How to Know if a Website is Safe

Shopping
online is a growing fad and there are hundreds of sites that sell
virtually everything under the sun! But before you enter your credit
card number, happy at the thought of purchasing that expensive gadget at
an unbelievable price, check if the website is indeed as secure as it
appears to be. But how to know if a website is safe? Read on to find an
answer.

The Internet has made our lives easy in more ways than
one and today we are accustomed to use the Net for everything from
banking to paying our bills to shopping. For this, we are required to
fill in our personal information and use our credit or debit cards for
online transactions. This is convenient as we do not even have to leave
the confines of our homes and yet we can enjoy shopping at our favorite
destinations! However, this huge availability of sensitive information
on the Web has given rise to crooks who are after collecting this huge
database of information and using it to their benefits. Cyber crime, as
crime on the Internet is termed as, is on the rise and there are
thousands of sites out there that steal your personal information once
you click on their links or download stuff from their site. The threats
are many and include malware, spyware, phishing, virus and more. So, how
can you protect yourself and your computer from all such potential
threats? Well, the only way out is dealing with websites that are safe
and secure.

How to Check if a Website is Safe

Before we
get into the ways to check if a website is safe, let us try and
understand what is meant by a secure website. When you browse through
different sites on the Internet, there is an interchange of data between
your computer and the server. The problem here is that this data is
transmitted in "plain text" format and it is not difficult for anyone to
access and decipher this data. Now, if you are wondering who would
access this and how, then you must know that the information passes
across several computers before it reaches the server. A secure website
is one that encrypts the data using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
protocol, thus protecting it from being "read" by third parties who wish
to use it for their benefits. Here are some ways to check if a website
is safe to buy or order from.

Update Your Browser
The first
thing that you can do in order to be able to detect threats from a
website is updating your browser. No matter which browser you are using,
you find updates appearing at regular intervals, urging you to install
them. It is recommended that you install each one of these updates as
every browser has its own list of phishing sites and spam websites which
are regularly updated for advanced Internet safety. So, an updated
browser can alert you against such websites.

Check the URL
Checking
the URL of the Web page is simple and perhaps one of the best ways to
detect if the site is secure or not. Just have a look at the URL and
you'll find that in case of Web pages that are secure, the URL begins
with "https" instead of "http" as found on ordinary Web pages. For
example, have a look at the URL of the 'login' page of Facebook and
you'll find that it begins with "https".

Look for the Lock Icon
When
you open a Web page that is secure, you'll find an icon of a lock
somewhere on the browser window. While in Microsoft Internet Explorer,
you should see the icon on the right of the address bar (or location
bar) of a secure web page, if you're using Mozilla Firefox browser,
you'd find it in the bottom right corner of the page i.e., on the right
side of the 'Status Bar' located at the bottom of the page.

Check the Security Certificate
The
presence of a lock icon does indicate a secure site but to be doubly
sure, click (or double-click) on the icon of the lock and you'll find
that it is a link and clicking on it opens a new window that describes
the security of the site in detail. This is nothing but the 'security
certificate' we are talking about. The security certificate is the
ultimate indicator of a site's safety and in it you'll find details such
as to whom the certificate is issued, by whom, the validity of the
certificate, etc.

Use Online Tools
This is another way to
check if a website is safe. There are certain websites on the Net that
offer to check sites for security. All you need to do is go to one of
these sites and enter the URL of the site you wish to check. Some sites
like Web of Trust (WOT) even offer add-ons that you can download for
free and install in your browser. The names of few of such sites are
given below.

Google Safe Browsing
Web of Trust (WOT)
Norton Safe Web
HpHosts Online
SiteAdvisor
Blacklist Doctor

Look Out for Personal Contact Details
This
is especially applicable to little known shopping sites with whom you
have never done business before. In such cases, to find out if the
business is real, look for a physical address or contact number. And if
you chance to find a phone number, call the number to find if it is
valid. Also, do some research about the particular company on the Net.

Thus,
we see that there are several ways to know if a website is secure or
not. So, before every transaction that you make on a website, check if
it is indeed safe to do so. Hope you have a pleasant experience shopping
online