By: SEAN YANG
Staff Writer
This is a continuation of Internet Safety, a basic guide on how to keep your accounts and privacy secure. You can read the first part about account security here.
The digital age has brought upon us an unprecedented ability—global, instantaneous communication. Nearly all of us teenagers communicate primarily via digital means, whether that be email, text messaging, and/or through social media. Social media, whether it be through content platforms, messaging boards, and social networks, has become such an integral part of our lives that we often forget how much we take this technology for granted. With minimal effort, you are able to share all of your thoughts, ideas, and actions with the entire world to see—for good or for bad. Because of this, many people are highly susceptible to misinformation, disinformation, scams, phishing links, and privacy leaks. What should we do to improve our safety in this regard?
Misinformation and disinformation is perhaps the most widespread form of harmful communication on the internet, whether it be malicious (disinformation) or unintentional (some forms of misinformation). Social media is a contagious vector for both misinformation and disinformation because you can be bombarded by unproven and biased sources, making it easy to be misled. In order to avoid these harmful vectors, it is important to be skeptical and questioning. Ask yourself: do the things they say come from authoritative sources? Have they left out the important context that can completely change its meaning? How does their information compare with other sources and claims? Being able to rationally inquire about topics and events, especially something that is happening in real-time or has happened extremely recently is a very important skill to have. You must be able to prove to yourself whether or not certain information is accurate or biased before you can base your conclusions and judgments on that information.
Imagine there was a report of consecutive break-ins in your neighborhood. What would you do to prevent that from happening to you? Many would decide to upgrade their locks and security devices, even reinforcing their windows to prevent this from happening to them. However, they still get robbed. Why? It’s because they let the robbers into their house in the first place. This is how scams and phishing links work. When it comes to digital security, sometimes you are the weakest link in the chain. Scams and phishing links are a massive threat to your security, and very many people succumb to getting hacked or having important data stolen because they do not know how to avoid them. While many are obvious, there are some sophisticated phishing attacks that are intelligently designed to exploit social engineering and software flaws in order to steal sensitive information. Most can be avoided or prevented by checking for the legitimacy of the website you are entering sensitive information on; for files and software that people send you, it is important to check the integrity of the files and applications before you open or run them, whether it be via looking at the file type, extension, or running them through an antivirus program. For advanced attacks that involve the impersonation of a valid administrator, employee, or spokesperson, it is important to take your time, read through every exchange carefully, and never follow instructions blindly.
In summary:
- Be skeptical and questioning of the things you see and hear, especially on the Internet and on social media.
- Research controversial and real-time topics with authoritative sources in order to learn the truth. It is more important to know what is right, rather than who is right.
- You are the weakest link in the chain. Check the legitimacy of websites as well as the integrity of shared files and links. Never share sensitive information with anyone else, no matter how much you trust them.