Desktop Insecurity

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Take a moment to assess exactly how much of your personal information is stored either on your own computer or on someone else's system. Do you use electronic banking, make online credit card purchases, submit your annual income tax forms electronically?


Along with these conveniences there are serious risks and dangers involved in relying heavily on the computer in your daily life. Among these dangers are viruses erasing your hard-drive, someone breaking into your system and altering files, someone using your computer to attack others, or someone stealing your credit card information and making unauthorized purchases.

At a minimum you should take these three important measures to protect your personal data and prevent attacks.

-1- Scan your computer regularly by running the most updated anti-virus software.

-2- Tweak weak passwords

Password "cracking" is a favorite activity of people who get their kicks breaking into hard drives and computer systems in order to perpetrate identity theft and other harmful pranks on the unsuspecting victim(s). The most effective tool to do it with are "Cracking dictionaries". This software can try not only every English dictionary word, but also names, phrases, slang words, substitutions (e.g., "time2go"), common abbreviations and a surprising number of other obscure sequences and strings. To protect yourself, tweak your weak passwords by using a combination of at least three of the following: UPPERCASE (A-Z), lowercase (a-z), digits (0-9), and special characters (@#$%&*, etc.).

-3- Trash-can suspicious e-mails

E-mail attachments can carry a variety of "malware", such as viruses, trojans, worms and "backdoor" programs, just waiting for you to set it loose by opening the attachment. Malware often comes with the filename extensions .exe, .pif, .scr or .vba (this is not a complete list, though). One of the favorite tricks of virus writers is to hide the virus in an attachment that, when run, produces a clever or entertaining animation on the screen that people like to forward on to all their friends thereby unknowingly spreading the 'disease' like wildfire...

Know thy enemy

Viruses - This type of malicious code requires you to actually do something before it infects your computer. This action could be opening an email attachment or going to a particular web page.

Worms - Worms propagate without user intervention. They typically start by exploiting a software vulnerability (a flaw that allows the software's intended security policy to be violated), then once the victim computer has been infected the worm will attempt to find and infect other computers. Similar to viruses, worms can propagate via email, web sites, or network-based software. The automated self-propagation of worms distinguishes them from viruses.

Trojan horses - A Trojan horse program is software that claims to be one thing while in fact doing something different behind the scenes. For example, a program that claims it will speed up your computer may actually be sending confidential information to a remote intruder.

Scary? - It certainly is.

So, don't delay: research, implement and install the most effective counter-measures to protect yourself before it's too late and the damage has been done.

[See also: Preying on the Un-informed]

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Phishing: Preying on the Un-informed

You brush your teeth, you comb your hair, you pay
attention to
personal hygiene.

Well, just as important, if not more so, is
practicing proper E-mail Hygiene.

Plain späm is easy to recognize in your inbox. The subject line is a dead giveaway with phrases such as "get Viagra", "Special Offer", "You have been selected" etc.). But when it comes to the so-called phishing scams that invade mailboxes web-wide it gets a bit trickier.

These emails are disguised as coming from major websites that you are familiar with, such as EBay, PayPal or even your own ISP (Internet Service Provider). When you open them you will be urged to click on a given link in order to 'update your account information'.
Maybe you are tired or distracted and automatically click on the link. You land on an official looking website prompting you to type sensitive personal information, passwords and credit card numbers into the boxes conveniently provided. STOP right then and there! Chances are that you are about to fall victim to a phishing scam leading up to identity theft and other disastrous consequences.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure: We strongly recommend that you adopt good email hygiene: sort out and DELETE each and every item which you do not immediately recognize as stemming from, or being related to, your prior correspondences. If you have the slightest doubt, resist your curiosity and hit the 'Delete Button' (that is what it's for).

If you accidentally delete a legitimate message from a service provider with whom you do business, do not panic: You will get the message when you sign on to the password-protected control panel of your established accounts.

Perpetrators of phishing scams often work in gangs of 5 or 6 members and are hard to track down and prosecute. In a recent case, however, a 29-year old British man was picked up and sentenced to four years in jail for stealing identities and bank details from over 100 Ebay users and defrauding them of a grand total of $360,000.

Until the offenders are caught and brought to justice, which may or may not happen, it falls to each individual net-citizen to stay informed and alert and to exercise caution when conducting any kind of financial transaction online.

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[Read more about 'phishing' here.]

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[See also: The impact of online fraud schemes on e-Commerce]

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