How can I protect myself while online? Verify data is encrypted

When sending confidential information over the Internet such as usernames, passwords, or credit card numbers only send it securely. To verify this look for a small lock () in the bottom right corner of your browser window or next to the address bar (as shown below). If visible, this lock should also be in the locked position and not unlocked.

Internet Explorer 7 secure address bar

We also suggest making sure the URL begins with https as shown above.

While the lock is in the lock position, data is encrypted, which helps anyone from understanding the data if it's intercepted. When no lock is visible or in the unlocked position all information is plaintext and if intercepted could be read. If a web page is not secure, such as an online forum, use a password you wouldn't use with protected sites such as your online banking website.

E-mail is not encrypted

Websites should not transmit confidential data over e-mail, such as passwords, credit card information, etc. E-mail is not encrypted and if intercepted by a third-party could be read.

Be aware of phishing scams

Familiarized yourself with phishing scams and techniques, which are used to trick you into divulging your account information. Online banking sites, Paypal, eBay, Amazon, and other popular sites that require logins are popular targets.

Use a safe password

Websites that store confidential data, such as an online bank site need to use strong passwords. Also, it is highly recommended that you use a different password for each website that requires a login. If you need help remembering your passwords consider using a password manager.

Use caution when accepting or agreeing to prompts

When prompted to install any program or add-on make sure to read and understand the agreement before clicking on the Ok button. If you do not understand the agreement or feel it is not necessary to install the program cancel or close the window.

Additionally, when installing any program watch for any check box that asks if it's ok to install a third-party program, toolbar, etc. These are never required and often cause more issues than good. Leave these boxes unchecked.

Be cautious where you're logging in from

Business

Your place of work can install key loggers or use other methods of monitoring the computer while online. Someone who has access to this information could read these logs and gather usernames and passwords. Also, do not store any passwords in your browser if your computer is shared with other coworkers.

Wireless network

When on a wireless network realize that all information being sent to and from your computer can be intercepted and read by someone nearby. Prevent this from happening by only logging into a secure network using WEP or WPA. If this is a home wireless network, make sure it is secure.

Friends house

Be concerned when logging into an account from a friends computer. A computer or network you are not familiar with could intentionally or unintentionally log usernames and passwords. Finally, when logging into any site on a friends computer never save the password information on their browser.

Be aware of those around you

While at work, school, library, or anywhere that has people around who could look at the monitor be cautious of anyone shoulder surfing. Someone could watch you type in your password, which would give them access to your account.

If you need everything displayed on the screen to remain private, consider a privacy filter for the display.

Update Internet browser plugins

Often many attackers find security vulnerabilities through browser plugins such as Adobe Flash. Make sure all installed Internet plug-ins are up-to-date.

Secure saved passwords

Make sure to store passwords and login information in a secure area. Never write login information on a sticky note or in a text file that is not encrypted.

To save your passwords we recommend using a password manager, which stores all login information and securely encrypts and password protects that information.

When saving password information in a browser, it may be visible by anyone who has access to your Internet browser. For example, without a master password setup in Firefox anyone can see all stored passwords.

Use a third-party service to confirm the safety and security of a page

We recommend the free Web of Trust (WOT) tool to verify the safety of all websites on the Internet.

Malwarebytes

Sometimes abbreviated as MBAM, which is short for Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is an excellent software utility program that is designed to scan your computer for any Malware and clean that malware if found. This program can be used in conjunction with your antivirus program and can help detect any threats to your computer that an antivirus program may have missed.

• The official Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware web page can be found at: http://www.malwarebytes.org
• How can I protect myself while online?

ROOT

1. Alternatively referred to as an admin, administrator, and gatekeeper, root is a superuser on a computer or network and has complete control. See our Administrator definition for a full explanation.

2. The root or root directory is also the highest level in a directory hierarchy. For example, in MS-DOS, the root or root directory of the primary hard drive would C:\. When working on a web page the root directory will be your home directory or your public_html directory.

• MS-DOS help and support.
• Users in the Microsoft recovery console can set the current directory to the system root directory by using the systemroot command.

3. Root is also an ability, effect, or spell in computer games that locks a target in place. For example, in the game World of Warcraft the Mage class has a spell called Frost Nova that freezes an enemy in place for a few seconds.

How much is 1 byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, etc.?

Below is a list of each of the accepted disk drive space values. It is important to realize that not all manufacturers and developers use binary base 2. For example, a manufacturer may consider a gigabyte as 1,000,000,000 bytes and not 1,073,741,824 bytes. For this page we are listing all values in their base 2 values.

Note: All values are whole numbers, which means a GB shows it can only contain one 650MB CD, but 1GB could hold 1.5753... of a 650MB CD. Since we created this document to illustrate how much each value can contain in whole, no decimal values are shown. In other words, you can only fit one complete 650MB CD on a 1GB drive since two full 650MB discs exceed 1GB.

Tip: With the exception of a bit and a nibble, all values explained below are in bytes and not bits. For example, a Kilobyte (KB) is different than a Kilobit (Kb). When referring to storage, bytes are used, when referring to transmission speeds bits are used.

Bit

A bit is a value of either a 1 or 0 (on or off).

Nibble

A Nibble is 4 bits.

Byte

Today a Byte is 8 bits.

• 1 character, e.g. "a" is one byte.

Kilobyte (KB)

A Kilobyte is 1,024 bytes.

• 2 or 3 paragraphs of text.

Megabyte (MB)

A Megabyte is 1,048,576 bytes or 1,024 Kilobytes

• 873 pages of plaintext (1,200 characters)
• 4 books (200 pages or 240,000 characters)

Gigabyte (GB)

A Gigabyte is 1,073,741,824 (2³⁰) bytes. 1,024 Megabytes, or 1,048,576 Kilobytes.

• 894,784 pages of plaintext (1,200 characters)
• 4,473 books (200 pages or 240,000 characters)
• 640 web pages (with 1.6MB average file size)
• 341 digital pictures (with 3MB average file size)
• 256 MP3 audio files (with 4MB average file size)
• 1 650MB CD

Terabyte (TB)

A Terabyte is 1,099,511,627,776 (2⁴⁰) bytes, 1,024 Gigabytes, or 1,048,576 Megabytes.

• 916,259,689 pages of plaintext (1,200 characters)
• 4,581,298 books (200 pages or 240,000 characters)
• 655,360 web pages (with 1.6MB average file size)
• 349,525 digital pictures (with 3MB average file size)
• 262,144 MP3 audio files (with 4MB average file size)
• 1,613 650MB CD's
• 233 4.38GB DVD's
• 40 25GB Blu-ray discs

Petabyte (PB)

A Petabyte is 1,125,899,906,842,624 (2⁵⁰) bytes, 1,024 Terabytes, 1,048,576 Gigabytes, or 1,073,741,824 Megabytes.

• 938,249,922,368 pages of plaintext (1,200 characters)
• 4,691,249,611 books (200 pages or 240,000 characters)
• 671,088,640 web pages (with 1.6MB average file size)
• 357,913,941 digital pictures (with 3MB average file size)
• 268,435,456 MP3 audio files (with 4MB average file size)
• 1,651,910 650MB CD's
• 239,400 4.38GB DVD's
• 41,943 25GB Blu-ray discs

Exabyte (EB)

An Exabyte is 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 (2⁶⁰) bytes, 1,024 Petabytes, 1,048,576 Terabytes, 1,073,741,824 Gigabytes, or 1,099,511,627,776 Megabytes.

• 960,767,920,505,705 pages of plaintext (1,200 characters)
• 4,803,839,602,528 books (200 pages or 240,000 characters)
• 687,194,767,360 web pages (with 1.6MB average file size)
• 366,503,875,925 digital pictures (with 3MB average file size)
• 274,877,906,944 MP3 audio files (with 4MB average file size)
• 1,691,556,350 650MB CD's
• 245,146,535 4.38GB DVD's
• 42,949,672 25GB Blu-ray discs

Zettabyte (ZB)

A Zettabyte is 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424 (2⁷⁰) bytes, 1,024 Exabytes, 1,048,576 Petabytes, 1,073,741,824 Terabytes, 1,099,511,627,776 Gigabytes, or 1,125,899,910,000,000 Megabytes.

• 983,826,350,597,842,752 pages of plaintext (1,200 characters)
• 4,919,131,752,989,213 books (200 pages or 240,000 characters)
• 703,687,443,750,000 web pages (with 1.6MB average file size)
• 375,299,970,000,000 digital pictures (with 3MB average file size)
• 281,474,977,500,000 MP3 audio files (with 4MB average file size)
• 1,732,153,707,691 650MB CD's
• 251,030,052,003 4.38GB DVD's
• 43,980,465,111 25GB Blu-ray discs

Yottabyte (YB)

A Yottabyte is 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 (2⁸⁰) bytes, 1,024 Zettabytes, 1,048,576 Exabytes, 1,073,741,824 Petabytes, 1,099,511,627,776 Terabytes, 1,125,899,910,000,000 Gigabytes, or 1,152,921,500,000,000,000 Megabytes.

• 1,007,438,183,012,190,978,921 pages of plaintext (1,200 characters)
• 5,037,190,915,060,954,894 books (200 pages or 240,000 characters)
• 720,575,937,500,000,000 web pages (with 1.6MB average file size)
• 384,307,166,666,666,666 digital pictures (with 3MB average file size)
• 288,230,375,000,000,000 MP3 audio files (with 4MB average file size)
• 1,773,725,384,615,384 650MB CD's
• 257,054,773,251,740 4.38GB DVD's
• 45,035,996,273,704 25GB Blu-ray discs

How are you calculating the above values?

To calculate the above values is simple once you know the values of each of the above sizes. For example, in the above example we know that 1 gigabyte is equal to 1,024 Megabytes. Therefore to determine how many 4MB MP3 files are in a Gigabyte, we take 1,024 / 4 which equals 256 or 256 4MB MP3 files in one gigabyte.

software

Sometimes abbreviated as SW and S/W, software is a collection of instructions that enable the user to interact with a computer or have it perform specific tasks for them. Without software, computers would be useless. For example, without your Internet browser software you would be unable to surf the Internet or read this page and without a software operating system the browser would not be able to run on your computer. In the picture is a Microsoft Excel software box and an example of a software program.

How do you get software?

Software can be purchased at a local retail computer store or online, usually in a box that contains all the disks (floppy diskette, CD, DVD, or Blu-ray) required for the program, manuals, warranty, and other necessary documentation.

Software can also be downloaded to a computer over the Internet. Once downloaded, setup files can be run to start the installation of the program on your computer.

Free software

In addition to purchasing software, there are also millions of free software programs available that are broken into different types of categories.

• Shareware or trial software is software that gives you a few days to try the software before you buy the program. After the trial time expires you'll be asked to enter a code or to register the product before you can continue to use it.
• Freeware is completely free software that never requires payment as long as its not modified.
• Open source software is like freeware but not only is the program given away, but the source code used to make the program is as well, allowing anyone to modify the program or view how it was created.

How is software created?

A computer programmer or several computer programmers write the instructions using a programming language that tell the software how to work. Once the program has been completed it is compiled into a language that the computer can understand.

Browser

A software program that allows a person to explore the Internet in an easy to use way. Navigating the Internet through a series of links the user can browse the Internet. Examples of popular browsers are Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Opera. The picture is of the Google Chrome browser and a good example of a browser. Each browser has a navigation toolbar, like the ones shown below that help also illustrate how the Internet browser toolbar has changed over the history of Internet browsers. This navigation bar is the most essential portion of the browser and will always at least contain the Back arrows and address bar.

Overview of browser bar buttons and options

As can be seen by the above picture, over the evolution of the Internet browser the buttons and options have changed. With this in mind, understand that some of the options mentioned below may not be visible in your browser.

Back - Used to visit the previous page that referred you to the page you are currently located at. This button is the button you'll use most while browsing on the Internet and as shown above is a large arrow pointing to the left.

• Why does my Internet back button sometimes not work?
• Creating an HTML back button.

Forward - Like the back button this button moves you forward a page, if you have gone back first. If you have not gone back and your browser shows a forward button, it will be grayed out, as shown above.

• Tip: Hold down the Ctrl key while pressing the left arrow to go back or the right arrow to go forward.

Stop - Stop the loading of a website, this button may need to be used if the page is taking too long to load or encountering problems.

• Tip: Press their esc key at any time to stop loading a page.

Refresh (Reload) - Most Internet browsers cache web pages, so you do not have to download the full page each time you visit the same site. On some pages, you may want to refresh the browser to get the latest version. This button can also be used to reload a page that has been aborted because of an error.

• Tip: Press the F5 key or Ctrl + R to refresh the page from the keyboard.

Home - Go back to your default web page. This is the same page that loads when your browser loads.

• How to change my browser's home page.
• How to make Computer Hope your home page.

Search - Open your default search page or search for text found in the Address or URL text field. Today's browser have a search bar integrated into the search engine and can also use the address bar as a search bar.

Favorites - View or visit a website in your favorites list. The term "Favorites" is used with Microsoft Internet Explorer, in other browsers this may be known as book marks or a hotlist.

Print - Print the page you're visiting. If you don't see a print button, it can also be accessed by clicking on the "File" drop down menu or pressing Ctrl + P on the keyboard.

Font (Size) - Increase or Decrease the size of a font.

• Tip: Holding down the Ctrl key and pressing either the + or - on the top of the keyboard also increases and decreases the font.

Mail - Open your e-mail program.

Edit - Edit the web page you are currently viewing in an HTML editor. Today, no longer found in browsers.

Full Screen - Make the browser window full screen removing all of the toolbars. Often this option is entered and exited by pressing the F11 key on your keyboard.

History - View the history of pages that have been visited since the browser history was last cleared or created.

• Tip: The shortcut key for history for most browsers is Ctrl+H.

Operating system

An operating system or OS is a software program that enables the computer hardware to communicate and operate with the computer software. Without a computer operating system, a computer and software programs would be useless. The picture is an example of Microsoft Windows XP, a popular operating system and what the box may look like if you were to visit a local retail store to purchase it.

When computers were first introduced the user interacted with them using a command line interface, which required the user to perform a series of commands in order to interact with the computer and its hardware and software. Today, almost every computer is using a Graphical User Interface (GUI) operating system that is much easier to use and operate.

Examples of computer operating systems

Microsoft Windows 7 - PC and IBM compatible operating system. Microsoft Windows is the most commonly found and used operating system.
Apple MacOS - Apple computer operating system. The only Apple computer operating system.
Ubuntu Linux - A popular variant of Linux used with PC and IBM compatible computers.
Google Android - operating system used with Android compatible phones.
iOS - Operating system used with the Apple iPhone.