Cybercrime has now outpaced drug crimes in profit, with hackers making over 600 billion dollars in revenue, compared to drug dealers pulling in 400 billion.
These crimes often start from a very simple place: unsecured websites. Stealing information over the web is easy if users don’t take the necessary precautions.
However, learning what these precautions are and how to avoid websites that are unsafe is also easy.
So read this guide carefully to know how to protect yourself and anyone who might use your website.
1. Unsecured Websites Usually Don’t Use HTTPS
if you’ve ever looked at the URL of a website, you’ll have noticed some start with HTTP or HTTPS.
To learn how to tell if a website is safe, just check if it has HTTP or HTTPS at the beginning. If it’s one of the harmful websites, then it’ll have HTTP first.
This is because HTTP websites do not have an encrypted connection between the server and the browser.
This is also why Google gave competitive priority to websites that use HTTPS, and why websites still using HTTP are outdated.
2. Make Sure The Lock Icon is There
At the far left corner of your URL, there should be an icon that looks like a locked padlock. If that is there, it should tell you that the website you’re using is https.
3. Look For an Unsafe Website Warning
These days, many browsers will warn you outright that the link you are about to click on leads to a website that is not safe.
A big part of learning how to know if a website is safe is by heeding these warnings.
4. Read The Website URL Carefully
Even if your anti-virus is on and you’ve enabled safety plugins on your browser, there are still some harmful websites that might slip through the cracks.
Some of these sites will be designed exactly the same way the popular version of it is. Make sure that when you go to facebook.com or google, that there are no spelling errors like facbook.com for example.
6. If Something Seems Too Good to be True, It Probably Is
This obviously applies to pop-ups that just randomly show up in your browser, but it also applies to ads on foreign websites offering a two for one deal on something that’s usually very hard to get.
Cybersecurity Is For Everyone
Now that the world is well entrenched in the digital age, knowing the basics and some of the more advanced topics on cybersecurity is paramount.
Even slightly unsecured websites leave your doors wide open for an attack by a cyber-criminal.
So do the right thing and make sure you follow these tips and consult professional web designers when building your website.