Since the creation of the internet, it been harder to know if a website is secure as security has been increasingly difficult to maintain. The internet is a fantastic tool that enables you to access vast amounts of information at your fingertips, but when used carelessly makes you vulnerable to attacks from other internet users. This is why it is paramount to know whether a website is secure. Something you don’t want to do is give all your sensitive information to a website that is insecure, as it makes you susceptible to attacks from malicious users.
SSL Certificates
The first way to check if a website is secure is to check whether it has an SSL certificate. SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. This ensures that all your communications to the website are protected by encrypting the data sent and received. This improves internet security because if your data is intercepted by an unwanted 3rd party (a malicious attacker) they won’t be able to steal your data, as they won’t be able to understand it and will be unable to decrypt it without the key.
How do I know if a website has an SSL certificate? You may ask. Well, all you have to do is look in the top left of your web browser and on the left-hand side of your search bar. You should see a padlock. If the padlock is present, the website uses an SSL certificate to encrypt communications, if not, the website isn’t secure and no sensitive information should be entered under any circumstance.
Modernity
Another way to check if a website is trustworthy is to inspect how modern the website is. This isn’t to say that if a website isn’t built with all the bells and whistles and doesn’t include cutting-edge technology you shouldn’t use it. What I mean is that older websites aren’t likely to have been updated to include the latest and most secure security software. Outdated security software is vulnerable to attacks from malicious users and can put your sensitive information at risk. So avoiding older-looking websites isn’t an elitist thing to do, it is an important thing to consider when trying to navigate the web safely and securely.
URL
The next thing to look out for if you are uncertain of a website’s trustworthiness is its URL. If you aren’t sure, the URL is the long string of text found at the top of your web browser that leads to the website that you are currently on. Many people who try to cause harm to you on the internet will attempt to trick you into entering your sensitive information by attempting to recreate websites that you would usually trust. They do this by creating slight changes in the URL so that you are unlikely to notice the difference between the real website and their fake one. For example “Amazon.com” instead of “amazon.com” or “styl1stIcdesign.com” instead of “stylisticdesign.com”. They’re very subtle, but effective changes, and often, by the time you realise this, it’s too late. So when visiting any website, it is important to ensure that the URL is legitimate and doesn’t contain any discrepancies.
Hopefully, these tips will help ensure that you are safe on the internet and that the worse never happens to your sensitive information online. Stay safe!