With great power comes great responsibility and with Internet connection, what is must is SECURITY. In a world where Internet is the crux of everything, security means more than just prevention. Almost all the information in the world is available on the Internet today. While most of the information gathered from around, our personal information is what we feed into the internet.

Now to begin with, what is Internet Security? Internet security is a protection of data that is made available on the Internet. The main motive of internet security is to prevent misuse of the information on the Internet.

There are various types of security issues that a computer can face. Internet security is a vital part of it. When a computer is connected to the internet, it is shared certain amount of information with the outside world and if these communication lines are not healthy, there are changes of information leakage.

The process of leaking information is known as hacking and the people who leak out the information to misuse it are known as hackers.

Back in the day, hackers were highly skilled programmers who had to have detailed knowledge of computer communications. With the advent in technology, almost anyone can become a hacker by simply browsing through the Internet.

 There are various types of attacks that a computer is vulnerable to have when connected to the Internet.

• Malicious Software: These software are usually forcibly installed on your computer or you are tricked to install them when they pop up on your screen.
• Phishing: This is an act wherein you will be asked for vital private information. The hackers will pose to be a genuine website or a trustworthy authority and demand information like your bank details, your user ID or your password.
• Spamming: When an unsolicited mail or message is repeatedly sent to a very large group of people
• Tampering: The URL of a particular website is changed without the customer’s knowledge. So the URL may appear like a genuine one, but it is not.
• Spoofing: In spoofing, information is duplicated to make it look like the original one. This is used to obtain data in an illegal manner.
• Social Engineering: This is attack mainly involves tricking people into breaking normal security procedures thus leading to leakage of information.
• Adware: This is program that displays advertisements on your computer in order to increase footfalls on the author’s website.

There are more and more ways to breach into private data and we all need to be aware of this to prevent information theft. Here’s sharing a few pointers that can help you prevent cyber-attacks.

• Avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from unknown senders.
• Verify any requests from institutions that arrive via email over the phone.
• Pay close attention to website URLs
• Set secure passwords and don't share them with anyone.
• Strong passwords are really the only way to safeguard against password attacks. This means using a combination of upper and lower case letters, symbols and numbers and having at least eight characters or more.
• Use encrypted wireless access points that use WPA security or greater.
• Ensure all of your operating systems and software programs are up to date.
• Any ad that promises riches is probably too good to be true, and therefore could be hiding malware.
• Use an updated firewall.
• Do not give out personal information over the phone or in an email unless completely sure.
• Verify the authenticity of requests from companies or individuals by contacting them directly.
• Be very careful what software you choose to install and pay special attention to what permissions each app is requesting.

A fine blend of knowledge and alertness is very important to combat cyber-attacks because prevention is indeed better than cure. We hope the information in this article will help you stay alert and use the internet judicially.