Protect Yourself Online with a Posse

I find it amazing that searching the term there is safety in numbers yields over 12,000,000 results in Google. Probably because there are few statements that hold so much truth to them. Even in day and age where the Internet and technology make it that you never have to leave the confines of your own home, being part of a group, community or posse can really make all the difference in cyberspace.

In the old west, when charged with the task of hunting someone down the sheriff would form up a posse. But these guys he would enlist weren’t there to keep the lawman company. They were there to help keep the sheriff safe from someone who made their living killing and robbing innocent people. Fast forward to modern day society and you see the same mentality in street gangs. Kids who don’t want to get messed with join up with a group. Drug dealers who don’t want their product and profits to be fair game find”¦ safety in numbers.

Of course no one expects you to pick up a baseball bat or a bike chain and ready yourself for a cyber rumble with the Gramercy Riffs. But the world online can be a scary place so having a few friends to help watch your back might not be such a bad idea.

Malicious Websites

We all know not to open email attachments from people we don’t know, and downloading just about anything from file sharing sites means an infected computer when you are done. But these attacks pale in comparison to the sophistication and deception involved with a malicious website.

We all love how dynamic and interactive websites let us do so much more than the boring old static web pages of the early 90s. The problem is that each time you are allowed to upload, post or insert anything to a website the possibility for something nasty to be used is there. And I’m not talking about the seven dirty words you can’t say on television. Malicious code on a website can steal your data, your identity, your financial information – it can infect your computer or trick you into giving up just about any information it wants.

Some websites

are just vulnerable to these types of attacks, CNN hosted malicious code for a while and so did Time Magazine online. It happens. Some websites though are built for the purpose of tricking you into visiting them and launching their attacks against you.

In either instance, wouldn’t it be nice if you were warned as to which websites may be harmful?

Bad Product!

Buying a cheap piece of crap may not be as threatening as a Cross Site Scripting attack that steals your banking information, however it is more likely to happen. One of the biggest complaints about ecommerce is that the product you receive does not quite compare to what you saw online.

Guess, what? Your posse could help out here too. Amazon.com made their bones with user recommendations. People could log in and find out what the community thought of the book (or product) they were about to buy. Cooler still was the fact that if something was less expensive somewhere else, you could find out about it.

Of course, social shopping is everywhere nowadays. You can find the lowest prices and reviews of just about everything. The problem is, you really don’t know who it is that is recommending something. The crowd isn’t your friends, they are just random people.

Better Health

When it comes to getting healthier, having friends to rely on can really make a huge difference. Having a posse to watch your back will keep you focused on your goals. They will encourage you to get active and keep you from chowing down on that third slice of sausage and pepperoni pizza.

Online health groups can also help you find the best places to get healthy. It can be something as simple as recommending a new gym to join, finding the yoga class with other singles or perhaps you just need to find a group to go trail running with.

Having a posse means having people who share the same goal (or interests) as you. It is symbiotic. You watch their back, they watch yours and it works because there is a relationship built around something. Maybe it is the fact that you share a favorite movie, or you all like the same soccer team. Quite possibly the group centers around learning Quantum Physics. Or maybe, you all just want to find the best burger in town.