the strongest myth for safe surfing comes to a good training service for all the employees. It is good indeed to make sure every employee knows the risks, but the danger is improving so fast that it is almost impossible to keep up to it.

Things become difficult for managers and their employees, therefore the 10 myths for safe surfing are a heads-up statement they need to take in consideration whenever they think about personal security services.