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6 Tips for Browsing Online Safely and Securely

Internet, Network, Uncategorizedbrowser, internet, network, securityOphtek, LLC

Oct 2016

Almost every business has a daily need to go online and interact with the internet, but to do this safely you need a little bit of browsing know-how.

Whilst most websites are relatively secure, it’s difficult to guarantee just how secure they are. And seeing as even government websites can be hacked, how do you know that, for example, that customer maintenance portal you have to log on to daily hasn’t been hacked for dubious means?

Avoiding this sort of scenario is crucial for your business to run smoothly, so I’ve prepared 6 tips to help you browse online safely and securely.

1. Use HTTPS Security

If a website is truly secure then its web URL should start “HTTPS:” and the “S” at the end stands for secure – provided by secure sockets layer (SSL) security. Conversely, if the web URL only starts “HTTP:” then the security behind it will be much less and can’t be taken for granted.

2. Avoid Public WiFi

Public WiFi may provide a fantastic service and serve many happy consumers, but unfortunately these networks have a less than amazing level of security protecting them. And hackers are able to easily infiltrate these networks with basic software to hijack the personal data of those accessing the public network.

3. Don’t Click on Phishing Websites

Phishing is a contemporary threat to your data and appears to be showing no signs of going away soon. This is why you need to be on your guard about phishing websites as they can be deceptive beasts at the best of times.

Links to these websites are usually emailed, but whilst the link may appear to seem innocent, it’s possible to engineer a link which reads www.amazon.com but redirects you to a different (and more dangerous) website.

This puts you at risk of infection and having your networks breached, so double check any suspicious links by hovering your mouse cursor over them to get a preview of the true web address.

4. Update Your Browser

Keeping your software up to date is vital to ensure that you’re well protected against hackers who have discovered vulnerabilities in that piece of software. And web browsers are no different, in fact, once support for out-dated web browsers is discontinued, hackers will discover vulnerabilities very quickly.

Therefore, it’s essential that you install all patches and updates as soon as possible to keep your browsing activity protected.

5. Disable Stored Passwords

Although activating the ‘store your passwords’ option may feel as though it’s going to make forgotten passwords a thing of the past, it can actually cause more trouble than it’s worth. You see, if your system becomes compromised by hackers, they can then access all your store passwords.

And the best way to avoid this is to work on a little bit of memory training to remember your passwords!

6. Have a Strong Arsenal

Perhaps the best way to browse online safely and securely is to arm yourself with the best defenses possible. And the more defenses the better.

So, instead of just securing your network with a state of the art firewall, why not try adding in state of the art email filtering? And, you know what, if you also install web filtering software on top of that, you’re going to find your data becomes safer than ever before.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

The Declining Firefox Market Share

Office ITbrowser, firefoxOphtek, LLC

May 2015

Is Firefox as popular as it used to be? A decline in the Firefox market share has proven its loss of user share. Learn why by reading our overview here.

Browsers take long-term data statistics very seriously, as it is a measure of their success in the internet browser market. The popular and widely used browsers today are considered to be Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera.

In the past year, Mozilla Firefox’s desktop user share has dropped by a significant 34% and since April 2010, dropped down to a total of 54%.

In recent months and years, Mozilla’s Firefox has continued to lose user share due to other widely used internet browsers gaining popularity. The Firefox browser has dropped to the lowest numbers in the browser market share since its initial release back in 2004 when Internet Explorer had already captured most of browser market.

Less people are using the Firefox browser and they’re increasingly reporting issues related to its use. For instance, there are now fewer browser users discussing bugs and fixes on blogs and forums than ever before. This has led to more problems for Mozilla Firefox.

The rise and fall of user share

Browser wars as depicted by Galit Weisberg.

Let’s look at the rise and fall of user share regarding Mozilla Firefox browser and compare it to other popular browsers.

February saw Mozilla Firefox’s user share on desktop platforms to be down to 18.2%, which was down half a percentage from the previous month.

According to Computerworld, if the trend of losing market share continues at the same rate, this could mean that Firefox would go under 8% by this coming October based on both mobile and desktop users being at a low 9.8%, which is 3.4% down from when they first recorded statistics in July 2014.

Mobile Device Browsers

Since the introduction of smartphones that have been made widely available to the consumer market, users are also accessing the internet on their mobile devices. The drop in user share for Firefox appears to correlate with the increased use of mobile devices. Not even their combined numbers of desktop and mobile device users can make up for this loss in market share.

This is despite having a mobile web browser available on smartphone devices, such as for Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android devices.

According to Computerworld’s records, February’s mobile share usage was less than seven-tenths of 1%. Google’s Chrome browser has been the biggest beneficiary of the loss of user share suffered by Firefox.

With Chrome being a popular browser choice on mobile platforms, this has helped their share flourish on the overall market. According to Net Applications’ statistics, Chrome along with the former Android browsers it has replaced, takes up a massive share of the market with 41.5%.

Mozilla committed to evolve their services

As Mozilla is focusing on their cloud service to offer an improved browsing experience for mobile and desktop browser users. They have also signed a five year contract with Yahoo to make its search engine a default one for Firefox browser in the United States.

In regards to a snapshot of the current market share for browsers, the order of popularity from highest to lowest includes Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Opera.

For more information on Cloud services and flexible IT solutions, contact your local IT professionals.

What is browser hijacking and why is it so common?

Securitybrowser, malware, securityOphtek, LLC

Mar 2015

Browser hijacking is very common nowadays. Whilst it may not seem like a trivial issue at first, it can turn into a big nightmare! Read on to find out why.

What is browser hijacking?

Browser hijacking occurs when a web browser is taken over by an unauthorized program, which runs without the user’s permission. We’ll outline three factors as to why it’s common.

Homepage is taken over
Automated changes are made to the browser’s settings, which usually leads it to replace the current homepage settings with its own designated search page.
Tracks browsing habits
The aim of such hijacking is to spy on your browser activity and record your personal information. This information is then sold to advertisers.
Forces users to search through a specific search engine
Searching through an unknown search page will allow your data to be tracked. Web page redirection may also happen over to a website in order to make money from visitors by presenting search results from paid advertisers.

Some web browser hijacking can be easily cleared, whilst others can persistently remain on your system and reappear even after any attempts at clearing it.

How does browser hijacking happen?

Many such hijacking programs present themselves as an offer on a website or are commonly bundled with free software. They are designed to trick people into installing browser hijacking programs. This strategy can also invite additional malware to become installed onto the system, creating further problems, to only end up with a heavily infected computer.

Some examples of hijacking browsers, from hundreds and thousands out there, include:

Astromenda Search
TV Wizard
Onewebsearch
CoolWebSearch
Conduit Search
Coupon server

A truly infected computer will open the doors to a barrage of undesirable hacker activity, which is why this problem should be addressed ASAP.

How to prevent browser hijacking

The main causes of browser hijacks to originate from free software download sites and from advertising. These downloads and malicious ads bundle spyware and, what we like to state as, “pretend-ware” – useless programs.

Even “trusted” vendors who offer free software may include unwanted software to be installed by default. Therefore we suggest being extra vigilant and follow our advice, which we’ll disclose later on.

Examples of added software may include, for instance, search tool bars, pc cleaners, registry fixers, and even nastier programs such as other Trojans and viruses.
What is deemed as “free” will eventually come at the cost of the user, who contrary to what most people think, is the desired product! To elaborate further on this, it’s actually people and their information that are worth a lot more than free software. The ones who fair the best are the companies behind it all, and that’s why freeware is free- it’s the incentive to attract people.

There seems to be a fine line between what is considered acceptable and what is, to put it in other words, criminal activity.

If downloading Freeware is a must …

If for whatever reason you need to download free software, make sure it’s not on your main pc. Instead, we suggest using a virtual machine as a test environment.
Be sure to customize the installation settings from the default one by un-ticking all options which include the added software displayed during the installation wizard.
Update web browsers to the latest version, especially if Internet Explorer is your choice of browser. Alternatively, use a different browser such as Google Chrome.

For more ways to secure your data and systems, contact your local IT professionals.

Chrome is Number One, and For Good Reasons

Security, Softwarebrowser, chrome, firefox, google, internet explorer, microsoft, mozilla, securityOphtek, LLC

Jan 2014

Browser share according to W3Counter

The debate about which internet browser is the best has essentially ended. Personal preferences aside, the consensus among most casual users as well as developers is that Chrome, the Google-backed browser, is number one (for the time being).

Why should you pick Chrome over all other browsers? First and foremost, let’s consider the fact that the browser is constantly being revamped and tweaked by a huge community of developers worldwide. Google gave developers the source code for Chrome back in 2008. Since then, the open source Chomium project has thrived, leading to a robust and constantly updated browser.

A Think Tank is Better Than One Einstein

AdBlock can be easily integrated into Chrome

What it comes down to is this, Google is allowing outside developers to tinker with Chrome. Among some of the crucial benefits resulting from the open collaboration of many brilliant minds are these:

Exceptional security measures as developers are constantly debugging and patching up vulnerabilities
Add-ons built around the Chrome browser allows for a highly customizable surfing experience. For instance, the adblock plugin lets surfers select which site is allowed to have ads or popups.
Convenience. Users can sync their browsing history, usernames, passwords, and etc. across multiple platforms. By simply logging into one’s Google account, he/she can have access to all his past browsing history, and save his present browsing experience for future syncing on other platforms.

It Can Always Be Better

Google, with its involvement in adding parts to the Internet of Things (IoT), has greatly improved the browsing experience for most average internet surfers. Much of the work done in the development of Chrome (past, present, and future) ultimately serves as medium for Google to grow and profit. However, Google is taking input from outside developers, and thus it has given the search giant an edge in the browser war over its competitors like Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox.

Although Chrome is an exceptional browser for almost everyone and every purpose, a tool for surfing the internet is only a piece of the personal computing experience. Chrome users will still need to consider what other tools will complement the browser, so that surfing the Internet becomes as secure as possible.

For more ideas and tips on staying safe and secure online, contact your office IT professionals.

Tag Archives: browser