Letters

Just read your excellent article about 40 years of Nadeen School in Bahrain and the national and international recognition it has gained recently.

My kids both had the chance to attend this school when we first came to Bahrain. Without a single word of English they felt welcomed from the first moment and we were surprised that they picked up the language very fast. This is with credit to the outstanding academic support but, most importantly, because of the warm and empathetic approach towards the children.

In the meantime our kids have moved on but they’ve taken this special  ‘Nadeen spirit’ with them.

I wish this spirit, where the main focus is on the social, emotional and well-being of the child, could also spread a little to other private schools in the country. After all, the children’s well-being make the school‘s reputation in the long run!

Kind regards,

Myriam Sudar, by email.

MEMBERS of MTC (British Club Drama Section) will have their next show ready for performance on June 6, 7, 8 & 9.

This is a light-heart comedy called A Little Murder Never Hurt Anybody by Roy Bernas where we meet Julia and Matthew at their New Year’s Eve party who at first glance seem to have it all. But Matthew actually wants to be rid of his wife, Julia, so that he can enjoy their savings all by himself.

He resolves to murder Julia by the end of the year, and in true dim-witted style, tells her so. She vows to stay alive, and tells him so.

Throw in a brainless beauty of a daughter, her bemused fiancee, a bumptious butler and an overly-zealous detective - and so begins a year-long match of wits and the witless.

Theatre seating tickets are BD6B on Wednesday and Saturday shows. Bookings can be made at the British Club reception and on the night. Doors open 7.30pm with curtains up at 8pm. Our dinner theatre, with tickets booked in advance, includes a classy three-course meal priced BD12 on the Thursday and Friday with service starting from 6.45pm and closing at 7.30pm.

Queries to manamatheatreclub.bahrain@gmail.com

Carrie, MTC.

Online shoppers should be careful about sharing their credit card information online if they are using an unprotected Internet connection. Globally, almost half of consumers who shop online experience fraud.

There are many ways online shopping can become hazardous to any user. For example, a shopping website may be a spoofed fraudulent website set up by hackers to steal data. Or the online store where one shops may not be using a secure encryption protocol to ensure that their customers’ details are safe during the payment process.

The popularity of online shopping should not make consumers less cautious. If something looks out of the ordinary and the deal looks too good to be true, it’s important to be very careful before clicking on suggested links.

Facebook released a case study that suggested its users in the Middle East and North Africa spend an extra 57.6 hours using the platform during Ramadan. The traffic peaks around 3am, the study found. Overall, the usage of social media increases by 14.8 per cent during the month of Ramadan, and by 36.9 per cent at night.

It has been revealed that online purchases, mostly driven by mobile, increase overall by 43.2 per cent during the month of holy month too, and by 78 per cent at night, fired by global companies such as beauty products giant L’Oreal and fashion retailer Splash that offer special deals during Ramadan, targeting Muslim countries.

Twitter has also disclosed that many users of the platform were going online to find special Ramadan shopping deals, besides regular tweets about daily routines, shopping and health.

However, shopping online has its own dangers, such as theft of credit card information and hacking. In order to stay safe when shopping online, there are simple tips everyone should know about.

•https

The first thing you should always see while making an online payment is whether the payment gateway has an https URL. The ‘s’ in the URL means that it is a secure protocol and your data is encrypted properly.

•Be wary

Being vigilant can help you a lot in the task of shopping online securely. Whenever a website requests for more information than is usually required, like your Social Service number or any other kind of personal information, it usually spells fraud. You should always be cautious before giving your personal or financial details anywhere on the Internet.

•Stay away from public terminals

It cannot be stressed enough how dangerous it is to share your personal or financial information with any website or any person over the Internet while using a public internet connection. Public Wi-Fi networks are common hunting grounds for attackers and data snoopers who try to access your personal information and use it for their benefit at your expense. Since public networks have negligible security, you should try and avoid using them while making online payments. If you must make online transactions while using a public network, you have to use a VPN to stay safe.

•Use a VPN

VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) encrypt the data between your computer and the VPN server, virtually hiding your web browsing activity. They are the best security mechanism you can employ to make sure the data you share over the internet is safe from prying eyes and remains confidential. *

•Stronger passwords

Perhaps the most basic requirement for any online account set-up is using strong passwords. Weak passwords make it simple for hackers to break into your account and cause severe damage. It’s always advised to change passwords in order to stay safe online, and that means having to use a unique password for each site or account.

Marty P. Kamden, CMO of NordVPN.