Teen or senior citizens; nowadays everyone is using the internet. Using the internet is not rocket science. You just need an internet supportable device and internet access! If we see the statistics, senior citizens spend more time on the internet than teens. When you grow old; you don't have anything to kill time. With the internet; you can easily connect to the world. In the eye of cyber crime; kids and senior citizens are referred to as an easy target. People of these age groups are usually unaware of the dangerous cyber crime. They can easily fall into phishing attacks. Encouraging senior citizens for adopting security measures while accessing the internet will help to reduce phishing and other cyber threats.
Why senior citizens need internet access?
Well, teens use the internet for SNSs and gaming purpose while adults use it for work and other things. But senior citizens use the internet for killing time and connecting to the world. They mostly use the internet for:
- Making video calls to the family member living abroad
- Joining online social clubs
- Managing financial records
- Reading and watching the news
- Watching online movies
- Killing time
Here we have mentioned some best cyber security practices which are vital for senior citizens and all other people who access the internet:
Tell them about the kinds of threats they may encounter while accessing the internet
Cybersecurity awareness is necessary for everyone. Tell your parents about the threats especially email phishing threats. Educate them about various kinds of viruses and other malware. Ask them what they usually do on the internet. If they like watching movies; tell them some secure website and ask them to use those websites only. Tell them to check whether they are using a secure (lock sign and https on URL) website or not. Ask them not to share their important information such as bank details, phone number, and home address to anybody! If they are getting any email or phone call from the bank then they should not tell anything about your financial record and direct call the official phone number of your bank.
Use security software on their device
Self-securing practices are not enough; you need a technical doctor to prevent yourself from viruses and other attacks. Antivirus provides lots of features such as anti-spam, anti-phishing, firewall, secure browsing and many more. Installing antivirus will reduce about half of the internet threats. But just installing is not enough; you have the check the setting according to your need and don't forget to update and download McAfee product key from time to time for better and reliable security.
Use passwords
Senior citizens don't like passwords at all! They are happy with just a phone lock. Tell them to use strong passwords. Passwords will provide them good safety against hackers. Hackers prefer senior citizens for attack because they are easy to target and have more funds. You should aware them about the relevance of using passwords.
Avoid pop-ups and remove your traces
Just 5-minute net surfing can get you into phishing attack. Adware monitors the history and then send advertisements related to your searches. When you click on the advertisement; you will see a download. This download is nothing else but the malware. Just one click can infect your device. Ask your parents not to click on any kind of pop-up and always clean the history files, temporary data, caches from the device. They can also use antivirus or cleanup tool for this purpose.
Nothing is free!
You often get online ads such as "Get XYZ antivirus for free!" But nothing is free in this world. If you are getting paid software for free then it's a malware. To protect yourself from these kinds of fraud you should surf the internet securely.
Also read - Top preventive measures to beat cyber crime in 2019.
