Ask HN: How do you remain secure while surfing the web

Re:Ask HN: How do you remain secure while surfing the web by retpirato on Friday May 28, 2021 @09:00PM (#27322235)

1. Don't automatically click on short links. There are plenty of url expanders online that you can copy & paste the link into that will tell you where the link goes. 2. Be very carefully clicking on links you don't already trust. That doesn't mean they are all malicious, most aren't. Just use your judgement. 3. Use https whenever possible. Things like banking sites & anything your are entering your banking info into or social security number etc; should always use https, no exceptions. Otherwise it's possible for hackers to monitor your traffic & steal your info. Look for the "https everywhere" extension. It's available on Chrome & Firefox & maybe others. 4. Watch the end of the url (the .com, .org, etc;). They're called Top level domains (TLDs for short). Government sites will always end in .gov, Military is .mil .org is generally organizations, .biz is for businesses .com or .net can be pretty much anything else. Two letter TLDs are generally for countries, .us is The US for example. There are also special ones like .bike for bike shops. There used to be a whitehouse(.com) that targeted people who didn't realize it should be .gov & when they clicked on it, they were redirected to a bunch of malicious sites that downloaded & installed malware without their knowledge. 5. If possible avoid using sites like banking sites in coffee shops/restaurants or anywhere else where you don't know you can trust the wifi connection like at home. Hackers sometimes create fake (but working) wifi networks hoping people will connect to them thinking they are the one setup by the business & when people connect them they can see everything users do & steal any data they send like login info for websites they visit. If you must use them there at least use something like tor to hide & secure your traffic from potential hackers.

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Re:Ask HN: How do you remain secure while surfing the web by ayoubElk on Friday May 28, 2021 @09:30PM (#27322376)

Thanks for the list, here it is formatted:

1. Don't automatically click on short links. There are plenty of url expanders online that you can copy & paste the link into that will tell you where the link goes.

2. Be very carefully clicking on links you don't already trust. That doesn't mean they are all malicious, most aren't. Just use your judgement.

3. Use https whenever possible. Things like banking sites & anything your are entering your banking info into or social security number etc; should always use https, no exceptions. Otherwise it's possible for hackers to monitor your traffic & steal your info. Look for the "https everywhere" extension. It's available on Chrome & Firefox & maybe others.

4. Watch the end of the url (the .com, .org, etc;). They're called Top level domains (TLDs for short). Government sites will always end in .gov, Military is .mil .org is generally organizations, .biz is for businesses .com or .net can be pretty much anything else. Two letter TLDs are generally for countries, .us is The US for example. There are also special ones like .bike for bike shops. There used to be a whitehouse(.com) that targeted people who didn't realize it should be .gov & when they clicked on it, they were redirected to a bunch of malicious sites that downloaded & installed malware without their knowledge.

5. If possible avoid using sites like banking sites in coffee shops/restaurants or anywhere else where you don't know you can trust the wifi connection like at home. Hackers sometimes create fake (but working) wifi networks hoping people will connect to them thinking they are the one setup by the business & when people connect them they can see everything users do & steal any data they send like login info for websites they visit. If you must use them there at least use something like tor to hide & secure your traffic from potential hackers.

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Re:Ask HN: How do you remain secure while surfing the web by mr_o47 on Friday May 28, 2021 @10:22PM (#27322572)

Thank you for reformatting this

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Re:Ask HN: How do you remain secure while surfing the web by mr_o47 on Friday May 28, 2021 @10:22PM (#27322577)

Very good advice Do you suggest the use of vpns and adblockers

If so, which ones do you suggest

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Re:Ask HN: How do you remain secure while surfing the web by AlexAndScripts on Monday May 31, 2021 @02:57AM (#27341055)

VPN wise, they have a use but they are so shilled and overdone that you need to be very careful. Don't trust a single article about them.

Definitely use an ad blocker. UBlock Origin is by far the best.

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