Protect Your Parents Online

A quick Google search of 'protect your parents online' reveals that most sites deal with protecting your kids.  There is very little out there about protecting your parents.  Maybe everyone assumes that they can take care of themselves.

Most likely, they can't, especially online.  My parents are not necessarily tech-savvy.  They grew up before the Internet, before cell phones, before computers were commonplace, before Facebook.  While they picked up basic computer usage, I doubt if they protect themselves online.

Case in point: my mother's Facebook page was hacked into.  A new profile was created, invited the same friends, and subsequently asked for money through a donation.  I wasn't copied on the message, presumably I was excluded as I had the same last name, and I would recognize that something was amiss.

She changed her password since that incident, and hopefully that will be the end of it.

So here are a few tips to protect your parents:

1. Teach them about strong passwords, about phrases and character replacements, and special characters and adding numbers and mixing case.  This may be an uphill battle.  My mother had created multiple Skype accounts because she could not remember her old password.  She doesn't do online banking, so using the same password to different sites might be okay.  Adding a few words specific to each site could be something that parents will remember.
2. When I was a kid, my father taught me not to believe everything I see on TV.  I will remind them of that lesson, but in this case, don't believe everything on the computer.  Just recently I read of an older gentleman whose computer was held 'hostage', and the screen said to pay $99 to fix it.  Luckily for that man, he had a good backup, and simply restored an old backup.  And then in the news there are older people who fall for the advanced fee scam.  My mother also taught me that the warnings on chain letters are not true.  I will remind them not to forward anything through email or re-post anything on Facebook as soon as they see one of those.
3. Teach them about privacy.  Show them how to change their Facebook privacy settings.  Tell them that the exact birth date is not always necessary, and be wary of giving the information to every site they register to.  Tell them there is such a thing as 'over-share'.  And that public posts are just that: public.

 These are just three.  They seem to be the most basic, and will reduce many of the threats our parents may face online.  I'm sure there are more, but if my mother can't remember her Skype password, I doubt she will remember more than three tips.