Public Wi-Fi spots are free to use and available across the country. So you can easily connect and enjoy seamless browsing on the go. However, these connections are not completely secured and can easily be hacked by scammers and phishing sites. But you can ensure your browsing experience is safe and not vulnerable to online attacks in a few ways. Here are a few tips to secure your computer while accessing public Wi-Fi hotspots: Pick a secure network Don’t just click on the first Wi-Fi hotspot that shows up in the phone menu. Pick the correct network name if it’s at a coffee shop, as scammers and hackers duplicate these names. However, you should be able to spot the spelling mistakes in these decoy networks and avoid opening such links at all costs. Ask for the official Wi-Fi names at these places, and only then connect to a secure encryption network. Use a VPN A Virtual Provider Network (VPN) connection is one of the best ways to prevent hackers and scammers from publicly accessing your computer’s IP. A VPN is software that masks the real IP address of the computer connected to a public network by rerouting the connection to a private server. So, the real address is not visible as long as the VPN is active. Most premium VPNs provide access to servers across the globe. Configure device settings Laptops, smartphones, and smart tablets are all, by default, configured to locate and select the first available network on a public Wi-Fi hotspot. However, this is how scammers and hackers can quickly gain unauthorized access to your computer. Change the default discovery settings and disable these options. You should always manually choose the preferably password-protected network only after turning on the VPN software. These three simple steps ensure the connection remains private and safe.

From researching topics to paying bills and shopping on e-commerce sites, a maximum number of people rely on the Internet to fulfill their essential daily activities. To aid this, buying home internet plans from reliable companies can help ensure speedy internet connection at affordable rates. And Black Friday allows individuals to avail of lucrative offers on the best internet deals. So, here are some Internet deals one is likely to come across this Black Friday: Internet Deals for Business Today, most industries rely extensively on the Internet to complete business operations. Thus, offices must install a fast and secure internet connection to increase their employees’ productivity. Here are some brands likely to offer business internet deals this year. Verizon Verizon offers premium business internet packages enabling quick, affordable, and reliable internet connection for companies. It entails 5G, Fios, and LTE internet options with distinct package plans and prices. The company is known for offering some of the best internet deals during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It will likely offer discounts on its business internet deals during Black Friday 2023. AT&T This telecommunications company offers fast-fiber internet service and has built-in backup systems to prevent long outages. With an excellent customer service system, this broadband is ideal to be installed in companies. Owing to the brand’s popularity, AT&T internet plans will likely be offered on sale this Black Friday. Aruba Instant On Aruba Instant On prides itself on the always-on Wi-Fi network that allows companies to take charge of their business operations without fearing internet outages. The router is easy to set up and is affordable and scalable for businesses. Aruba Instant On typically discounts its products and services during the annual shopping seasons; thus, it will likely offer discounts on its business internet plans this year. Comcast Business Comcast, the parent company of Xfinity, offers customized internet plans for businesses and download speeds of up to 1.25 Gbps.

Black Friday brings deals and savings not only on electronics and fashion items but also on internet plans. Whether one is in search of lightning-fast 5G internet or a connection for home Wi-Fi, service providers offer deals on all plans during this annual sale. Although Black Friday 2023 is still a few months away, and the deals are not yet live, one can get an idea of what to expect by looking at last year’s deals.  5G Internet deals Previous year’s Black Friday sale fanned the flames of the 5G revolution with remarkable deals. Industry giants like Verizon offered unbeatable offers that got users excited for this new age of high-speed internet. With better speeds, the 5G technology has paved the way for rapid downloads and seamless streaming. Whether browsing, gaming, or remote working, the 5G internet deals from last Black Friday made everything much more accessible. Here is the deal that got quite popular last year: Verizon’s 5G deal The 5G Home Plus plan was available at just around $35 a month. The requirement included the user to be living in an eligible area, and having one of Verizon’s unlimited 5G data plans enabled. Along with this deal, users would get an Amazon Echo Show 10 and access to Verizon Cloud Unlimited free of cost. Internet with home Wi-Fi deals With many switching to remote working, there has been a growing demand for Wi-Fi connectivity. Last year, there were truly grabworthy offers from brands like Xfinity and Metronaut. These deals met the growing demand for better connectivity across multiple devices within a home. Here are the top deals on internet connection with home Wi-Fi. Xfinity For last year’s Black Friday sale, Xfinity offered its internet plan with home Wi-Fi for around $55 a month for two years. It promised a download speed of up to 400 Mbps.

While the Internet is great for completing translations in record time, watching entertaining content on the go, and doing work online, it is also an easy space for scammers to dupe innocent people. The Internet is fraught with scammers and fraudsters who manipulate individuals to steal their identities and money. The article talks about a few money-making scams that one should know about and how to identify them in case one receives messages from scammers. Here are four such scams to watch out for: 1. Pyramid schemes The idea of a pyramid scheme is for one to participate in a program where an individual is promised unrealistic returns on investments that don’t exist. The initial investors make quite a bit of money and end up recruiting new people and selling investment products to others. The plan primarily relies on money from recruitment fees and not the number of products or services sold. Most pyramid schemes present themselves as multi-level marketing operations; however, legitimate multi-level marketing operations gain profits from selling goods and services to customers, which is not the case with pyramid schemes. 2. Job opportunity scams This is a major scam where an unsuspecting individual receives an unverified email offering a job, which is usually not in their area of expertise. Those who accept are paid through a money order or check for an amount greater than the scammer first offered. The fraudulent employer then asks to send back the difference. When one does this, they realize later that the check or money order was fake, and the money sent from their account to the scammer is no longer retrievable. One should avoid opening emails where the job offer is too good to be true and verify it directly with the respective company or authorities before accepting an offer.

The first few minutes, hours, and days following a cybercrime are often crucial for victims to recover their data and move on from the incident. Cyber blackmail, similar to hacking and other online crimes, tends to become a looping nightmare if not reported in a timely and proper way. People who experience a cyber-attack commonly make specific mistakes in a state of frenzy while reporting cyber blackmail. Here are a few of them to avoid: Not ceasing system activities that destroy blackmail evidence This mistake applies to a whole host of failed cyber-attack responses. The activities that destroy critical evidence for investigation departments include: Continued system usage after receiving a blackmail threat Multiple account lockouts due to multiple antivirus alerts Clicking on suspicious links Opening shady emails despite a cyber threat. Employees and desk staff not well-versed with cybersecurity protocols should pause all activities, including installing software, running antivirus or cleaning tools, or making various system adjustments. These activities can overwrite information that investigators may use as evidence of blackmail. To address this issue, the in-house staff of any organization must receive training to document any online activities. This documentation can be useful if those actions also become a part of the investigation. Nonexistent data The incident response process heavily depends on the pieces of evidence that an organization has saved after receiving a blackmail threat. A significant mistake is to complete a system reboot to ward off the threat. Unfortunately, this does nothing but erase the information the incident response team would have otherwise used to assess the impact, contain the cyber-attack damage within time, and track down the malicious element that set off the blackmail threat. As with the first point, evidence of an attack is the most valuable resource in the immediate aftermath of a cyber blackmail attack.