Security Begins At Home.

As personal information shifts from private to public with the growth of social media, purchasing online, and subscriptions to all sorts of services, it is becoming easier for interested parties to access all types of data about you. From the outside much of this appears harmless and perhaps even beneficial, for example to be offered your favourite type of recycled toilet tissue when you log into a shopping website can save you time, but this is the tip of an iceberg that can spread quite widely in the unseen depths of the ocean.

Do not get us wrong here, we are not attempting to scaremonger, only to inform and to make you aware that there are some possible introductions to your browsing and personal computer activity that you may want to be conscious of.

Initially, there are a few things that should be standard to your PC software choices, these are a good firewall and a good anti-virus (Apple Mac and Linux users can breathe a relative sigh of relief, due to the enhanced security of their operating systems which have a greatly reduced infection probability). There are some basic free options which will allow for limited prevention, but investment is often key to secure your home network. Some free options exist, ZoneAlarm firewall (a firewall prevents people from entering your home network) and AVG anti virus (an anti virus protects against malicious software that installs itself on your computer to generate unwated behaviour) for example can be a great starting point for personal protection. Many machines are now not falling victim to viruses that cause mayhem with deleting data or causing a machine to become inoperable, but to trojans, which can transmit entry of passwords and credit card information. For a more comprehensive cover of a home network you have a range of options, and AVG do offer a personal anti virus (which is better at discovering trojans than it's free version) with a built in firewall.

Please note that we do not endorse or recommend the above examples, but they are a starting point if you're a bit lost.  Always investigate a few options and check out what other users are saying in reviews to get a better feel for the product.

Phishing is another area that can result in significant personal information loss. The definition of phishing from Wikipedia is: Phishing is a way of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail spoofing or instant messaging.

Always double check links in emails, and the addresses of websites that you visit. Things to check are, the website address - if you visit Barclays bank, you would expect the URL to be www.barclays.co.uk or similar. Test this by visiting Google and typing Barclays bank in and searching on what is returned as the official link. If the link that you have been given seems not to relate to that location, be cautious about passing private information. Also when submitting personal information, the website address should begin with https:// and not http://, and a small padlock will usually be displayed on your browser to show that you are now on a secure website page. Secure pages encrypt information and provide higher levels of security.  Never pass credit card or payment information on a website that does not offer https:// encryption.

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