Phishing? No thanks, I'm vegetarian.

For the final lesson, The Dark Side of the Web-Internet Malware, I am glad for this lesson as I think many people could use this information. Even people who use the internet daily, such as myself, could use a few reminders on what is out there. The methods by hackers continue to change, so it's important for us to keep us on our toes.

Pretty much anyone with an e-mail account is subject to a phish scam. One way to prevent getting these e-mails in the first place is to have multiple e-mails used for different purposes. For example, I have an e-mail account I generally use only for online shopping, another for correspondence with friends, and another for more professional correspondence. Having multiple e-mail accounts can help you organise your e-mails, so if you receive some sort of "Hey there!" e-mail on your account which you use for shopping, you ought to know to delete it right away. I also try to avoid joining mailing lists to reduce the amount of e-mail in my inbox.

Really, if any website wants any information aside from my e-mail, even my real name, I am reluctant share the information unless it is a website I trust. If it's a financial transaction, I have now been avoiding using Internet Explorer because of the high risk of being hacked (see this article on Internet Explorer's major security flaw). Instead, I wait until I go home to use Safari, which is much more secure. You can download Safari for free for your Mac or PC. It has a built-in RSS, too, and web designers prefer Safari to Internet Explorer. Mozilla Firefox is another good web browser to use instead of Internet Explorer, and it is also available for free to download onto your Mac or PC. Like Safari, you can also use the browser to subscribe to RSS feeds.

I subscribe to RSS feeds with iTunes, getting subscriptions to The Monocle Weekly, Scotland Introducing of BBC Radio Scotland, and NPR's All Songs Considered, among others. I have only just recently subscribed to these shows, since I don't often have the time to listen to my podcasts, but at least they're in my queue.

And that's that! Hopefully, this entry will mark me as done with Learn 2.1.