Female Self Defense When Cruising Cyberspace

Who knew that supposedly innocent flirting on the internet could lead to assault, stalking or even murder? While not a prevalent problem, many women have been targeted by criminals simply because of their presence on the internet, whether it is through a personal web page, message board or online chat rooms. There are plenty of things you can do to protect yourself in cyberspace and still stay relatively anonymous. These days, hi-tech crime is climbing fast and you do not want to become another statistic.

1. Your first line of defense would be to use a free email account for all your correspondence and activities when chatting online, through instant messengers or corresponding with someone you have never met but perhaps hope to meet at some point. A free email account is anonymous and cannot really be traced back to you. Reserve your personal or work emails for only specific types of business.

2. When visiting new websites for dating, chatting with friends or networking, always check their privacy policies. Some will plainly state that they sell your email or IP address to internet marketers. There are several globally recognized certified seals of approval when it comes to privacy protection of your information so look for these particular ones before signing onto the website: CPA WebTrust, BBBOnline, ePublicEye or TRUSTe.

3. If you plan to purchase a membership to a website or even purchase anything online, you need to check for the website's security measures before entering even one digit of credit card or bank account payment information. Look in the address line of your web browser to check for the closed padlock symbol which represents a secure site or even the "https" in the beginning of the URL address line.

4. Sort through your cookie files frequently and delete everything but what is stored for the websites you use with regularity. If necessary, you can change the filters in your web browser to alert you each and every time a website wants to store a cookie on your computer.

5. Invest in some personal firewall software which will help prevent hackers from getting into your computer or even hijacking your high speed internet connection. There are different kinds of firewall protection that can be purchased or downloaded for free so you must compare the different types to find what best suits your needs.

6. Check the specifications of your web browser. You want it to have at least 128-bit encryption for the latest in internet protection.

7. Change the parameters in your instant messaging software to accept only people who you have invited onto your buddy list with an invitation. This way you can screen the people you do not wish to correspond with online.

8. When you do not feel comfortable with some of the information a website asks for in a membership form, do not do it. There are certain pieces of information like your social security number and your driver's license number that are not needed. And if you do not want to share any phone numbers or emails, do not do it.

9. Do not sign up for any email alerts or newsletters unless you really and truly plan to read them. When your email box starts getting spammed, you will be tempted to click on the link within these emails that say "unsubscribe." Unfortunately, when you do that, your email get sold and you get even more spam.

Basically, the bottom line when protecting yourself on line is this: do not share personal information period. It is quite easy for stalkers to lurk in chat rooms and glean information about your life and log it in a diary. They will continue to collect facts until they have enough to hunt you down. It's a scary world out there and unfortunately you have to act as if something will happen to you in order to prevent that very thing from happening.