Netiquette is a combination of the words network and
etiquette, and is defined as a set of rules for acceptable online behavior.
Similarly, online ethics focuses on the acceptable use of online resources in
an online social environment.
Both phrases are frequently interchanged and are often
combined with the concept of a ’netizen’ which itself is a contraction of the
words internet and citizen and refers to both a person who uses the internet to
participate in society, and an individual who has accepted the responsibility
of using the internet in productive and socially responsible ways.
Underlying this overall concept of socially responsible
internet use are a few core pillars, though the details underneath each pillar
are still subject to debate.
At a high level using netiquette, applying online ethics, or
being a good netizen means:
- Recognizing
that the internet is not some new world in which anything goes, but rather
a new dimension or extension of our existing society.
- Applying
the same standards and values online as we are accustomed to applying in
the rest of our lives. In simple terms this means that the values society
has in place against such things as hate speech and bigotry, copyright
violations and other forms of theft, child exploitation and child
pornography, remain intact. As do the values around courtesy, kindness,
openness, and treating others with the same respect we wish to receive.
- Accepting
that the laws which are currently in place to protect the rights and
dignity of citizens apply online, and that where needed, laws are updated
to reflect these rights in the extended environment. Theft online is still
theft, stalking, bullying, harassing, tormenting online is still abusive,
and so on.
- Acknowledging
that cultural differences remain, even when national boundaries no longer
apply. This requires finding a way to accept that the social values and
norms of some netizens will not be the social values and
norms of all netizens.
- For
companies, being a good netizen, applying online ethics, or using
netiquette also includes
- Respecting
the rights to privacy assumed and possessed by citizens in their offline
interactions.
- Maintaining
transparency in their policies and actions so that consumers can easily
and quickly understand how that company is using their information,
protecting them from harm, and giving users a clear means of ownership
and self-determination as to what is, and isn’t shared about them.
Most internet users automatically apply the same responsible
respectful behavior online as they do in every other environment and by nature
apply netiquette an online ethics, and are good netizens. The minority that
fail to apply societal values in some or any environment - including the
internet - are quickly identified as exceptions to be dealt with on a social,
or criminal level.
RULES OF BEHAVIOR
ON THE INTERNET
- Identify
yourself:
- Begin
messages with a salutation and end them with your name.
- Use
a signature (a footer with your identifying information) at the end of a
message
- Include
a subject line. Give a descriptive phrase in the subject line of
the message header that tells the topic of the message (not just "Hi,
there!").
- Avoid
sarcasm. People who don't know you may misinterpret its meaning.
- Respect
others' privacy. Do not quote or forward personal email without
the original author's permission.
- Acknowledge
and return messages promptly.
- Copy
with caution. Don't copy everyone you know on each message.
- No
spam (a.k.a. junk mail). Don't contribute to worthless
information on the Internet by sending or responding to mass postings of
chain letters, rumors, etc.
- Be
concise. Keep messages concise—about one screen, as a rule of
thumb.
- Use
appropriate language:
- Avoid
coarse, rough, or rude language.
- Observe
good grammar and spelling.
- Use
appropriate emoticons (emotion icons) to help convey meaning. Use
"smiley's" or punctuation such as :-) to convey emotions. See
website list of emoticons at http://netlingo.com/smiley.cfm and
http://www.robelle.com/smugbook/smiley.html.
- Use
appropriate intensifiers to help convey meaning.
- Avoid
"flaming" (online "screaming") or sentences typed in
all caps.
- Use
asterisks surrounding words to indicate italics used for emphasis (*at
last*).
- Use
words in brackets, such as (grin), to show a state of mind.
- Use
common acronyms (e.g., LOL for "laugh out loud").
1. Keep
your software/apps updated and delete the ones you don’t use.
Developers and cybercriminals are
almost always caught in a cat and mouse game, where cybercriminals search for
exploits and developers rush to patch them before too much damage is done.
Most of the times,
vulnerabilities are quickly updated, but the real issue is that most users will
still use an outdated version and will be vulnerable to the exploit.
Keeping your software up-to-date
will go a long way into keeping you safe. But an equally important step is to
remove software and apps you no longer use.
Many of these programs still
communicate in the bAckground with various servers, and in case of a breach,
this data might fall into the wrong hands.
2. Be careful when dealing with emails from unknown
sources
Have you received an email from
an unknown source? Do you frequently receive -mails from people you don’t know?
Just as in real life, an
important rule to stay safe on the internet is to be suspicious of strangers.
First, don’t trust emails from people you never met, especially those that ask
you to click a link, open an attachment or send a file to the sender.
It’s pretty easy to spot phishing
emails. What gives most of the away is the urgency with which they ask you to
do something, either because your account may be compromised or your online
purchase may have encountered some issue
you need to sort.
To fool the potential victims,
the latest trend in e-crime is to deploy spear phishing attacks, where emails
appear to come from well-known individuals or banking authority.
But in order for a spear phishing
attack to be successful, it needs to appear as genuine and believable. So they
launch an elaborate identity theft operation to target and steal your sensitive
information.
So when you do get a phishing email,
ignore it completely and:
- ·
don’t reply to the e-mail
- ·
don’t click the (malicious) attachment
- ·
don’t click the dangerous links in the e-mail
that could download malware on the system
3. Don’t
click that link or online ad
You found a pretty cool link on
the Internet and it keeps tempting you to click it. But the source of the link
(website or email) seems fishy. You ask yourself: What can the bad guys do to
me if I click this link?
The answer is simple: a lot of
things could go wrong.
Just by clicking a link in an
email or a pop-up window, you could turn your PC into a botnet slave, allow
cybercriminals to inject malware into your device, or expose your personal
information.
You may think that you are safe
from all these dangers because you have a good antivirus product, but nowadays
traditional antivirus protection isn’t enough anymore and you need additional
weapons in the fight against online dangers.
4. Just
because it’s free, it doesn’t mean it’s safe
As a rule of thumb, paid software
is almost always secure and safe. It wouldn’t make sense for a cybercriminal to
limit the number of victims by imposing a paywall.
Double check free software using
Google, especially if it’s not a well-known one, such as WinRAR.
This filtering process can expose
bad reviews, or reveal that the free software is actually a vehicle for
malware.
While the free software itself
might be safe and legit, the website itself may try to compromise your security
through drive-by downloads. These are secret downloads carried in the
background, that target software vulnerabilities and system exploits.
Make sure you use a trusted, free
program that automatically updates your vulnerable software applications to
close security holes in your system.
5. Do not reveal sensitive information online
Social media is the first place
criminals check to gather information on you. They will use any piece of
information they can find, such as your name, birthdate, address, city, your
spouse/partners name, what sort of pet you have, name of the pet. Literally, anything
that you can think of.
Improving your social media
security settings is a good first step in preventing an identity theft or
doxxing.
So, be a bit skeptical about
people you meet online and about their intentions. Many people exaggerate their
Facebook lives, and depending on how you use it, social media may come back to
haunt you.
6. Keep your account information for yourself
Our credentials for online
accounts, user names and passwords, hold the keys to a lot of important
information, and for that reason they are the most sought after targets by
cybercriminals.
Using the same password for more
than one site is a risky move, since if a malicious hacker breaks into just one
account, he can then take over the others.
One of the better online safety
tips is to use a different password for every website you register. The
downside however is the difficulty of memorizing them. One workaround is to use
password managers, these will remember the login details of every site you use
and can even generate some strong password for you use.
The one we recommend the most,
both for its features and ease of use, is LastPass. You will only need to
remember the master password for LastPass itself.
7. Report illegal activities or offending content
If you notice offending language
attacks, like cyber-bullying, hate speech or any form of harassment, do not
hesitate to report it.
Using the “Flag as offensive” or
“Flag as spam” buttons is proper internet etiquette and should be sufficient to
fight back against minor online threats, but other types of content, such child
pornography or arms trafficking should be immediately reported to the police.
Reporting cyberbullying is takes
on a different importance when children are the targets.
A report on cyber bullying on
2014 gives the following troublesome conclusions:
- ·
25% of teenagers report that they have
experienced repeated bullying
- ·
52% off young people report being cyber bullied
- ·
95% of teens who witnessed bullying on social
media report they have ignored the behavior
- ·
cyber bullying affects everyone
- ·
the most common types of cyber bullying tactics
reported are mean, hurtful comments.
So, if you see it, report it. The
consequences for cyberbullying can be quite severe, depending on the victim. In
rare cases, cyberbullying has been known to push peole into suicide. That’s why
it’s so important to report it when children are involved.
8. What you post online stays online forever
We post photos, remarks, location
updates and similar content, which we think is fine because we use an anonymous
username on a small niche forum.
But niche forums are also indexed
by search results, and if you reuse the username, other people can start to
connect the dots.
This is called doxxing, where
people hunt for information about an internet user until they manage to figure
out who they are in real life.
And you may think that your posts
and comments are usually ignored or don’t receive much attention, but they
still remain there and you never know when they come back at you. Not to
mention the fact that search engines save and classify your content on so many
online servers.
But if you live in the EU, you
benefit from a so called “right to be forgotten”, which will prevent search
engines from showing things about your past. Here’s how you can benefit from
this right.
To keep it short, when it comes
to posting personal content on forums and similar places, follow these
guidelines:
- ·
is this information too personal?
- ·
delete/edit past posts which reveal too much
about you
- ·
could your content affect your personal or
professional life in the future?
9. Use
antivirus protection before you go online
Don’t go online until you have
the best antivirus protection that money can buy.
You may think that avoiding adult
websites and that sort of thing will keep you safe, but did you know that
hackers now hide malicious code even in legitimate websites?
And sometimes not even that is
enough. Some ransomware programs are so sophisticated, it is technologically
impossible to decrypt them, no matter how much you try.
And in this case, you really need
the best tools out there. Heck, some of them are even free.
Though antivirus is still
important for our online safety, as Brian Krebs said it:
“Anti-virus is a poor substitute
for common sense.”
10. Create back-up copies for your important stuff
Though you may have all the
security protection in the world, disaster may still hit your system and your
valuable files.
It may be a system crash, a hard
disk failure, a ransomware attack that encrypts your entire operating system or
it may be a human mistake.
There are so many reasons
something can go wrong for you and your sensitive information, even if you
followed all the netiquette rules in the book.
To emphasize the importance of
this point, we can tell you that a while ago we interviewed a series of
security experts in the IT industry, and one recurring theme was the importance
of backing up your information.
