Technology Use Scenario

Scenario 11.

Mrs. Smith considers herself to be a pretty savvy computer user. She has been working with computers for five years and uses them regularly in class. Mrs. Smith gets an email from someone she does not know but opens the email anyway. When she opens it, the message has some advertisement for a free gift, so she deletes the email. Several days later she is working on her computer and notices that her internet browser is working very slowly. She decides to check the computer with an antivirus program and discovers that she has a virus on her computer. She determines that the virus came from the email she received several days previously. How do we protect ourselves from online dangers?

retrieved from: https://www.consumerhighfive.com/protecting-against-email-viruses/

In this scenario Mrs. Smith is using technology appropriately overall. However her unknown sender is using technology inappropriately. When Mrs. Smith opened the email from the unknown sender and notices the advertisement about a free gift and proceeded to delete it she was being digitally smart. Most people would see the free gift and automatically click it because they want the free reward but with clicking it could come with many consequences. Some of the consequences could be the sender getting her information such as passwords and access to her social media and/or online banking information. The only thing Mrs. Smith could of done differently to be using the internet in a smart and safe way was to delete the email as soon as she noticed she didn't recognize the sender. After reading this scenario I wanted to find some tips on how to prevent virus emails so I found a post on "Chicalogic" about How to Prevent E-mail Viruses and it gives you tips such as ..

• Use common sense. If something looks suspicious or if you get an attachment from someone you don’t know, don’t open it.
• Use your new anti-virus program to scan your attachments before you open them.
• Schedule regular scans with your anti-virus software.

After reading these tips I can wholeheartedly say Mrs. Smith was using technology appropriately and I hope she does that last tip and regularly scans her computer with the anti-software. 

How do you protect yourself from online dangers? Do you believe Mrs. Smith was using technology appropriately? Let me know in the comments section!