Are you a victim of cyberbullying?ย Here are ways to beat the bullies to their game
1. Be sure to document all related online activity with relevant dates and times. Take screen shots as visual references and keep an electronic as well as a printed copy of all documentation. This documentation may be able to be submitted as evidence in a court of law, should the cyberbulling get to that degree.
2.Do you use auto responder on your email accounts? While auto responder is an awesome tool to let people know that you are away, hackers and crooks also see this as an awesome tool to determine the best time hack into your computer system or rob your home. As long as the auto responder is enabled, it will automatically respond to anyone who emails you. Consider the verbiage you use. Do not give out specific details about your location or itinerary and consider using a phrase like, โI will not have access to email between (date) and (date).โ
3.Never acceptโcandyโ from strangers, even online! Attackers use โspoofโ email addresses to send bogus information that seems too good to be true and attachments that could contain malware, and they are crafty enough to use tactics to entice you to open these emails and attachments. For example, hackers can make emails appear like they come from someone you know, like a family member.
4.Some credit card companies are embedding RFID chips into their cards. Be aware of which credit cards have these chips because the card information can be read using a simple hand-heldscanner. Imagine standing in line at your favorite retail store with your credit card in your hand waiting to pay your bill, only to find out later the person behind you had a mini scanner and stole your credit card information!
5.Be very careful what information you choose to post online. Cyber crooks use this data to guess your passwords, get answers to your security questions on various accounts and send bogus emails.
6.Set up aโjunkโ email account and use this when posting to guest book entries, posing questions on social media sites/blogs or answering questions on social media sites/blogs.
7.Find it difficult to remember all the complex passwords you’ve created? Develop a mnemonic to help remember them. For example, my password may be โc&lwttld3fg.โ A mnemonic to help remember this could be creating a sentence using words from the letters, symbols and numbers in the same order of the password such as โCharlie and Larry went to the local division three football game.โ
8.Be sure to adequately ERASE all files containing sensitive information to prevent hackers from stealing this data. If you just DELETE these files, this information/data could still be found on your computer.
9.Never announce your physical location with GPS-enables mobile device apps! In other words, do NOT check in when you arrive at various locations. Predators can use this data to find you.
10.Think before forwarding email messages without removing previous email addresses. Spammers and viruses can collect these emails and use them to exploit people.
