Cybersecurity

You may know Bear Grylls best as the ultimate adventurer on Man vs. Wild, but after his website was hacked recently, he turned his focus to the dangers of the "digital wild."

I got a chance to speak with Bear last week, where we chatted about his own cybersecurity experiences along with some advice, tips, and tricks you should keep in mind while navigating your own "digital wild." According to Norton, over a million people a day become victims of cybercrime each year, so here's how you can keep yourself from becoming a target.

1. Arm yourself — Change your passwords regularly and make sure they're not obvious — use a mix of numbers and capitals and characters. Also, make sure you've got good antivirus protection, and just be aware that, probably, things that look too good to be true on the Internet probably are.
2. Prevention is better than curing — It's easier to stay on top of cybersecurity (by following the tips above) than cleaning up identity theft or fraud afterward.
3. Men are more vulnerable — Men fall victim to cybercrime more than women annually, so watch out boys!
4. Stay safe on your mobile — Have the ability to wipe your phone remotely. Most people don't even have a pin code on their phone, let alone the ability to remote wipe.
5. Watch out on social media, too — People use their mobile phones for so much more than speaking, so they have access to more, like the Internet in their daily life. They're much more vulnerable to phishing links everywhere, even on their phones.

A digital security investigator has uncovered a major security flaw in Apple's Safari browser that gives away your personal information (like name, address, phone number, email address, country, etc.) via your Safari's AutoFill settings. This flaw affects Safari v.4 and the new feature-filled v.5.

What Happens
When you fill in your information on a website — say, you register for a product or newsletter and enter your name, email address, etc. — you can choose to have your details saved to Safari to autofill any information boxes later. It's this feature that allows malicious websites to gain access to your information, without you even clicking on anything or entering any info whatsoever, by extracting your Address Card data, and sending the details to the attacker. The whole process takes only seconds.

Find out how to protect yourself after the break.

Unfortunately, it may be a few years until Spencer Pratt begins his war on cybercrime, so until then, we'll have to rely on this Norton study — that ranks the 10 worst US cities for cyber security — to keep our Internet safe. Cybercrime costs Americans $560 million dollars a year (mostly from fraudulent online purchases), and according to Norton's latest figures, Seattle tops the list as the most vulnerable city for cybercrime. The results were tallied using stats like access to available hotspots, online shopping figures, potential cyberattacks, and malware infections. Seattlites — watch out!

To see the full list of the 10 worst cities in the country, and to get some tips on maintaining a healthy online presence, just read more