Did you know tomorrow is Safer Internet Day? Expert provides internet safety tips

SALT LAKE CITY — Tomorrow is reportedly Safer Internet Day, however, the founder of a local service provider, said he hasn’t heard of it. In honor of the day, he provided some internet safety tips. 

“That’s nice. I’m sure somebody has declared it somewhere but it’s news to me that it’s gonna be safe internet day. it’s gonna be a big relief for us because we are constantly looking at security,” said Pete Ashdown, the CEO and founder of X-Mission. 

According to the website for Safer Internet Day, the goal of the day is to raise awareness about the importance of internet safety. It occurs worldwide each February, falling on the sixth this year. 

According to its website, the day began in 2004, as an initiative of the EU SafeBorders project. Today, it is celebrated in “approximately 190 countries.”

Internet safety

According to Ashdown, there is one rule when it comes to the internet. 

“You can’t trust anything on the internet. You know the old Ronald Reagan saying ‘trust but verify,'” said Ashdown. 

Never give out your personal information online. Always read the terms and conditions when signing up for an account.

Additionally, you should never enter your financial information, such as credit card numbers, into an unsecured website. The Security National Bank of South Dakota said that you can verify that a website is secured by looking for a padlock icon or https:// prefix in the address bar.  

Secondly, Ashdown recommended using passphrases instead of passwords. Passphrases have the potential to be stronger than passwords because they are longer and often more memorable, per the University of Iowa’s IT services website. 

Ashdown also recommended keeping at least two backup copies of every file and ensuring your browsers are up to date. 

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