In this day and age of hacking, scams and security breaches of personal information, en masse, protecting oneself online is a necessary part of using the Internet responsibly. For older people, Internet security can be seen as the domain of young people. However, being safe and secure online needs to be everybody’s business.
The aim of this Chapter is to provide some basic information on how one can stay private and safe on the Internet. This includes information about how to maintain one’s privacy in regard to where in the world a particular person might live (or be going online from), how to ensure that one’s emails remain confidential, the privacy one needs to visit websites that you want to remain your personal business and how to carry out online payments (for anything) in a way that is secure, private and cannot be compromised by Internet scammers.
The issues covered in this Chapter include:
• Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) • Email Encryption • The Tor Browser • Tails • Bitcoin • Tumbler