Internet Security Revisited

This column does not have a single author, but is submitted by a number of experts that contribute regularly to our news source.  Some are in Canada, some in the UK and one is in the far east

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In the Google Chrome Browser you get this picture when you click the little padlock.  Fire Fox and Internet Explorer give similar results.

We've had more questions on security on the net.  More and more people are paying their bills and doing online banking.  We've covered this question before, but still get some questions on it.  Here is a list of things to do and not do:

1.  Get good virus protection.  Don't believe the hype... MACs are vulnerable too.

2.  Keep your browsers up to date.  We use Internet Explorer, Fire Fox and Google Chrome.

3.  Don't respond to an email that asks you to log in and check your balance or review something.  If you get such an email go directly to the site.  E.g.  www.cibc.ca   The bogus email can direct you to some bad site of their own.

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07/09/2009 12:08 AM

4.  Look for the Uniform Resource Locater (URL address) to change to an https and NOT a http address. 

The 's' signifies secure, but also look for a little padlock on some browsers to show up. This indicates secure mode.  Google Chrome shows this near the URL address box as does Internet Explorer, while Fire Fox shows it way down at the bottom right.  

Always look for the lock.  The Browsers are designed to make your transaction secure when in secure mode.  If you click on this lock, you will see something like we've shown in the big picture above.  You can try this out by going to www,cibc.ca and then click on Sign On.  You'll see http change to https and the lock will show up.  You can click on the lock and it will show you that the site is a class 3 secure site.  You can do this without being a CIBC customer.

5.  Last, but not least, don't make a habit of visiting odd ball sites.  Anything can happen!  Make sure the site you visit is the correct one.  Hackers can direct you to www.cicb.com instead of the right site.  Interchanging letters will do it every time.  In fact this site portrays itself as an online banking site and is doing something that is questionable.

Good luck