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VCCC August 2006

Internet Security Risks!


Some of the Internet Security issues include:

How Not to Get Hooked by a ‘Phishing’ Scam


“We suspect an unauthorized transaction on your account.

To ensure that your account is not compromised,

please click the link below and confirm your identity.”


“During our regular verification of accounts, we couldn’t verify your information.

Please click here to update and verify your information.”


Have you received email with a similar message? It’s a scam called “phishing” — and it involves Internet fraudsters who send spam or pop-up messages to lure personal information (credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security number, passwords, or other sensitive information) from unsuspecting victims.


Phishers send an email or pop-up message that claims to be from a business or organization that you may deal with — for example, an Internet service provider (ISP), bank, online payment service, or even a government agency. The message may ask you to “update,” “validate,” or “confirm” your account information. Some phishing emails threaten a dire consequence if you don’t respond. The messages direct you to a website that looks just like a legitimate organization’s site. But it isn’t. It’s a bogus site whose sole purpose is to trick you into divulging your personal information so the operators can steal your identity and run up bills or commit crimes in your name.



• If you get an email or pop-up message that asks for personal or financial information, do not reply. And don’t click on the link in the message, either. Legitimate companies don’t ask for this information via email. If you are concerned about your account, contact the organization mentioned in the email using a telephone number you know to be genuine, or open a new Internet browser session and type in the company’s correct Web address yourself. In any case, don’t cut and paste the link from the message into your Internet browser — phishers can make links look like they go to one place, but that actually send you to a different site.


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• Don’t email personal or financial information. Email is not a secure method of transmitting personal information. If you initiate a transaction and want to provide your personal or financial information through an organization’s website, look for indicators that the site is secure, like a lock icon on the browser’s status bar or a URL for a website that begins “https:” (the “s” stands for “secure”). Unfortunately, no indicator is foolproof; some phishers have forged security icons.


• Review credit card and bank account statements as soon as you receive them to check for unauthorized charges.


• Be cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files from emails you receive, regardless of who sent them. These files can contain viruses or other software that can weaken your computer’s security.


• Forward spam that is phishing for information to spam@uce.gov and to the company, bank, or organization impersonated in the phishing email. Most organizations have information on their websites about where to report problems.


• If you believe you’ve been scammed, file your complaint at ftc.gov, and then visit the FTC’s Identity Theft website at www.consumer.gov/idtheft. Victims of phishing can become victims of identity theft. While you can’t entirely control whether you will become a victim of identity theft, you can take some steps to minimize your risk. If an identity thief is opening credit accounts in your name, these new accounts are likely to show up on your credit report. You may catch an incident early if you order a free copy of your credit report periodically


To order, visit annualcreditreport.com, call 1-877-322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. The form is on the back of this brochure; or you can print it from ftc.gov/credit. Do not contact the three nationwide consumer reporting companies individually. They are providing free annual credit reports only through annualcreditreport.com, 1-877-322-8228, and Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.


You can learn other ways to avoid email scams and deal with deceptive spam at ftc.gov/spam.

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.



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Firewalls

What are they?

Well, a firewall is a piece of hardware or software that protects you form intentional hostile attacks on your computer. For most home users this will take the form of a piece of software installed on their computer. This kind of defense is VITAL in supporting your Internet Security.

What do they do?

Basically a firewall examines ALL the "traffic" (the name given to all the bits of electronic information entering and leaving your computer) when you are connected to the Internet.

Firewalls use "rules" to determine if they are going to:

Refuse "traffic" from certain internet addresses.
Refuse certain types of "protocols" e.g. Telnet or FTP (ways of accessing a computer over distances).
Refuse suspicious looking traffic".
Refuse attempts to probe your computer for information.
Refuse certain files types e.g.  MP3 files.

Firewall on Free Stuff CD --- Zone Alarm



Anti Virus Software

What Is A Virus?

You can not escape the fact that at some point you are going to get infected by a computer virus if you have no up to date Anti Virus protection on your computer! These "Viruses" are basically little software programs that can be spread in many different ways. Anyone serious about Internet Security MUST take this onboard!

The difference between a computer virus and other programs is that viruses are designed to self-replicate (that is to say, make copies of themselves). They usually self-replicate without the knowledge of the user.

 Viruses often contain 'payloads', actions that the virus carries out separately from replication. Payloads can vary from the annoying messages that display on your screen, to the disastrous which attempt to overwrite the Flash BIOS and cause irreparable damage to YOUR computer...

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The best way for users to protect themselves against viruses is to apply the following anti-virus measures:

Anti-Virus Software on Free Stuff CD --- AVG Anti Virus





Spyware / Adware

What Is Spyware?

Spyware is Internet jargon for Advertising Supported software (Adware). It is a way for shareware authors to make money from a product, other than by selling it to the users. There are several large media companies that offer them to place banner ads in their products in exchange for a portion of the revenue from banner sales. This way, you don't have to pay for the software and the developers are still getting paid. If you find the banners annoying, there is usually an option to remove them, by paying the regular licensing fee.

Why is it called "Spyware" ?

While this may be a great concept, the downside is that the advertising companies also install additional tracking software on your system, which is continuously "calling home", using your Internet connection and reports statistical data to the "mother ship". 

While according to the privacy policies of the companies, there will be no sensitive or identifying data collected from your system and you shall remain anonymous, it still remains the fact, that you have a "live" server sitting on your PC that is sending information about YOU and YOUR surfing habits to a remote location.....

How Do I Remove It?

Use free Spyware programs such as AD Aware and Spy Bot on Free Stuff CD



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Home Page Hijackers

What Is A Home page Hijacker?

Once one of these nasty programs gets onto your computer, it will constantly reset your homepage to where they want you to go. You can't change it back!

Typically, hijacker programs put a reference to themselves in your StartUp folder or Registry Run key, so that the hijacker runs every time the computer is started. This kind of activity is an Internet Security risk, after all THEY have now taken over part of YOUR computer!

If the user tries to change any of these settings, the hijacker changes them back, sticking the user with the hijacker's site unless the hijacking software can first be found and removed.



How Do I Remove Them ?

Use free Spyware programs such as AD Aware and Spy Bot on Free Stuff CD.



Pop Ups

What Are Pop Ups?

Often, when you visit a website, another smaller window will appear in front of the page you requested. Again this is a low Internet Security threat, BUT it can be VERY annoying while surfing the Internet... so I mention it here!

You CAN do something about this with a SIMPLE piece of FREE software such as Pop Up Stopper on the Free Stuff CD



Windows XP Updates

The Windows XP Update service. 
As soon as security updates are released by Microsoft, they are available on Windows Update. When you connect to the Internet, Windows Update scans your system and alerts you via Windows Messenger.


I really CAN NOT stress enough the importance of keeping YOUR computer up to date with the latest security releases for your operating system.



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