Skip to main content
Like
Create new Glog
previous
next
Email share
149 views | 5 likes | 0 reposts
SPAM Undesired message. We all know this one but let me tell you about its dangers. Spam can contain potentionally unwanted software. You probably expected so much. But alse phishing e-mails are also spam messages. And these messages can be very nasty!
Using internet is cool, isn't it? Many services are now availabel online. You can communicate, buy stuff and even maintain your bank account for example. Everything from your comfortable chair at home. It saves time. A lot! You are probably very used to your onlne services. So used to them taht you actually foget that there are many dangers in digital world. This glog is dedicated to some basics of internet security . If you red this, please try to keep it in mind and you can save yourself a lot worries. I will only talk about things I think you maybe don't know of.
!BEWARE!
HOAX I don't think people are aware of danges connected to this type of internet filth. Hoax mesages are spred across internet by users. These messages are all made up, lies. They try to trick you to believe in something that in not real. They often inform about sick children or inexisting danger od some kind, like false virus threat. They appeal that you send them on. But BEWAWE! Don't do this! Here is one think you should never do. Never send on any message with original senders address attached unless the subject of this is connected to this person. Have you ever looked closely to these hoax messages? They can have tens and even houndreds of e-mail addresses attched to them! Why is this wrong? Well, imagine that this massege gets to someone (and it eventually will) who wants to abuse all these emails atteched. It is like free email database and in the better case someone will abuse them to send you spam. In the worst case, someone will send you phishing or virus infected mail. If you don't want your email box to be full of spam and other unvanted staff, NEVER participate in hoax messages. Some hoax messages will try to trick you saying they are not hoax. The best thing to do is to check your contry's local web hoax database and you will see. However if you plan to send it on, do not use "forward". Always send messages clear od other e-mails. Think about people whose e-mails are attached. For example if someone decides to send hoax message to me and other friends, all of those people will see my e-mail address. But maybe I DON'T WANT them to see it! So NEVER send group messges to people that are not connected. Plus by sending hoax you loose credibility.
PHISHING This world is spelled the same as fishing and also means the same thing. The most common forms of phishing are e-mails plus fake websites. Phishing is very dangerous. I will give you example how it works. Let's say you have an bank accout which you access via internet. One day an e-mail will come saying it is from your bank. But this one is a false one! It says that you ned to go to the bank website and enter your login (which i very private) for some reason. And it gently provides you with link to the web service page. This link, however, is FALSE! And it will take you to a page, that was made by a cheater and looks JUST LIKE THE PAGE YOU KNOW AND USE. But it is a copy! And all private information you enter in good faith that this is the page you know will go straight to the hacker, that will use them to log into your account and, of course, steal all your money. This has already happedn many times. It does not have to be your bank account that is under attack and it does not have to be exactly as I wrote. But it will be very similar. And where did they got your e-mail address? Remember hoax? Oh yes, from there and than they sent you spam phissing message. So what can you do to be secured? Here are some basic rules. Obey them and you should be safe.
1) Never click any link that says it will lead you to your bank and other private services! Instead always type the address yourself (at this point I must say there is a way this is not safe as well, i will tell more in PHARMING tab) 2) There is other danger connected to intenet banking. Ensure, that your bank service is secure! Good service, for example, will never let you typu your password with your keyboard, but always using mouse. Why? Easy, kyabords can be mapped with spyware od adware software in your PC. 3) Try to change your passwords often. Never have the same passwords to other services like discussion forums and emails. Admins of disscussions forums should not have access to passwords BUT it is up to them and they can decide to not encrypt them, so they can see all passwords (believe me I have been programming discussion forum before, they really can see them, if they decide so). Also do not choose passwords that are easy to guess. Try to combine letters, nmber ane other chars. Passwords can be cracked but it takes much longer to crack passwords that contain letters from the end of alphabet and some non-letter chars. Nobody will try to crack your password for 2 months, they will rather move on to someone else.
PHARMING I told you you don't have to fear about phishing if you obey the simple rules. Well, but there is pharming as well. It does pretty much the same thing, but it is more sophisticated. It uses DNS translating to it's advantage. Fof example, take glogster. You know www.glogster.com is the address. It is called domain. It helps to identify a computer (server) in the internet. But it is just a way to make server address look better so you can remember it. Actually computer communicat via IP address. It looks like this 213.157.56.147 for example (this IP is not real, i can't ping anything from this computer). When you enter your www..glogster.com your computer will rech for database od names and will find the right IP addres, than it will connect to it. Pahrming is a way to change that database od addresses. So when you type address you know, it will connect do different IP, which means to different page. This modification can be made by viruses for example.
VIRUSES Computer viruses are of all of the dangers most feared of. You all know what they can do. Delete files, send your data across the internet. Even demage computer. You are all aware that you need to use anti-virus software. Anti-spyware, anti-adware... But none of those can stop you form letting viruses in when you don't, again, obey some simple rules. I will tell you little something about viruses. All viruses, all of them, must be what we call executable code. It needs to be a program. Virus file must contain some code that can be executed in a computer memory (RAM). No images, no music, no movies, no textfiles can be viruses. They would have to contain that executable code and some of them can, but regular files don't. To enable virus to make demage you must first run in, or enable it to run. Run means execute, load into RAM memory and let it do the programme it contains. If you do not run virus code, it can not do anything. So there is where a good firewall comes in. It can prevent virus code from runnig. I do not wish to tell more, It would be probably too complicated for you. The ony thing is to remember, tahat you should NEVER run an executable file before checking it with antivirus .
celsey added this comment 2009-01-05 21:21:41-06:00
coow
lina2love added this comment 2011-09-04 15:39:48-05:00
O.
celsey added this comment 2009-01-05 21:21:41-06:00
coow
lina2love added this comment 2011-09-04 15:39:48-05:00
O.