An Introduction To Computer Ethics

by | May 10, 2019 | Guides, Habib O

An Introduction To Computer Ethics

Table of Contents


I. Introduction
II. Remain Incognito
III. Protecting Yourself
i. Online
ii. Offline
IV. Resources


This guide is brought to you by Insight. Before I begin, I would first like to introduce myself. My name is .Sinister, and I will be informing you ways to protect yourself while you browse the internet. The internet consists of many different people. Users, web developers, programmers, and so much more. We all have different intended use. However, there are people out there who intend to use the internet for malicious activities. These people are known as black hat hackers. You may be thinking, “Black hat? Aren’t all hackers bad?” The answer to your question is no, not all hackers are bad. There are white hat hackers, hackers who exploit to fix vulnerabilities. Anyway back to black hat hackers, since they are what we want to mainly focus on. These people will try to steal your personal data, infect you, blackmail you, and do all sorts of cyber crime. How do we prevent this? Keep on reading and find out.


Remain Incognito

Your privacy is very important when it comes to online browsing. You don’t want other people on the internet to know who you are, where you live, or have any of your other sensitive data. Once a person gets hold of any of your valuable information, he/she can begin and start searching for more info about you with the current data they already have on you. This makes their job much more easier as it is like solving a jigsaw puzzle. Put all the pieces together and all of your information is revealed.

Name – When registering on a forum, like this one, or on any other site, NEVER use your real name. You can use your real name on official sites like PayPal, Amazon, or eBay, but on other sites where it’s not really necessary to input your real name, use an alias or a fake name. You can instantly create a fake profile using Fake Name Generator.

Location – Don’t ever give out your real location. Whether it’s saying what continent you live in or what country you live in, they don’t need to know. For most people, they will not reveal their location to other people on the internet. However, that doesn’t mean your location can still be exposed. Your IP (Internet Protocol) can easily expose where you are in the world. Anyone can go on a website like IP Location, input your IP, and start gathering your location and information of your ISP (Internet Service Provider).

Now that we know our IP can give out quite a lot of information to unwanted users, we need to prevent it from happening. A VPN (Virtual Private Network) connects you to the internet with a disguised IP. Rather than showing your real IP, it gives out your VPN’s IP.

How does a VPN work? Well according to Wikipedia, “A VPN is created by establishing a virtual point-to-point connection through the use of dedicated connections, virtual tunneling protocols, or traffic encryptions. Through VPN you can access your private network over Internet”.

You can definitely find many VPNs (free and paid) out there using a simple search tool like Google. I’ll provide a list of VPNs for you in the “Resources” section.


Protecting Yourself // Online

Now, what is online protection and offline protection? Online protection is securing yourself online while browsing the world wide web. Once you try to connect yourself to different places in the internet, you will need to make sure you’re not posing a threat to your security. Offline protection is securing your system from malware, viruses, spywares, all sorts of malicious pest.

As previously mentioned, you can use a VPN to help protect yourself and remain anonymous. If you IP were to be exposed, only your VPN IP would be exposed, leaving your home IP safe.

Generate a fake profile for online use. You can use that fake information for sites that you’re not quite sure about. That way, if someone finds your information online, it’s your fake profile and not your real one. A quick and easy way of generating a fake profile is by using Fake Name Generator.

Use the TOR browser. What is TOR? As stated on their site, “Tor is a free software and an open network that helps you defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security”. Basically, Tor is an anonymous web browser. Every time you use Tor, it’ll hide your IP, just like a VPN can but on a web browser.

Use a generated email. Do you notice that spam you get often in your inbox? That’s because when you input your email on a site (some sites may or may not do this), they will give it to third parties that will send you unwanted emails. They will send you ads, phishing links, and all sorts of junk. What I recommend you to do is have a personal email, the one where you do all your business, and a “recyclable” email, for your entertaining needs. 10 Minute Mail is a great site to use for things such as a quick signup and email verification.

Protecting Yourself // Offline

You might end up downloading unwanted programs into your system as you browse online. Things such as viruses, trojans, keyloggers, and spywares could end inside your computer all because of silly mistakes. Most computers nowadays will automatically have an antivirus to protect your system. Make sure that AV is always on, and as a second protection, make sure you turn on your firewall or use a firewall program.

These viruses and trojans will hurt your computer’s health. What’s worst about this is that it can easily spread and infect others. Keyloggers and RATs are important to be reminded of. These things can and will steal your information. Anything you type can be logged. Your computer screen will most likely be watched by another user. Many bad things can happen from these little monsters.



– Antivirus Softwares

– Anti-Malware Softwares*

– Virus/URL Scanners

– VPN (Free/Paid)

– Miscellaneous

Habib O

Self proclaimed tech enthusiast looking to expand my personal portfolio. Click my profile to find out more. PS. If you give me something i will break it.