Would you like to keep your private life private? So would we. For this reason, we have created four articles devoted to protecting your information. This third article presents various ways to determine the intentions of a website, as well as tips for protecting your information.

1. Validate the HTTPS

Before you enter any personal information on a website, take the time to check the URL. At the beginning, (before www.), you should see HTTPS. The Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) assures visitors of the website's identity, thanks to an authentication certificate issued by a reputable and reliable third-party authority. Typically, the web browser displays a padlock icon in the address bar to indicate that the website has HTTPS certification. This quick and easy tip will give you a good idea about the website’s intentions.

2. Check Website Status

You are browsing your Facebook wall and suddenly see a very catchy link to an article. What should you do? If you click the link without checking, you may find yourself on a malicious site. So what do you do?

A simple trick is to validate the website's status using a tool such as Google Transparency Report. Just copy and paste the dubious link into the search box on their site: https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search. Google will then tell you whether the site is safe. There are also certain antivirus software and firewalls that will act the same way by scanning the website before the link opens in your web browser.

3. Keep Your Antivirus Protection and Software Up to Date

Experts are starting to question the need to use a paid antivirus software. With the arrival of Windows 10 and its free, integrated antivirus software, is it worth paying for and installing a second antivirus software? This will be part of a future article!

Regardless of the antivirus software chosen, it is essential to install and configure it so that it is updated daily and automatically. You should also configure it to scan your computer weekly.

Antivirus software providers are usually extremely quick to update their system against threats, but users are generally very slow to update. This shortcoming can cause major security breaches. By setting up automatic updates and scans, you’ll avoid delays.

The same rule applies to other software and applications. Be sure to update them quickly to avoid any security breaches. Consider the example of Windows 7, for which support ended in January 2020. On this topic, we invite you to read the article: Goodbye Windows 7,Hello Windows 10! Why Your Small Business Really Needs a Windows Upgrade.

4. Opt for an Anti-Phishing Tool

Phishing is a technique used by fraudsters to obtain personal information by making victims believe that they are addressing a trusted third party (their bank, for example) in order to extract personal information from them. Fraudsters usually phish victims from an email or a very convincing website.

For this reason, it is strongly recommended to use an anti-phishing tool on all your devices. Fortunately, some versions of Office 365 and Microsoft 365 include ATP (Advanced Threat Protection) which protects your devices in several ways. One form of protection included is an anti-phishing tool that specifically checks and processes your incoming messages to detect if they are linked to a phishing technique.

Do you want more?

You have finished the third article in this series of four articles on online data protection. We invite you to read the next article entitled Digital Security – How to Protect Yourself. You can also download our ebook which contains a multitude of tips on avoiding corporate data loss.