Like many American families, ours is spread out all across this country, and my best chance to connect with my brother’s kids comes during our once-a-year reunion — until now, that is. Now that my nephew has email, I use the Internet to connect with him anytime.
The day I sent him his first email message, I called him on the phone to tell him to check his inbox. “I won’t get it,” he said, “my account has parental control”. He wasn’t kidding, my message didn’t make it through the filtering software. Before my message could get through, my brother had to add me to the filtering software’s list of acceptable addresses from which my nephew can receive email. It is a hurdle we encounter often, since I frequently send him neat material from educational websites that we haven’t previously used. Which means my brother has to go in again and update the filter’s list of authorized sites. It is an inconvenience, but much better than risking that the child be exposed to pornographic or violent material.
The Security Risk
The issue of Internet security concerns us not only with respect to our children, but also in terms of our national security, consumer affairs, and the integrity of the information held in our computers. We have seen the issue taken up by the the U.S. Congress, U.S. Catholic Bishops, the FBI, credit card companies, software vendors and many others. The question is, how do we manage two seemingly opposing goals — maintaining the Internet’s open access to computers all over the globe, while at the same time, securing transactions and sensitive information? All agree that the answer is multifaceted — we need hardware/software solutions, security procedures, legislation and law enforcement.
Before determining the security products and procedures you personally need for life in cyberspace, you should analyze your particular security risks and determine how you are affected. Consider how critical the information you hold in your hard drive is, and how much you stand to loose if a virus or hacker suddenly trashes your files. Do you have children at home and might they be at risk of being exposed to pornography? How do you minimize the chances of being cheated out of money online? The higher your risk factor, the more you need a good security strategy. The good news is, adopting just a few simple measures is all you need to be safe in cyberspace.
The Four Main Threats to Internet Security
Hacking
A hacker is a rogue programmer with a mission to gain unauthorized access to someone else’s computer for the purpose of snooping around, stealing or destroying data. These people seem to get a thrill when they succeed in breaking privacy and security barriers and the more prominent the victim, the better. When you are online, unless you have a “firewall” (computer that limits outside access from the world to your computer), you have no security barrier and it is possible for a hacker to access your computer and snoop around. Your connection to the Internet is a two way street — you are open to the world and the world is open to you. This is due to the Internet’s open architecture. Some Internet connections, such as the cable modem, keep your computer accessible all the time. The longer you are online, the more time there is for a hacker to access your files and do whatever he wants with them.
Viruses
A computer virus is loosely defined as a self-propagating computer program created by a hacker programmer for the purposes of destroying data. The virus enters your computer unnoticed by way of an email message, a diskette or a CD with an infected file. You could even unknowingly download it from another computer through the Internet. Once it enters your system, it copies itself into programs within your computer. The computer fulfills the virus instructions as it does all program instructions. The instructions generally direct the computer to do two things: propagate the virus by replacing other program instructions; and corrupt or delete files. According to http://www.securityfocus.com, the virus to watch this Christmas is one called Navidad. It arrives as an email attachment called navidad.exe and produces a button next to the clock labeled “Never press this button.” If you ignore the warning, it begins to spread, causing some minor damage to executable files in your email program. Fortunately, it has been given a medium risk rating and is said to be spreading slowly.
Consumer Fraud
The Federal Trade Commission has published a list of the “Top 10 Dot Cons” (http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/online/dotcons.htm). It reports that over 40% of online fraud occurs at Internet auctions where people sometimes get less than what they where promised, and sometimes nothing at all. The FCC recommends buying from reputable merchants and using a credit card to pay for the merchandise. This way, you are covered by your credit card’s fraud protection policy. And, while you may have concerns about paying for online purchases with a credit card, the FTC reports that less than four percent of Internet fraud occurs due to unauthorized billing to credit cards. If you are the victim of consumer fraud online, the FBI and the White Collar Crime Center have a website for reporting Internet fraud. Victims can easily report suspected criminal or civil violations. The Internet Fraud Complaint Center is at http://www.ifccfbi.gov.
Exposure to Pornographic and Violent Material
The U.S. Catholic Bishops have published a statement titled “Your Family and Cyberspace.” It states, “The world of Cyberspace puts children and adults, often in the privacy of their own homes, in contact with violent, hate-filled, or graphically sexual material that is ordinarily kept outside mainstream society … Adults as well as children have been victimized by sexual predators through the Internet.” The bishops’ statement recommends using filtering software, spending time together with your children online, talking about what they are doing online, and educating them as to the dangers that can be found online. Make sure your children know what to do if they are approached online or are in any way victimized.
Key Steps to Take as Part of Your Overall Internet Security Strategy
Here is your best Internet security strategy:
1) Back Up Your Files
2) Install a Firewall
3) Use Anti-Virus Software
4) Use Filtering Software and Stay Involved with Your Child
5) Be Careful Where You Spend Your Money
6) Report Abuses
7) Do Not Open Suspect email Attachments. (Instead, write the sender back to confirm that they did in fact send it to you, and that it is not a virus.)
The most important thing you can do to protect yourself from viruses or hackers is to back up your files. You should do so either nightly or weekly depending on how much work you generate and save in your computer. In the event that a virus corrupts all your files, you can restore everything from your backup archive.
There are many products in the market that can protect you. For convenience, get a program that will automatically backup your files and create recovery disks for use in the event of catastrophic loss. There are also products that offer a complete suite of security features such as filtering, firewall, and virus protection. One of the most popular ones is the Norton Internet Security 2000, named by Windows Magazine in the Win100 Awards list.
Whichever product you choose, being smart about the risks of Internet use and implementing a sound security strategy will put you way ahead of the Internet security game.
