It’s a Hack Attack. As some may be aware Burger King and Jeep’s Twitter accounts were both hacked a few days ago. The hackers that took control of the accounts tweeted things like Burger King or Jeep had been sold to a rival company, and wrote tweets that contained profanity.

While hackers have been around since the birth of the internet, this recent attack should serve as a warning to everyone, big company and average Joe alike, about being safe while surfing the internet.

If big companies like Jeep or Burger King who are supposed to have paid techies monitoring these types of things can easily get hacked, who’s to say the average person isn’t just as or even more vulnerable.

For those who don’t know what to do about internet security or just don’t feel they are doing enough, there is no need to worry here are some hints and tips on how to be a little safer while surfing the net.

For starters, get an anti-virus program. They are not hard to find nowadays; some good ones are even free. For example Avast! Antivirus is a free antivirus program that works well and is updated to scan for the latest viruses frequently. Make sure to actively run or schedule virus scans every so often because a virus or spyware could be inside programs you initially thought to be safe.

If you log on to a computer anywhere but home, say a library or cybercafé, always remember to log out of whatever website you logged onto: Twitter, Facebook, email, or even a school website. The last thing you want to see next time you log on to your Facebook is a post from you that you did not write badmouthing your friends on that site.

A big no-no is opening emails from people you do not know, just scrap them or be sure to read the subject line if it’s from someone you know. Mail from a friend or family member could turn out to from a hacker if they themselves have been hacked.

Some emails sent from hackers have attachments that if downloaded will add harmful programs to your computer which could potentially do things like record every keystroke you make on your keyboard.

Most of the time, mail from random people turns out to be junk anyways, trust me the fake prince of Zimbabwe will never pay you back tenfold the $2500 he’s asking you to wire him today.

Changing your email accounts password every couple of months is also a good idea, doing so would keep hackers out if they have your password and haven’t tried accessing your account yet.

Also try not to use one password for everything, if hackers get your one treasured password, they will have access to all the websites that you use said password on.

Follow these tips and you will be a tad bit safer while surfing the net. Trust me, having some random person dredging through your personal files or pretending to be you on your social media account is a terrifying and annoying problem to fix.