by Caren Hannon

Created on: February 26, 2009

Egold is a way of transferring money digitally and has grown in popularity over the past years. Various Work At Home websites use E-gold as a form of currency, and some stores will even accept it. When such importance is put on a web service, it is important to know how to protect yourself.

Here is a list of tips to ensure your account will not get hacked

1) Never click links in your email. Links can contain viruses and worms that can steal information. Pay special attention not to click links supposedly from eGold. It is best to open a new tab and go to the website directly. If you accidentally clicked a link, clear all cache and cookies, restart your browser, go to the website, and change your password ASAP.

2) Never fill out a form in your email. You never know what the form maker is truly using your data for.

*Note: While it does say "never", if you truly trust an email it can be fine. Just use your good judgment.

3) If you are trying to log into eGold, check that there is a security lock on your browser. If there isn't one, you may be on a fake website designed to look exactly like the real one. If there is one, double click on the browser's security padlock to check out if the security encryption can be trusted.

4) Update your OS, browsers, firewall, and antivirus as often as possible. There are various security issues in OS's that are taken advantage of by hackers. Updating will fix these issues as they're being discovered. Always have your firewall and antivirus (and antispyware if you have a separate.

5) Be careful what you download. Always read program reviews before installing them. A programmer can easily write a code to steal your data.

6) Use a secure browser. Internet Explorer is not secure. Firefox, Opera, and Chrome are secure.

7) Pick a great password. It should not be similar to your username, real name, or email address. It should have at least one digit and one special character. You can check your password's strength on this site.

8) Turn off the internet connection if you can. Another way to get your passwords would be to hack your computer directly. Keeping your computer offline when you don't need the internet will protect it from being hacked to some extent.

9) Do not talk with people you don't know on messengers. Do not click any links or download anything they give you, especially if they know you have an e-gold account

10) If you use Firefox, using the extensions Adblock or Noscript will allow you greater control of what websites you allow for javascript and flash coding.

11) If you are buying using an eGold account, check that the website itself is secure. Doing a google search of the website's name (along with other keywords like "review" or "scam") will allow you to become more informed

External links:

Links you should definitely read if you want to learn more advanced ways of protecting yourself.

http://www.e-gold.com/security.html

http://www.hyipexplorer.com/articles/ways_protect_e- gold/

http://security.web.cern.ch/security/passwords/

Learn more about this author, Caren Hannon.
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