Identity Theft – Who is phishing for your information?

There’s a new type of internet piracy called phishing (pronounced fishing). Internet thieves are fishing for your personal information. They’re looking for ways to trick you into giving out your Social Security Number, credit card number and other personal information that they can use to their advantage. You could become a victim of identity theft that could take years to clear your financial history and personal reputation. But understanding how these internet thieves work, will help you to protect yourself from becoming a victim.How do these...

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Protecting your self against online credit card fraud

Today more and more people are looking to the internet to do their shopping. With online stores popping up all over the internet the urge to spend money on the World Wide Web has never been stronger. The unfortunate thing is that the urge for scam artists to take your money has never been stronger. So how do you protect your self from these thieves? If you follow these simple steps I promise you’ll enjoy shopping on the internet more having taken these precautions.The first thing you should consider when buying online is if the website you are...

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Your Next PR Nightmare Could Be Only a Click Away

In the age of Enron and failed intelligence, scandals remain the rage of the front page. Companies want to see positive spin and not scandal related material published. Imagine for a moment the educational software site where employees are identified as regular visitors to pornography websites. The effect to such a company’s image could be devastating. Leaks, Peeks & SneaksThere are numerous security risks facing companies with internal networks. Primary among their concerns are stifling leaks and backdoors that allow hackers to penetrate their...

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Don’t Be Bugged - Get Bug Detectors

You are walking along, sweeping back and forth, area after area, searching. You are continuing searching when suddenly a sound begins to click, faster and faster. Is it a Geiger counter? No, it is your bug detector. That is right. If you suspect that someone is listening in on your private conversations, strategic development meetings, covert operations, or whatever your reason for secrecy might be, you can stop it instantly and for good with bug detectors. These handy devices promise you peace of mind and are capable of detecting, locating, and...

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Avoiding Identity Theft

What's in a name? Possibly thousands of dollars. That's the word from law enforcement agents who say that Americans lose millions to identity theft each year. The term "identity theft" refers to a crime in which a person steals your Social Security number or other private information. The criminal then uses that information to charge items or services on your credit or simply steal money from your bank account. The thieves often operate online, making it especially important to take precautions when surfing the Web. A new book called "Geeks On...

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Where Spyware Lurks on the Internet

Spyware has to be the most talked about PC security threat of 2005. It has now surpassed the computer virus as the No. 1 menace to computer user both at home and in the enterprise. Despite efforts from Microsoft and independent security software companies, the spyware menace is set to continue through 2006 and beyond. The research firm Radicati Group expect worldwide anti-spyware revenue to surpass $1 billion by 2010.There are numerous types of spyware with some more dangerous than others. At one end of the spectrum spyware pushes annoying ads...

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5 Security Considerations When Coding

1. Input CheckingAlways check user input to be sure that it is what you expected. Make sure it doesn’t contain characters or other data which may be treated in a special way by your program or any programs called by your program.This often involves checking for characters such as quotes, and checking for unusual input characters such as non-alphanumeric characters where a text string is expected. Often, these are a sign of an attack of some kind being attempted.2.Range CheckingAlways check the ranges when copying data, allocating memory or performing...

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Background of Password cracking

Passwords to access computer systems are usually stored, in some form, in a database in order for the system to perform password verification. To enhance the privacy of passwords, the stored password verification data is generally produced by applying a one-way function to the password, possibly in combination with other available data. For simplicity of this discussion, when the one-way function does not incorporate a secret key, other than the password, we refer to the one way function employed as a hash and its output as a hashed password. Even...

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My Spyware Nightmare, Your Lesson

Have you asked yourself any of these questions lately? 1. Why is my brand new computer slowing down to a crawl? 2. Why is it taking so long to load a basic word processor?3. Why do I have so many popups? Where are they coming from? 4. Why do I keep being sent to places I did not ask to go? 5. Where are these embarassing popups coming from? I never visit sites like that!I did. I was ignorant. I was slow and it cost me a brand new computer. Here is my story.A couple of years ago, we bought a new eMachine for my wife. She had just enrolled in school...

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How to Protect Your Files From a Computer Virus

How safe is your computer? Could you be in danger of getting a virus on your system? Just how real is the danger? What steps should you take if any?While visiting with a one of my students, I became aware that her anti-virus software was over seventeen months old and had never been updated. Upon informing her that she should update her anti-virus software regularly, she was totally surprised. Furthermore she had no concept how essential this was to ensure her system's safety. Therefore I thought it wise to write about some of the precautions you...

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Check The Internet Forecast Before You Go Online

According to a recent survey conducted by the Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA), more computer users are becoming increasingly insecure about using the Internet. Forty-eight percent of those surveyed avoid making purchases on the Internet because they are afraid their financial information might be stolen. Fewer than one in five of the 1,150 U.S. adults surveyed believed that existing laws can protect them from fraud, identity theft and other crimes on the Internet. More than two-thirds (70 percent) want Congress to pass stronger data- protection...

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‘Spoofing’, ‘Phishing’ and ‘Link Altering’ - Expensive Financial Traps

"Spoofing" or "phishing" frauds attempt to make internet users believe that they are receiving e-mail from a specific, trusted source, or that they are securely connected to a trusted web site, when that’s not the case at all, far from it. Spoofing is generally used as a means to convince individuals to divulge personal or financial information which enables the perpetrators to commit credit card/bank fraud or other forms of identity theft. In "email spoofing" the header of an e-mail appears to originate from someone or somewhere other than the...

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14 Household Ways To Protect Your Computer From Viruses

Computer viruses are deadly. They often spread without any apparent contact and can be a nuisance, or even worse, fatal to your computer. Individuals who create these viruses, estimated at 10-15 new ones a day, are the electronic version of terrorists. Their goal is to inflict havoc and destruction on as many people as possible by disabling, stealing, damaging, or destroying computer and information resources. Often, they have no specific target in mind, so no one is safe. If you access the internet, share files or your computer with others,...

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5 Mistakes You Might Be Making When Choosing A Password

Are you making yourself a target for fraud? More and more often I am hearing stories of people who have had their accounts hacked. They have had money stolen, lost sleep, spent hours setting up new accounts, or had their credit ruined. Don't let this happen to you.Are you making these dangerous mistakes?Mistake #1: Using the same password for all your accounts. Please don't do this. Use different passwords for every email account, and definitely use unique passwords for shopping websites where you'd enter your credit card.Mistake #2: Short passwordsThe...

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Preventing Identity Theft

What is Identity Theft? It is the theft of your personal information, such as social security number, driver's license number, credit card and bank account numbers, mother's maiden name, and more, with the intent to obtain credit and credit cards from banks and retailers, steal money from the victim's existing accounts, apply for loans, establish accounts with utility companies, rent an apartment, file bankruptcy or obtain a job using the victim's name. Did you know that in some states Identity Theft is not even against the law? The victim has...

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Cyberspace Samurai's Art Of Hacking

If you acknowledge the foe and recognize yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you recognise yourself merely not the foeman, for every victory gained you volition also suffer a defeat. If you cognize neither the opposition nor yourself, you testament succumb in every battle." - Sun Tzu, The Art of War. Take the immortal words of Sun Tzu, cognise yourself. Or here, experience your computer code. Do you live however your codification wish react to an tone-beginning. Do you roll in the hay if your diligence or data is guarantee,...

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The Importance of Context in Content Filtering

Launching a search for “Breast Cancer Awareness” should not result in a flood of pornographic URLs, but if your filtering solution isn’t capable of analyzing context as well as words, that might be what happens. Filtering pornographic texts may focus only on the word “breast” and not on the context in which it is presented. It is important that your company’s Appropriate Use Policy (AUP) includes the specific definition of what constitutes Web sites that need to be blocked. Visiting the Breast Cancer Society’s home page would probably be allowed...

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Phishing And Fraud – What Is It?

Phishing is a very sneaky type of fraud conducted over the Internet. Its name is a throw back to the early days of hacking and identity theft and the practice of phone phreaking. While there can be very complicated schemes devised, they are all based on a very simple concept.Phishers try to persuade you, or trick you into giving them sensitive information which they can then use to make money out of the system. For example, one very attractive target for phishers would be your paypal account. Paypal is an online payment system that allows you to...

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Identity Theft – Who is ‘phishing’ for your information?

There’s a new type of internet piracy called ‘phishing’ (pronounced ‘fishing’). Internet thieves are ‘fishing’ for your personal information. They’re looking for ways to trick you into giving out your Social Security Number, credit card number and other personal information that they can use to their advantage. You could become a victim of identity theft that could take years to clear your financial history and personal reputation. But understanding how these internet thieves work, will help you to protect yourself from becoming a victim.How do...

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Top 5 Reasons to Choose An Internet Filtering Appliance Over Software

The need for organizations to monitor and control Internet usage in the workplace should be an accepted fact of doing business in a cyber-connected world. Statistics indicating that 30 to 40 percent of Internet use in the workplace is unrelated to work issues should come as no surprise. Neither should the report that 90 percent of employee computers harbor as many as 30 spyware programs. In fact, studies indicate that companies may be incurring average costs of $5,000 per year per employee in lost productivity due to Internet abuse. Other data...

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Cyber Bingo Security

Let's look at why websites place a high priority on maintaining the best cyber bingo security and privacy policies for their players.Playing cyber bingo is really fun and many players are logging onto bingo websites to gain access to their favorite online game. The reason this game is so popular is because the game is readily available to anyone around the world. To begin playing online bingo all you need to do is deposit money into your bingo account and purchase a few bingo cards.Becoming a member of an online bingo hall like http:www.bingodrome.com...

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What You Have Been Dying To Know About Fraud

Since the inception of the information technology and the technological advancement of the marketing industry, many people are engaging into fraudulent activities. This is because they are able to gain financial gains and advantages to people through easier and faster means.For this reason, authorities had been trying to suppress the growing trend of various frauds that are currently affecting thousands, if not millions of people.Basically, fraud is a kind of trickery that is used for the individual’s benefits, mostly on the financial aspect. These...

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Paypal Fraud, Paypal Email Scams and Avoiding Paypal Phishing

To access a Paypal account you need to have the username and password of the account. The username of a Paypal account is the main email address (primary email address) used to register the account. The owner of the account would also set up a password to be used along with the username to access the account. The security system is quite secure as long as the username and password of the Paypal account are known only to the actual owner of the account. If these details are available to anyone else it would mean that the security of that Paypal...

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Phishing, Fraudulent and Malicious Websites

Whether we like it or not, we are all living in the Information Age. We have nothing left but adapt to rapidly developing information technology, no matter who we are and what we do for living. The Internet, in particular, means for us boundless opportunities in life and business – but also lots of dangers unheard of just a decade ago. We should be aware of these dangers if we want to use the huge potential of the Internet and to avoid the hazards it brings us.Warning: There are Websites You'd Better Not VisitPhishing websites Thanks to authors...

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Detect Spyware and Adware and Remove It Without Spending a Dime

Adware and spyware have become a world-wide computer problem from using the World Wide Web. They have turned into malware because of their viral and extremely hostile behavior. Along with the hazards of identity theft and deceit at hand on the Internet, adware and spyware can be other than merely irritating. Here are some methods to detect spyware and adware and remove or merely avoid the adware and spyware and not outlay a dime on the most recent "anti-virus" software, such as Spyware Nuker.1. USE Firefox. If you don't use the Internet very much,...

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