With everything we do as students now being mostly online, including our social media, schoolwork, and private information such as banking on our cell phones, it is necessary we realize the importance of practicing internet safety. It has been drilled into the brain of every Gen Z child to be careful on the internet and not talk to strangers or give out personal information, but with the amount of technology implemented in our lives today, there are definitely more steps needed to be taking to ensure we are safe and secure.

Schools often fall victim to email hacking that comes from clicking on the mysterious links that seem to be legit. This is where the first important step comes into play: do not click unless you know it is legit. This can happen on almost any website, with ads claiming to update your flash player or download a PDF. It is extremely important that you think twice before clicking around because you never know what kind of software could be downloaded to you device.

Another important tip is to use complicated passwords and try to use a variety of them. If you use your birthday as your password for every single account, all it takes is one hacker to guess right, and then, they have access to everything you do online. Use complicated passwords, spice them up with an ‘!’ or ‘@’ and some uppercase/lowercase combinations. The stronger the password, the harder it will be for hackers to figure it out on the first try. Always keep a secure log of these passwords for reference if you forget and need to get back into an account.

When it comes to the internet, there are so many things out of our control. We need to ensure that as we continue to perform majority of our daily life through the computer screen, we are being safe and protected in everything we do.