Do you have an identity on the internet?

I feel it would be appropriate to remind everyone that when you post something to the internet. It is stored somewhere and accessible to who knows who. I came across an article that show that a private investigator is able to use the internet to find out just about anything he would need. The article goes on to indicate that everything that is done online is being stored somewhere.

The latest release of google (chrome) also has some fine print that says they have the right to collect your activities online with their search engine and store them as their own property. This causes me a little concern. Not that I am doing anything to hid. However, this information about you or I that they are storing is for the sole reason that they intend to sell people’s surfing habits and further fuel the pop ups and malware that some how ends up on everyone’s computers.

To read about the article please follow the link.

A tool to protect you from Fraudulent websites

There is free software that can be downloaded that will tell you when there is any change in the routes. If you would like to read more on this topic. As I see it, This should help eliminate the “man-in-the-middle attacks”.

“man in the middle is a form of active eavesdropping in which the attacker makes independent connections with the victims and relays messages between them, making them believe that they are talking directly to each other over a private connection when in fact the entire conversation is controlled by the attacker. The attacker must be able to intercept all messages going between the two victims and inject new ones, which is straightforward in many circumstances (for example, the owner of a public wireless access point can in principle conduct MITM attacks on the users).

A man-in-the-middle attack can only be successful when the attacker can impersonate each endpoint to the satisfaction of the other. Most cryptographic protocols include some form of endpoint authentication specifically to prevent MITM attacks. For example, SSL authenticates the server using a mutually trusted certification authority.

Flash Vulnerability

Be on the look out for links that you did not paste into your clipboard. There is a vulnerability that adobe is trying to correct. Read more from the tag.

Is there a new FACE for P2P Comcast tests P4P

I thought this article a good read this morning. Perhaps a new bred of P2P is on the horizon.

WHAT ARE LAWS FOR, if they are not being used!

I was reading a news release that states there is not enough being done to prosecute the internet crimes.

Rueters states that Internet Fraud like spam, malware, and other fraudlent activity cost the consumer 7.2 billion dollars. If this kind of crime is costing the consumer this much money. Why are these laws not being used to bring these crimes to the courts? As a consumer I am really tired of the malware, and spam that is messing up my computers.

To read more about this article from Rueters, please see the tag.

Pentegon delays Air Force’s Cyber Effort

I found an article supporting what I think about the war front. It is the new way of the war. It also appears that Russia incorporated this in the attack against Georgia.

Appears that some in our military agree. I found it interesting to see that Russia walked into Georgia with out being noticed when they took down the computer systems in Georgia.

Computer network attacks are the new air war. And it just might be cheaper then an F-22 or B-17.

Please see tag for the MSN documentation.

Russian Hackers attack Georgian web sites

Georgia website have been taking a hit on the internet front. MSN reports that they have suffered slow speeds across their network. MSN also reports that even the sites that are Georgian that are stored in the USA have been hit.

This is just another example of what I have been saying about the new war front. And another example of why security is important on the average users computers.

Most likely these attacks are taking place through several computers that are not secure. What is sometimes called a “zombie network” By doing this it makes it very difficult to track it back to the original hacker.

To read more about the article by By Peter Svensson, that I have referred to please see. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26177098/wid/11915829

New worm affecting Facebook and MySpace.

I was reading today and find there has been a worm released that affects, what I feel is the most common way for the teen and young adults to communicate on the internet. MySpace and Facebook.

Be on the look out for post that have a link in them to click on the link. The link my say something like “Paris Hilton Tosses a Dwarf”. There are other names that this may be called. But the general rule of thumb here is do not click on links. Another thing that you will want to be sure you are doing is updaing your antivirus.

Read more on this topic on http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/01/myspace_facebook_worm/

Security and Internet Browsers

I am sure everyone knows how important it is to keep our computers secure. However, we sometimes think of this only as making sure we have an anti-virus software installed on our computer. When there are a few more things needed. Along with the anti virus, we also need to have a firewall and some kind of protection from malware and spy ware.

There are many different anti-virus software available on the market today. All will do a good job at protecting your computer. In many cases there is no need to purchase any software. Many of the ISPs are providing security software free of charge. Contact your ISP to see if they offer anything free for you as a customer. Chances are if they are not, they will be soon.

Firewalls, I liken a firewall to a bouncer out outside of a nightclub. Your computer is a private party that a hacker would like to get access to. The firewall (bouncer) restricts access with out an invitation. Keep in mind that you can be running something on the computer (program) that will invite a hacker into the computer. These are sometimes known as Trojans.

There are many software on the market to protect your computer from malware. Most of these say they are free. Be aware that free means your computer is going to held hostage unless you purchase the software.

A couple of days ago I read an article on security. In this article it stated that in a study of internet users and their browsers. 637 million browser users were at risk. http://tech.msn.com/news/articlecnet.aspx?cp-documentid=8545484.
The article goes on to say that all internet users really need to do it keep their browsers up to date. I agree that this is true. There are a lot of reasons to update your browsers. One is that the new browsers will alert you to security issues on the websites that you are trying to visit is infected. This is an important feature and a reason to keep software updated.

Please, take a few minutes and make sure that your have updated your software. It is one of the most important steps that you can take to protect your self and your computer.

Phishing

If you have been using the internet for the last few years there are many terms that you have had to familiarize your self with. One of these terms is Phishing.
The term phishing (fishing) is a term that is used to describe the illegal attempt to obtain personal information. Usually this arrives in the form of an email that is requesting that you log into a link that was provided in the email. Usually these links will look normal; however, the link will take you to a fraudulent website that will look like the original site. This site may reflect ebay, or paypal, or your local bank that you just happen to have an account at. These sites are not legitimate sites. They are in fact illegal.
Once the target attempts to log into the fraudulent account it will pop up with an error or something to indicate that the password or user name was incorrect. It is to late, the targets login information is now provided to the thief.
The goal of this paper is to make everyone aware that it is important that we keep in mind that a legitimate site, will not ask you for your username or password. You will not get an email from your bank asking that you log into a link to verify your personal information.
If you find that you have received one of these emails. Never click on the link in the email. If your bank is “yourbank.com” and you get an email asking you to log in to verify your information. Do not use the link in the email. Instead, log in through your normal avenue. (Go directly to the webpage through your bookmarks or just type in your normal address.) Chances are you will protect your identity.
It is important to make sure you keep your software updated. Many of the new internet browsers have the ability to alert you to the fact that the webpage is a phishing site. As long as you are updating software it is important to make sure you update any antivirus and firewall software that you are running.
There are a couple of things that you need to do if you find you have received an email that might be phishing. First, you will want to contact your bank or the financial institution that is involved and try to find out if they are seeing this kind of activity being reported. Second, It is important to harvest the headers of your email. These headers will indicate where the emails are originating from. For information on reading headers you can do a Google search on reading headers. Once you have the headers and know what network it is originating from. You will need to do a whois and see if you can find out the abuse email address for the network. An example is abuse@(the ISP.Com). Every network has to have an abuse address. So it is important to make them aware of it so that they can eliminate it in a timely manner. The third thing you can do it notify your ISP (internet service provider). They will in many cases have contacts for the network that they can contact to help to get this activity removed from the network.
In today’s internet usage it is important to make sure you are running a firewall, and antivirus software. As well as making sure you are running some kind of spy ware software. It is my belief that these will best protect your computers from becoming infected.
For many years I have been working in the field of Internet Abuse as an investigator. In those years I have come to find that if your computer becomes infected. You will be best off by totally formatting the hard drive and starting your computer as if it were new. Please keep in mind if you decide to format, that you will lose all the data on your computer that you have installed since you purchased the pc. If you have installed several CD albums and you do not back them up. You will lose all of them.