Ever since the digital age, humans have relied on technology for everyday needs. It has brought many benefits to society, from texting to a whole new way of shopping. There is always going to be a downside to such a prospering market like technology. According to curosity.com the dark web consists of ninety-nine percent of the Internet. Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo, etc. are only one percent of it. As a result, no person or government can shut it down because no one entity has control over it.

Just as there is a lot of illegal activity on the internet, there are many cyber criminals trying to take advantage of people. There needs to be more caution when browsing the web as any suspicious link or download button could download a virus onto a computer. When a computer has a virus, it can be obvious or subtle. Many viruses can seem harmless, but there is no way to know for sure. According to Webroot.com when malicious software is accidentally downloaded, it can do multiple things ranging from duplicating itself to damaging files on computers.

While all of this might seem daunting, there are many ways to stop a virus from ever getting downloaded on a device. As an attempt to try and stop the number of malicious software downloaded onto computers, Apple and Microsoft have developed their own integrated app stores on their computer software. These apps are much safer than file downloads from the internet. The problem with these app stores is that they have a very limited library of apps. With most of the consumers still downloading files and apps on the internet, there are still ways to be safe.

The simplest way to never worry about malware in the first place is never being risky when it comes to surfing the web.

“Not going on shady sites and not downloading stuff that pops up says download me,” Colton Sanders said.

It can never hurt to check the URL bar. If the URL has a lock, this means that all the data transferred between your browser and the website is encrypted. As the lock can make you feel safer, the site can still have malicious software on it. The best thing that prevents viruses, malware, Trojans, and worms from being activated is antivirus software. According to usa.kaspersky.com, antivirus software is used to try to prevent any file from being downloaded in the first place. If is is downloaded, then the antivirus will try and prevent it from being activated.

As the development of technology grows, the knowledge of cyber safety needs to grow as well. Cyber safety is becoming more relevant, as humans depend on it every day. People can get lazy when searching the web, but being cautious and careful is always the best option.