A Few Things To Watch Out For Online Before And After New Year 2021

Dangers lurk in many corners of the internet, mostly where you expect them the least. The ruse and disguise orchestrated by cyberattacks are often next-level craft that can thumb even the savviest in cybersecurity. Think about Solarwind, Twitter, and whatnots this year.

Just to show you how insane this is, SafeDNS web filtering blocks on average 27 million attacks daily!

If you are just a low-profile person, the probability of you becoming such a target is very low. Christmas is there, and you might (not) be at the wrong place and the wrong time, but since there is no recess in the world of cybersecurity, here are a few things to watch out for anyway.

What may happen to you

• You might scour the web to find a nice-looking watering can that you wish to offer to your relative for his/her garden.
• You might land on a web page offering you a crazy 45% discount, and unintentionally, fall into a malware snare behaving as such:

A pop-up window requiring you to click on or shut it.

A deceitful link prompting you to go to another page.

A clickable image or video that sends you to a malicious route.

• Perhaps, with cookies and retargeting, you might receive an email with another good deal.
• Then, malware may load onto your devices(PC, tablet, mobile, etc.) surreptitiously.
• Your computer might get infected and let your personal information in the open
• Finally, the malware might begin its deed of stealing personal data—credit card numbers, handles, and passwords— leading your browser to malicious sites, changing or deleting your files, harassing you with endless pop-ups, and slowing your devices even for the basic tasks on them (browsing, typing, etc.).

That’s a lot of ‘mights’, but it is not an exhaustive list, and this usually happens in a few minutes/seconds before cyber attacks. You may also want to reconsider some myths about cybersecurity as they might let you high and dry.

Sources of most attacks

Too much confidence in our capabilities and knowledge about online safety is often the first threat to it. On the other hand, you simply have unawareness. In any case, certain sites — like those on the recommended blocklist from the SafeDNS filtering dashboard in the picture above — are more prone to be sources of malicious attacks.

What you may do to prevent cyber attacks online

• It may sound fishy from a web filtering firm, but yes, use a web filter that blocks online-based threats at the DNS level — attacks often happen there, as several institutions do not think about analyzing domain lookups and responses to find network problems and malware infection. Most cybersecurity experts would have that in their top 3 solutions.

• Take advantage of your browser (Chrome, Mozilla, Safari, etc.) security settings. Sometimes a simple tweak from your browser can buy you time, but that’s not recommended to rely on it solely in the long run.

• Avoid shady websites and double-check trusted ones too.

• Exclusively download software from sources you trust.

• Meticulously assess free software and file-sharing applications before downloading them.

• Make sure that you have the most cost-effective solution installed on your home and business devices. You may also use SafeDNS Website Categorizer to understand what content might be available on a webpage.

• Please...update your operating system whenever available.

• To prevent phishing, type in the trusted URL of a company's site into the address bar of your browser to avoid link redirects from emails or instant messages.

Stay safe online with SafeDNS

Besides all dangerous or unwanted websites such as pornography, violence, child sexual abuse, and similar categories that SafeDNS restricts access to, malicious sites trying to breach user devices either with viruses or information theft intent are also blocked.

Additionally, SafeDNS offers a cloud-based filtering service that requires no additional hardware purchase or software installation to minimize your resource utilization.

If you need more knowledge about web filtering or information about SafeDNS features, you may visit our website or talk to our experts directly, and start for free whenever you are ready.