Steven Woodhouse

By Steven Woodhouse swoodhouse

— Steven Woodhouse is the Managing Director of Lincoln IT Solutions, a company which offers premium IT support and consultancy for businesses in Lincolnshire.

You want your children to be safe don’t you? You make sure they wear their seatbelt in the car, they look both ways before crossing the road, and that they don’t talk to strangers. These safety precautions protect your children in practical ways.

In the electronic world of the internet, many dangers lay in wait, but with the right safety precautions in place, you can be confident that you are doing your best to protect your loved ones from electronic threats.

OpenDNS Family Shield is a free, simple to set up piece of software, which will protect every device that connects to your home broadband connection, from mobile phones to laptops. It instantly blocks access to adult websites, provides anti-fraud and phishing protection and could help make your internet faster and more reliable. What more could you want?

Other software and security measures can be easily bypassed, but with OpenDNS, the protection is provided right at the gateway to your Internet connection.

OpenDNS works by simply altering your DNS server settings on your home router. You don’t need to install any additional software or drivers for it to work. The website provides you with easy to follow instructions on how to make the change to your router, so you don’t need to be an IT professional to understand it.

Social media sites are another source of danger on the internet. Predators and other undesirables use these sites to groom young children, so make sure you’re aware of whom your children are speaking to on these sites. You may even decide to block access completely to these types of websites until they reach a more mature age. This can be easily achieved with software like OpenDNS.

If you suspect that a paedophile may be grooming or trying to befriend your child, or your child is being stalked or harassed, contact the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) or your local police.

Steven Woodhouse is the Managing Director of Lincoln IT Solutions, a company which offers premium IT support and consultancy for businesses in Lincolnshire.

By Steven Woodhouse swoodhouse

— Steven Woodhouse is the Managing Director of Lincoln IT Solutions, a company which offers premium IT support and consultancy for businesses in Lincolnshire.

Do you lock your door when you leave the house? It’s common sense to do so. Going online is not as safe as you would think, but with a few simple principles, and applying some common sense, you can make your browsing experience a safe one.

Choose passwords wisely

Do you use the same password for every website you sign up for? This is a common mistake, and a compromised website could lead to your password being available to anyone. Choose a different password for each website you sign up for. Avoid passwords like “password” or the name of your children or pet.

Add complexity to your passwords such as numbers and symbols. For example replace the letter “e” for the number 3. Replace the letter “a” for the @ symbol. A good free tool that can help is RoboForm, as it will generate a random password for each site that you sign up for and will log you in automatically saving time. A master password is set to control all other login details. You can also take a portable copy of RoboForm on a USB stick for convenience.

A lot of websites are now adopting a two-factor authentication method, which put simply, means that in addition to a password, a second form of identification is required such as a number-generating key fob or text message sent to your mobile phone. This extra level of security will become more common in the future so make sure you use it.

Stay away from phishers

Have you heard of “phishing”? No, I haven’t spelt it wrong. Phishing involves some form of communication to try to deceive you and steal your valuable information. The most common form is via e-mail.

Have you ever received an e-mail claiming to be from your bank and asking you to “click here” to sign in to your account? If you follow the link, it will take you to a fake website which will steal your logon details and likely infect your machine with spyware that will try to steal further information. Be very wary of e-mails claiming to be from your bank, Paypal or a Nigerian prince.

Steven Woodhouse is the Managing Director of Lincoln IT Solutions, a company which offers premium IT support and consultancy for businesses in Lincolnshire.