Why is Cyber Security a Problem?

What is cyber security?

It seems that everything relies on computers and the internet now — communication (email, cellphones), entertainment (digital cable, mp3s), transportation (car engine systems, airplane navigation), shopping (online stores, credit cards), medicine (equipment, medical records), and the list goes on. How much of your daily life relies on computers? How much of your personal information is stored either on your own computer or on someone else's system?
Cyber security involves protecting that information by preventing, detecting, and responding to attacks.

What are the risks?

There are many risks, some more serious than others. Among these dangers are viruses erasing your entire system, someone breaking into your system and altering files, someone using your computer to attack others, or someone stealing your credit card information and making unauthorized purchases. Unfortunately, there's no 100% guarantee that even with the best precautions some of these things won't happen to you, but there are steps you can take to minimize the chances.

What can you do?

The first step in protecting yourself is to recognize the risks and become familiar with some of the terminology associated with them.

• Hacker, attacker, or intruder - These terms are applied to the people who seek to exploit weaknesses in software and computer systems for their own gain. Although their intentions are sometimes fairly benign and motivated solely by curiosity, their actions are typically in violation of the intended use of the systems they are exploiting. The results can range from mere mischief (creating a virus with no intentionally negative impact) to malicious activity (stealing or altering information).
• Malicious code - Malicious code, sometimes called malware, is a broad category that includes any code that could be used to attack your computer. Malicious code can have the following characteristics:
  • It might require you to actually do something before it infects your computer. This action could be opening an email attachment or going to a particular web page.
  • Some forms propagate without user intervention and typically start by exploiting a software vulnerability. Once the victim computer has been infected, the malicious code will attempt to find and infect other computers. This code can also propagate via email, websites, or network-based software.
  • Some malicious code claims to be one thing while in fact doing something different behind the scenes. For example, a program that claims it will speed up your computer may actually be sending confidential information to a remote intruder.
  Viruses and worms are examples of malicious code.
  
• Vulnerability - In most cases, vulnerabilities are caused by programming errors in software. Attackers might be able to take advantage of these errors to infect your computer, so it is important to apply updates or patches that address known vulnerabilities (see Understanding Patches for more information).

This series of cyber security tips will give you more information about how to recognize and protect yourself from attacks.

Source: http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-001.html

Recognizing Fake Antiviruses

What is fake antivirus?

Fake antivirus is malicious software (malware) designed to steal information from unsuspecting users by mimicking legitimate security software. The malware makes numerous system modifications making it extremely difficult to terminate unauthorized activities and remove the program. It also causes realistic, interactive security warnings to be displayed to the computer user.

How can my computer become infected with fake antivirus?

Criminals distribute this type of malware using search engines, emails, social networking sites, internet advertisements and other malware. They leverage advanced social engineering methodologies and popular technologies to maximize number of infected computers.

How will I know if I am infected?

The presence of pop-ups displaying unusual security warnings and asking for credit card or personal information is the most obvious method of identifying a fake antivirus infection.

What can I do to protect myself?

• Be cautious when visiting web links or opening attachments from unknown senders. See Using Caution with Email Attachments for more information.
• Keep software patched and updated. See Understanding Patches for more information on the importance of software patching.
• To purchase or renew software subscriptions, visit the vendor sites directly.
• Monitor your credit cards for unauthorized activity.
• To report Internet crime or fraud, contact the Internet Crime Complaint Cente. 

Source: http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST10-001.html

Online Top Ten Cyber Monday Tips

Buffalo, NY – ( release ) Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, has officially replaced Black Friday as the most popular day to shop for the holidays. Shopping online means avoiding the crowds, but it also opens up the buyer to attacks from scammers and hackers.

Every year, more people head online rather than to the mall to get their holiday shopping done. According to a preliminary shopping survey, conducted for the National Retail Federation by BIGresearch, up to 152 million people plan to shop Black Friday weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday), higher than the 138 million people who planned to do so last year. According to the survey, 74 million people say they will definitely hit the stores and another 77 million are waiting to see if the bargains are worth braving the cold and the crowds.

Mobile retail shopping is also expected to rise for smartphone owners, particularly with the twenty-something crowd. The National Retail Federation also found that individuals who shop online and in stores spent 25% more than those that shopped in stores only.

“You can’t beat shopping online for convenience, comfort and comparing prices,” said David Polino, Better Business Bureau President. “But don’t let your guard down. Take the necessary precautions to avoid fraudulent websites, scammers and other Grinches who would just love to take your money and ruin your holidays.”

BBB recommends the following top 10 tips for Cyber Monday and other dates when shopping online this holiday season to help fight unscrupulous online retailers, scammers and hackers: 

1. Protect your computer – A computer should always have the most recent updates installed for spam filters, anti-virus and anti-spyware software and a secure firewall. 

2. Shop on trustworthy websites – Shoppers should start at www.bbb.org to check on the seller’s reputation and record for customer satisfaction. It’s a good idea to look for the BBB logo and other widely-recognized seals on retailer websites, but make sure they are real (some rogue sites plagiarize seals to look legitimate).

3. Protect your personal information – BBB recommends taking the time to read the site’s privacy policy and understand what personal information is being requested and how it will be used. If there isn’t one posted, take that as a red flag that personal information may be sold to others without permission.

4. Beware of deals that sound too good to be true – Offers on websites and in unsolicited e-mails can often sound too good to be true, especially extremely low prices on hard-to-get items. Consumers should always go with their instincts and not be afraid to pass up a “deal” that might cost them dearly in the end. 

5. Beware of phishing – Legitimate businesses do not send e-mails claiming problems with an order or an account to lure the “buyer” into revealing financial information. If a consumer receives such an e-mail, BBB recommends picking up the phone and calling the contact number on the website where the purchase was made to confirm that there really is a problem with the transaction. 

6. Confirm your online purchase is secure – Shoppers should always look in the address box for the “s” in https:// and in the lower-right corner for the “lock” symbol before paying. If there are any doubts about a site, BBB recommends right-clicking anywhere on the page and select “Properties.” This will let you see the real URL (website address) and the dialog box will reveal if the site is not encrypted.

7. Pay with a credit card – It’s best to use a credit card, because under federal law, you can dispute the charges if you don’t receive the item. Your also have dispute rights if there are unauthorized charges on your credit card, and many card issuers have “zero liability” policies under which the card holder pays nothing if someone steals the credit card number and uses it. If you are going to shop on classifieds web sites like Craigslist, never wire money and only buy locally where you can see the item before you hand over your money.

8. Keep documentation of your order - After completing the online order process, there may be a final confirmation page or the shopper might receive confirmation by e-mail – BBB recommends saving a copy of the web page and any e-mails for future reference and as a record of the purchase.

9. Check your credit card statements often – Don’t wait for paper statements; BBB recommends consumers check their credit card statements for suspicious activity by either calling credit card companies or by looking at statements online regularly. 

10. Know your rights – Federal law requires that orders made by mail, phone or online be shipped by the date promised or, if no delivery time was stated, within 30 days. If the goods aren’t shipped on time, the shopper can cancel and demand a refund. There is no general three-day cancellation right, but consumers do have the right to reject merchandise if it’s defective or was misrepresented. Otherwise, it’s the company’s policies that determine if the shopper can cancel the purchase and receive a refund or credit.

Keep in mind some major retailers may jump start their selling clocks and begin their own Cyber Monday sooner. “Your game plan should also include a news watch for any last minute sale announcements,” added Polino. “We can all use a good deal and it feels great to snatch up what you’re looking for on sale.”

What if you don’t like what you ordered? Returning what you bought online can be tortuous if you don’t know what to look out for. BBB adds a few return tips to watch for:

Do you have to pay return shipping for any returned item? Most stores do charge and some require you to pay up front; others such as Amazon.com provide a return shipping label but will deduct the cost from your refund. Check it out before you click “complete my order.” You should not have to pay a shipping fee if you received the incorrect item, or if it was damaged.

Check on the return path. If you ordered online from a brick-and-mortar store, can you return it in person instead of shipping it back?
Do you have a "restocking fee?" Some stores will deduct this from your refund. This is also common in brick-and-mortar stores, especially for electronics. You should not pay a restocking fee if the item was damaged or defective.

Not Sure? Don’t Open it! Some stores will not allow you to return items if their sealed boxes have been opened.

Tick Tock. The store may set it’s own return clock. Check the store's time limit on returns. Some will only allow you to return an item within 14 to 30 days.

For more advice on staying safe online this holiday season, and to see reports on thousands of online retailers, go to www.bbb.org/us/consumer-tips-holiday/.

Cyber Bullying A Question of Punishment

Thirteen- year- old Megan Meier from Missouri struck up an online relationship with a sixteen- year- old named Josh who claimed to live in a nearby town.

The two communicated for several weeks through MySpace. Megan developed a strong connection to Josh; several weeks later, Josh posted that he no longer wanted to be friends with Megan because he had heard she was not a nice person and said that “the world would be a better place” without her.

On October 17, 2006, Megan hung herself. Shockingly, several weeks later, authorities revealed that Josh did not exist; he was a fictitious person created by Lori Drew, the mother of one of Megan’s former friends. 

Bullying, a widespread and serious problem is no longer limited to the schoolyard. In today’s society which is so technologically advanced, cyber-bullying, which consists of posting offensive posts on social networks, sending harassing emails or text messages, or revealing personal information about a victim without their consent, is now the new form of bullying.

Moreover, cyber-bullying often occurs under the cover of anonymity, since cyber bullies usually have aliases which make it easy to hide one’s true identity.

In recent years, cyber-bulling has lead to tragic and heartrending outcomes such as the victims committing suicide or suffering from severe depression. In schools particularly, cyber-bullying is on the rise.

According to a report of the 2006-07 school year, the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES) revealed that:

• 8,166,000 students or 31.7 % of students between the ages 12 – 18 reported they were bullied at school
• 940,000, or about 3.7 %, reported they were the victims of cyber-bullying on or off school property

Also in recent years, cyber-bulling has increased in terms of tragedies and awareness. As a result, most states have implemented cyber-bulling laws, like California which makes it a misdemeanor to impersonate someone through a website or other electronic means with the intent to harm, intimidate, or threaten. However, the question presented is should cyber-bullying be made a federal crime, thereby invoking a harsher punishment?

In the case of Megan, Lori was convicted of computer fraud in 2008 but the court’s decision was overturned in 2009. In the case of Tyler Clementi, a freshman of Rutgers University who died and was the victim of an internet hate crime, his roommates faced charges of invasion of privacy. These punishments lead to a public outcry for more severe punishment for cyber-bullying.

In an attempt to put an end to the outcry, in 2009 California U.S. Representative Linda Sanchez introduced the Megan Meier Cyber-bulling Prevention Act which makes it a federal crime to use electronic devices to “coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person” or to “support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior”. However, the bill never became law.

Making cyber-bullying a federal crime will be a difficult task, since our legal system is based on a retributivist system where the punishment must fit the crime. Moreover, punishment should not be implemented based on the public outrage. Although cyber-bullying has serious consequences, which in some cases ends in suicide, this should not influence or cloud the judgment of a prosecutor.

Also, there is the question of society’s role in cyber-bullying. We live in a virtually connected society, in which we are encouraged by social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter to post our every thought and whereabouts online, at the same time sacrificing our own privacy for connectedness. Therefore, society needs to be mindful of the level of responsibility required when posting on these social media sites.

Cyber-bullying is a dangerous act that has serious consequences, and living in a society that is ruled by social media, i.e., Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., gives us an immense amount of publishing power. However, with such an increase in power there also comes an increase in responsibilty, a thought that may not be on the minds of the current and upcoming social media generation.

In terms of making cyber-bullying a federal crime or having a harsher punishment for cyber-bullies, in the words of the great philosophers John Mills and Jeremy Bentham, “the punishment must fit the crime.” However, if cyber-bulling leads a victim to commit suicide, a question society needs to answer before public outrage is “what is the actual level of influence of these cyber-bullies?”

How social media is helping beat cyber bullyings

Social media and online content have been blamed for the rise of cyber-bullying – and now they are being used to counter it

The traditional media loves a cyber-bullying story, and while cynics may argue that the level and tone of the coverage owes much to the Fourth Estate’s desire to put the young interloper that is social media in its place, the ubiquity and scope of online content and social media channels make the issue impossible to ignore.

The issue reached its peak following the suicide of a young Rutgers University student, Tyler Clementi, whose college roommate posted a secretly filmed video on YouTube of him having sex. With so much of the sad saga played out via social media channels – from the initial video posting, to the offending roommate tweeting his intentions to repeat his actions, to Tyler’s chilling suicide note on Facebook – there is no doubt that social media was a main agent in the whole affair.

Because of its reach, cyber-bullying can have a devastating impact on a young person’s life. A schoolyard bully has limited scope within which to humiliate and torment, but an online bully can seem unstoppable. The immediacy and sheer reach of social media means that the reactions to being embarrassed on such a forum are equally exaggerated. It’s bad enough to feel like your whole school is laughing behind your back, but the whole world?

But while social media and online content have the potential to inflame and multiply the effects of bullying, they can also be successfully harnessed to provide a solution to the problem.

Beating the bullies

Several organisations are already doing just that, with MTV launching Draw Your Line, a visualisation tool that encourages young people to take action against digital abuse and share these actions and tips with others. The tool is part of A Thin Line, an organisation dedicated to decreasing digital abuse and bullying, and protecting children and young adults from the dangers of an increasingly online world.

Closer to home, the Inspire Foundation, an Australian youth organisation, runs Reach Out, a program designed to improve mental health and increase general wellbeing among young people. Understanding the world in which its audience moves, the program makes heavy use of social media, with blogging platforms, an online community and a highly interactive website that targets everything from young people dealing with mental illness and alcohol abuse to home problems and cyber-bullying.

It is a prime example of the ways in which the same channels that have enabled cyber-bullying weapons can be used to successfully counter it. The Australian Government has also sought to address the issue through its cybersmart website and dedicated YouTube channel.

Social media is a conduit through which society operates. Of itself, it is neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad’, but it magnifies the good and the bad that exists – and has always existed – in society. The fact that it is successfully being used to counter something as insidious as bullying is surely a good thing.

 

 

 

Online Cyber Crimes And Its Aspects

Growing IT industry is helping human being through several methods. We can save time, money and efforts without any loss of quality and data. Now distance is not a problems and time is too much to do more works. Now-a-days industry is inventing new technologies and methods to make an effortless world where nothing will be impossible. It industry is giving maximum cooperation to lead the world in the new technological era.

Growth of IT industry has solved thousands of problems but it has created many new problems that were not thought or faced by us in previous history such as illegal data transmission, terrorism, increasing pornography, fraud, spamming and much more. Developed countries have started work in this direction and setup a different department especially for the crime related to IT industry, which are called also Cyber Crimes. According to wikipedia.org, Cyber Crime is a form of crime where the internet or computers are used as a medium to commit crime. We can include hacking, copyright infringement, illegal money transition by fraud or hacking, child pornography, virus child grooming, drug trafficking etc. in brief we can say that IT industry needs extra responsibility and strict international law.

The law which deals with cyber crime is called cyber law. Mostly countries are following US cyber laws and international cyber law to stop the cyber crime in their borders. According to cyber law we can divided it into two types of categories:

1. Crimes in which computer networks or devices are target directly. We can count virus, malicious software, spamming etc. in this type.
2. Crime is committed through computer network or device. This is more tough then previous as it has included first also.

We can divide cyber crime in following categories:

Spam: is the unsubscribed sending of bulk email for commercial or personal purposes. Spamming is strictly illegal by law. Many nations have setup anti-spam laws to sort out the local matter.

Computer Fraud: is another serious type of fraud through internet which has targeted many people in previous months. Some mischievous persons also tried to make a cheating with financial institutions and companies, which results financial loss or illegal money transfer.

Offensive Content: IT industry has simplify to make a website, but it has also create a new trouble for experts as thousands of people are uploaded offensive and obscene content which may be racial, illegal and unlawful. You may get here content on how to murder, how to rape, how to hack bank and much more. This information is now easily accessible for everyone, which may be dangerous for all humanity.

Pornography: IT industry has played the most important role to spread pornography in all over world. IT industry has provided tools with infinite power, which are continue generating porn content including child pornography and adult videos, pictures, text and many things. According to Google, adults sites are earning maximum money than other websites.

Drug Trafficking: Internet has made marketing easy, that anybody can reach to anyone to sell a drug or something else. Mafia is also using this tool to sell their illegal drugs taking advantages of internet. There is no need of face-to-face communication in online selling or so it more easy to sell their recipes and prepared drugs to all over the world without any limit.

Cyber terrorism: is a new type of terrorism which is a new threat to human being from terrorist. Terrorists are using internet and other technologies to achieve their target, they distributed offensive content and drugs. They are hiring new generation to join their terrorist organization. They are communicating more easily with other international terrorists and are creating great problems for human being.

Hacking: Hacking is the worst side of internet technology as it is used to achieve all illegal purposes. Today it is also used by state’s government to hack its enemy’s national security. Criminals are using hacking to earn a lot of money, while the nations are hacking for knowing their enemies internal secrets. This is the only crime which is done at national level by government as well as criminals.

What is cyber law.............)

Cyber crime is a very familiar word to internet and mobile users. It covers each and every crime, in which any type of electronic communication or information technology has been used. This is a crime of virtual world of internet. Growing rates of internet users is also raising rates of cyber crime in various manners. Cyber crime has started to hijack our social and personal life. All the related issues of cyber crime are dealt with cyber law. Cyber law is a set of law which enables the state to control and regulate the cyber world or cyberspace.

Cyber law covers all crimes related to internet or computers. It includes all possible crimes such as hacking of information, copyright infringement, financial theft, pornography, abusing etc. on online. Cyber law has been divided in two sections— local government level and global level. At local government level it is heard in jurisdiction of concerned country, while at global level it is used to cross-border crimes which is decided according to international legal system. Cyber laws deals with following points:

Spam: unauthorized sending of bulk emails is illegal according cyber law. It is the smallest but mostly times done crime of cyber law but spammer may have get strict punishment from the court.

Fraud: Any internet or computer user who represents him/her self wrongly with false information to cheat someone is a fraud. A fraud He can sell or disable your data after hacking it. He can make an unauthorized transaction of money from one account to another. He can steal personal information for his personal use or hacking your online accounts. He can make unauthorized access to another system or he can cheat you through false information.

Posting/uploading offensive or obscene content: Anyone can’t upload content which is offensive or indecent in any manner. No one can promote nudity, pornography including content having abusive, seditious, slanderous and racist language.

Harassment: No one is allowed to harass anyone on any basis through electronic communication. It covers all possible types of harassing such as cyber bullying, stalking, threat or hate mails. It protects cyber users from net bullies.

Illegal drug trafficking: is also a part of cyber crimes. Banned medicines, illegal drugs and harmful steroids can’t be sold through internet or cyber world. Cyber law stops the illegal drug trafficking in every manner.

Cyber terrorism: is a new form of terrorism based on information technology. We can understand it as attack on our cyber space which is more dangerous then real terrorism. A group of professional experts of information technology can destroy the internal systems of servers and can take over the whole control of a city or state in their hand to damage its civil and emergency services for their personal motives.

Cyber Security And Safety Tips online

In today’s digital age, cyber security is as important, if not more so, as actual security guarding a real piece of company property. However they may differ, they both have safeguard strategies that need to be implemented to the letter to be effective.

The following are some guidelines for use in cyber security:

Up-to-date anti-virus software

This is a given: all computers must have anti-virus software. The anti-virus software is specifically created and designed to protect your computer against known viruses.

There is one caveat, however. New viruses are created almost daily. There is a need, therefore, to update your anti-virus program on a regular basis to recognize these new variants of viruses.

Like flu shots, only that they are done more often, these regular updates can help stop these viruses. These regular updates are antidotes for these man-made vermin.

Firewalls

Firewalls are virtual defensive fortifications to protect your computer from the outside world. They filter unauthorized data from elsewhere, mostly the Internet, while allowing authorized or ‘good’ data to enter your computer.

All types of firewalls are available in most computer stores, and some computer manufacturing companies bundle them together with their computers that you purchase.

Emails

The simplest rule is this: if you don’t know the person who is sending you an email, be very careful about opening the email and never open any file attached to it.

Sometimes, you may have a vague idea who the sender is, but you should still be careful.

Some tell-tale signs include unusual hyperlinks and/or urgent messages to open the attached file. Some of your friends may have been conned and unwittingly forwarded you a virus-laden email.

When in doubt, delete. Your friend will understand.

Passwords

Passwords were created to be your virtual key to computer data. Like real-life keys, passwords are only as good if they are difficult to ‘duplicate’ or guessed.

Some of the guidelines are: Don’t share your password, don’t use your same password in more than one place, and most importantly, create a password that is difficult to guess.

Here are some time-tested rules in password-making:

1. Passwords should have a minimum of 8 characters, and should be as meaningless as possible.

2. Use all kinds of types possible – lower case, upper case, numbers, symbols, special characters, etc.

3. Change your passwords regularly, every three months, for example.

4. Never give out your password to anybody.

Back-up Data

Experienced computer users know one primary rule: always back up your data. Small amounts of data can be stored on disks and on CDs if they are more than the disk can handle. For computers in a network, the usual backup is through the network data storage system. The overall idea is that if anything happens to your primary data, you can always retrieve them from somewhere.

File sharing

Another big no-no for experienced computer users is sharing them with strangers. Your computer operating system may allow file sharing from other computers in your network or from the Internet. This is one sure way of infecting your computer. Be sure to turn off and disable file-sharing if it is not needed.

Disconnecting from the Internet

Cutting your computer’s connection with the Internet when not in use lessens the possibility of accessing it. If your computer has no firewall or updated anti-virus protection, someone could harm it.

Update security patches

Just like your anti-virus program, there is a need to regularly update your other computer programs. Sometimes, bugs are discovered in your regular programs that can be an entrance to your computer for any malicious person to attack and infect.

Software companies create patches for these and post them in their sites. They can be downloaded and are automatically patched up into your program in question.

Regular security checkups

Like a car’s multiple systems, a computer security programs need regular checkups, too. Sometimes, you may discover that a program is outdated through simple oversight. Some security settings have to be adjusted according to your present needs. Twice-a-year evaluation is good enough.

Security awareness

Like preparing for emergencies in real life, it is good policy to make sure that family members or probably your employees would know what to do during computer emergencies.

They must at least be aware of proper computer security practices – how to update virus protection programs, how to download patches, how to create proper passwords.

Cyber security, like any real security, needs everybody’s help for it to succeed and avert those dreaded computer attacks.

Penis Stretchers Science

Penis Stretcher Science

 

You might be interested in penis enlargement and may have very likely stumbled upon, what is known as, a penis stretcher. Penis stretchers have become one of the most popular means of increasing penis size, particularly due to the promising scientific proof behind the penis stretcher.

Doctors in the United States, Europe and Canada have all hailed the efficacy of penis stretchers and their popularity continues to grow. 

What is A Penis Stretcher?

A penis stretcher is not the quickest method to achieve penis enlargement, but more often than not it can increase your penis length by up to 35%. The penis stretcher applies a small amount of stress to the skin cells of the penis, forcing them to regenerate and subsequently causing the penis to become larger.

The penis stretcher also works to increase the interior cavities of the penis, which allows for stronger and harder erections.

Penis Stretchers are 100% Safe

Penis stretchers have been on the market for over 10 years now, with no reports of side effects. The penis stretcher is a safe and comfortable device, which can genuinely help to increase the overall size of the penis. If you are looking to add on 2 to 3 inches to your penis size, the penis stretcher is the most effective method to do so. It is a all natural penis enlargement method that is safe and really works. The X4 Labs penis stretcher in particular is a CE Approved and medically certified to ensure the safety of the penis stretcher.

 

Last Minutes Tips for Cyber Monday

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, are two of the most hyped, busiest shopping days of the Christmas shopping season. They’re also two of the most lucrative days of the year for affiliates.

If you’re an affiliate who sells products that appeal to Christmas shoppers such as toys, gifts, electronics, sporting goods, gift baskets or apparel, this is the time of year you need to be focused. Having a plan and executing it now will greatly increase your traffic, the quality of your the amount of your commission you earn.

If you’re looking to make money this holiday season, you have less than a couple of weeks to get your site ready. Have fun with these tips, and be sure to get started today!

Post About Deals

If you create content on your site about Black Friday / Cyber Monday coupons and deals and create unique search optimized pages on these deals, you’ll be creating content that’s great for your readers that’s also great for the search engines. Make sure to get the most out of your headlines and use the keyword “deals,” “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday,” the names of the retailer, and the names of any products. Do this, and you’ll see traffic pouring in from the search engines.

Delete Old Pages

If you have pages on your site that aren’t earning income, such as reviews of three-year old electronics that no one buys, make sure to pull them down and create a 301 redirect to a newer product on your site.

Tell Your Friends

Make sure that everyone in your personal network … friends, family colleagues and acquaintances, knows about your site, the great deals, and the fact you’re there to help them find the right gift. Then ask them to tell their friends, through word of mouth, email and social media.

SEO for Holiday Keywords

While we’ve discussed the benefit of optimizing your site for product names, brand names and model numbers, we’ve haven’t gone into depth about holiday keywords. Look for combination of gift names and the people who might receive them, such as “gifts for coworkers” and “presents for grandmothers.” Optimize for some of those terms as well and you’ll maximize your traffic and sales.

Online Cyber Security Tips for Small Businesses

There’s been a lot of buzz in the news centered around Cyber Security. ABC News reported yesterday that al Qaeda has called for an “electronic jihad” against the United States. FBI directors are retiring and saying the county is losing the cyber war. Legislators are trying to help the agencies charged with protecting us through legislation (CISPA). People are squawking about it. The media is sensationalizing it. Individuals and small business owners are confused by it or in denial of it and are therefore ignoring it. This is where the danger lies.

The threat is real, persistent, targeted, and professional. Threats to your business and personal security are not originating from bored “basement dwellers” looking to see how far they can go for the fun and challenge of it. Cyber criminals are organized, knowledgeable business professionals who are well-funded from the fraud they’ve committed.

According to Verizon’s 2011 Data Breech Investigations Report:

1. Large-scale breaches dropped dramatically while small attacks increased. The report notes there are several possible reasons for this trend, including the fact that small to medium-sized businesses represent prime attack targets for many hackers, who favor highly automated, repeatable attacks against these more vulnerable targets, possibly because criminals are opting to play it safe in light of recent arrests and prosecutions of high-profile hackers.
2. Outsiders are responsible for most data breaches. Ninety-two percent of data breaches were caused by external sources. Contrary to the malicious-employee stereotype, insiders were responsible for only 16 percent of attacks. Partner-related attacks continued to decline, and business partners accounted for less than 1 percent of breaches.
3. Physical attacks are on the rise. After doubling as a percentage of all breaches in 2009, attacks involving physical actions doubled again in 2010, and included manipulating common credit-card devices such as ATMs, gas pumps and point-of-sale terminals. The data indicates that organized crime groups are responsible for most of these card-skimming schemes.
4. Hacking and malware is the most popular attack method. Malware was a factor in about half of the 2010 caseload and was responsible for almost 80 percent of lost data. The most common kinds of malware found in the caseload were those involving sending data to an external entity, opening backdoors, and keylogger functionalities.
5. Stolen passwords and credentials are out of control. Ineffective, weak or stolen credentials continue to wreak havoc on enterprise security. Failure to change default credentials remains an issue, particularly in the financial services, retail and hospitality industries.

As a case-study, I submit a new client who came to us for web work. After noticing odd behaviors in their email, we detected that they were under an advanced persistent attack. The attack involved using a compromised Yahoo email account and publicly available information in order to impersonate a vendor. The attackers then attempted to trick the client into wiring funds to the hacker in another country.

This was professional, organized crime; targeted, persistent, and a very real attack. This could have happened to anyone and according to our contacts at the FBI, this type of attack is becoming more and more common.

As small business owners, or even individuals, you cannot afford the luxury of thinking that you’re too small to be noticed. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to protect yourself.

1. If you are a business, do not rely on yahoo mail, gmail, MSN mail, hotmail, or any other free email service for your business email accounts. Those systems are vulnerable to compromise on a large scale, and therefore your confidential email correspondence is also vulnerable. With most domain registrars, you get 5 or more email accounts free with your registration. Use them. And don’t just have them forwarded to your gmail account either.
2. If you are an individual or a business, do not do business, especially financial transactions, with companies who don’t have an email address on their own domain name. Cyber criminals have automated methods of setting up thousands of bogus email addresses on systems that offer free email accounts. It costs them nothing. While a domain name registration is inexpensive to a business or individual, purchasing thousands at a time is cost prohibitive to a criminal racket – and its trackable. Use the source of the email address as your first line of defense in identifying the bad guys. Don’t rely on the “from name” that most email accounts offer as matched up with the email address. Periodically look at the actual email address of the person you’re corresponding with to make sure the address matched with the name is the right one.
3. Try not to mix business email with personal. It’s imperative that you move your business email away from your personal, that way if one is compromised, the other will remain safe.
4. Use strong passwords and change them frequently. I know you’ve heard this a thousand times, but if you look at bullet point #5 from the Verizon report, it’s still a rampant problem. This is the most basic of defenses, but it is extremely important. More importantly, use different passwords for each account and don’t store them tucked under your keyboard. Check out Password Safe (http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/) for a more secure way of storing your passwords.
5. Don’t open unsolicited attachments, even if they’re from someone you know. Most of you have learned not to click on .exe files. Verify with the sender using another medium that they were the ones who sent it to you if it is a .doc/x, .ppt, or a .pdf.
6. As a corollary to number 4, don’t click on links embedded into emails if the source is questionable. I may be more paranoid than most, but I hover over every link I intend to click and look at the actual destination before I click it. In most cases, I don’t even click it then. Rather, I manually navigate to the site and look that way.
7. Do not click on any link that has been run through a link shortening service (eg. bit.ly or owl.ly). The reason is that you can’t see where your ultimate destination is. Malware has been spread quickly and easily through Twitter because of these link shortening services. Don’t click. If you really want to see the article, search for it or ask the original poster for the real, direct link. You need to know where you’re going and if it’s a trustworthy site.
8. Don’t use link shortening services like bit.ly or owl.ly. If your link is legitimate, let your friends and clients know that by providing the whole thing. WordPress, unfortunately, messed up its “get shortlink” feature when it added in JetPack and it uses wp.com instead of your own domain name. Find a way to use your own domain name instead, even if it means a longer link. There are plug-ins that will shorten and manage links for you in a more hygienic way.
9. If it’s valuable, treat it as valuable. Many business leaders are trained to monetize potential losses and if the cost of protecting it is more than the value of the data being protected, they choose to write it off as a loss should it be stolen – in many cases, that data was your credit card or bank account information. So far, no one has sued and received damages for a corporation’s improperly handling their personal data. But who can place a dollar figure on your brand’s reputation? Especially if you’re an individual or a small business. Your reputation must remain above question because you don’t have millions of dollars, a legal staff, and a marketing office to repair and deal with any damage to your image.
10. Monitor your web traffic as well as where your email is being accessed from. With very few exceptions, you can look at the IP addresses used to access your account. Most email services offer up the region of origin for those addresses. If you discover an IP address in China has accessed your account and you haven’t been in China, change your password immediately.
11. Keep your personal data off the web. It’s impossible to be completely confidential with all of your data and still be in business. If people can’t contact you, you can’t do business. Likewise, if people can’t research you and verify your legitimacy, you’re not going to be doing much business either. However, I recommend that you sit down and outline just how much data is necessary to share, decide what pieces you are going to put on the web, and then keep the rest safely off the Internet. In the case study above, the vendor was impersonated from the data in their email signature alone: name, company name, email, website, phone number. And it wasn’t the vendor’s systems that were compromised in order for them to do it. That leads us to tip #12.
12. Consider email encryption and signing. Installing public key encryption software on your email client will allow you to “certify” every email you send out as having been sent by you. Look at openpgp.org for a free public key encryption solution.

Would it help motivate you if I said it was your patriotic duty to practice safe Internet? If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Hijacked computers are used as “bot nets” by these criminal organizations in order to get into other people’s systems. How would it feel if you found out your computer was used to defraud another business? Vigilance at the individual level is required to protect this country’s economic interests.

I’m available to business meeting groups or other clubs and organizations as a speaker on this issue. This is important for all of us, no matter how large or small.

Safety Tips for New Bloggers

So you want to start a blog? Go ahead!  It’s easy to set one up at any of the free blogging services like Blogger or Wordpress. Choose a template. Fill out the required information. But then you have to make an important decision: do use your real name or remain anonymous?

I started blogging in the early days of the medium and the first round of blogs I came across in my city were all written anonymously. So that’s what I did because it seemed standard. Now, more and more people (myself included) write blogs under their real names. But there are still some reasons why you might want to remain behind the curtain. Perhaps you don’t want your employer to think you’re blogging on company time. Maybe you want to rant about your friends and family without having them to see your unfiltered thoughts. Or maybe you’re going to write an intimate blog and you simply feel more free to express yourself by remaining anonymous.

In those cases, you need to stay anonymous – especially if you are a woman. If you decide to write a blog that gives lurid details about your dating and love life, you need to take extra precautions regarding your profile and your day-to-day content. Writing posts of a sexual nature is bound to attract some Internet predators and you really need to protect your identity. And don’t think that it’s safe to write under just your first name. Instead, make up a name or choose one that isn’t even closely related to your own. Don’t give any indication about where you live. If you’re telling a story about going on a date at a certain restaurant, just say “a sushi place near downtown.” And obviously, don’t give any personal information in your profile.

As you carry on, you will start to get commenters as the goal of any blogger is to generate dialog about your blog topics. You may banter back and forth with some of them. Make sure that you set up a completely separate email address where commenters can send their email. This will help keep your real life and virtual identities separate and safe from those who are resourceful. Believe it or not, there are people who spend hours each day seeking out prey and know some extremely creative ways to find out who you are.

Online Safety Tips Safe Internet Surfing Tips for Parents and Kids

Safe Internet Surfing Tips for Parents and Kids

Top Ten Tips for Parents to Share with their Kids About Online Behavior

 

1. Talk with your children to agree what kind of sites they are allowed to visit. Have open conversations with your children about the kinds of websites they are allowed to visit. Once you establish guidelines you then need to check to make sure that they stay within these agreed limits.  Sometimes your children will stumble upon content that you do not want them to see
   Unfortunately there are many websites on the Internet that actually ‘lure’ kids into their site.  For instance, most kids spend a lot of time on youtube.com However, if your child mistakenly adds an extra y to the url (youytube.com) they are immediately whisked away to a very graphic XXX site.  So even if your kids agree to certain limits they can easily land where they don’t want to be.
2. Keep your children out of unmonitored chat rooms and  monitor where they go. Most all kids are involved with a chat room or two.  They ‘meet’ new friends virtually but in the virtual world you never really know who you are talking to.  Sometimes these people are adults trying to gain the friendship and trust of young children.   Additionally, children should stay away from chat rooms that allow sexual discussions.
   Some chat rooms are monitored by an employee of the company or a volunteer.  However, the chats can get fairly explicit.  If the participants in that conversation are asked to leave the chat room they can simply use another form of communication to continue the conversation online.  Chat rooms can be a dangerous place and parents need to talk to their kids about the potential dangers.
3. Place the computer in a well-trafficked area in the home where the whole family can use it. While this practice can help with younger children parents need to also realize that kids today access the Internet in so many ways.  While keeping the family computer in a central area helps, it is not a total solution.
   The reality is that kids can go online almost anywhere: school, library, coffee shop, work or a friend’s house.  They have devices such as cell phones, smart phones, consoles like X box and Play Station that can all connect to the Internet.
4. Set up very specific guidelines if you are going to allow your children to have accounts on social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Be sure you have access to their account so you can monitor what they are posting and saying online.  It is also a good idea to become their friend so you can actually monitor how and who they are interacting with.  And remember, once it is posted it lives forever on the Internet-there is no delete or un-do.
   A public university denied a woman a teaching degree because of a photo she posted on her MySpace with the caption “drunken pirate”.  (The Wired Campus, 2008)
5. Never give out personal information online. This includes things like,address, telephone number, the name or location of their school, or their parents' names. You also need to be careful of any photos that you might post.
   A simple picture of you, in a cheerleading uniform, standing in front of your house could provide enough information for a stranger to physically locate you. Online predators have ways to innocently ask simple questions over a period of time that gives them enough information to know who you are and where you live.
6. Never, for any reason, agree to meet someone face to face that you met online. Unless your parents are aware of the meeting and plan on going with you, this could be potentially very dangerous.  Even if your parents are with you the meeting should take place in a public area.
   You simply just don’t know who you are talking to online.  Over the course of two years, MySpace kicked 90,000 known registered sex offenders off its website. (Schonfeld, 2009)
7. Make sure you have access to your child’s email password. Very little information is required to set up an email account with services like Google or Yahoo.  Basically you provide a name, age and a password and you can quickly and easily set up a free email account.  If your child has additional email accounts they may be conversing with people they don’t want you to know about.
   A 14 year old girl from Canada reported,  “I was online in a chat room and this guy was sexually harassing me by saying stuff to me and he wouldn't leave me alone. i had to exit the chat room and shut down my email account so he couldn’t bother me”. (CyberBullying.us)
8. Did you realize that there is no way to verify your age online? Porn sites, gambling sites, alcohol and tobacco and drug sites simply ask if you are 18 when you sign up.  All anyone has to do is to check a box, agree that you are 18, and you are allowed to set up an account and view the site.
   In January 2009 a Supreme Court decision took “online age verification” off the table as a requirement for Children Online Protection Act.  So when it comes to the Internet we are pretty much stuck with trusting kids and adults to give their correct age.
9. Make sure your kids know to tell you about anything online that makes them uncomfortable. Most kids who suffer or experience cyberbullying do not tell their parents as they are afraid they will lose their online privileges. They also do not report unwanted email or spam with sexually explicit materials.
10. Be sure to talk to your kids about cyber bullying. Four out of 10 kids have been bullied online and five out of 10 have said mean things about others online. Cyber bullying continues to grow and the ultimate bade result can be bullycide or suicide.  Also, most kids who suffer or experience cyberbullying do not tell their parents as they are afraid they will lose their online privileges.
    After being bullied and tormented, 13 year old Megan Meir hanged herself.  While it was thought that a teenaged boy was sendingin her messages on MySpace, it was actually a classmate’s mother who fabricated the profile and bullied 13 year of Meir.

 

 

Cyber Safety Statistics, keep reading

• 95% of parents don't recognize the lingo kids use to let people know that their parents are watching
• 89% of sexual solicitations are made in either chat rooms or Instant Messages
• 20% of children age 10-17 have been solicited sexually online; that's 1 out of every 5 kids
• 75% of youth who received an online sexual solicitation did not tell a parent
• One third of kids have been contacted by a stranger and half of these were considered inappropriate
• 81% of parents of online youth say that kids aren't careful enough when giving out information about themselves online
• 76% of parents don't have rules about what their kids can do on the computer
• 65% of parents believe that kids do things online that they wouldn't want their parents to know about
• 4,000,000 children are posting content to the Web everyday
• 15,000,000 youth use Instant Messaging
• 9 out of 10 parents will never know that any inappropriate contact has occurred
• 14% have actually met face to face with a person they have met on the Internet
• 1 out of 17 kids have been harassed, threatened, or bullied
• Nearly three-quarters (73%) of online teens believe that someone their age is most likely to be approached by someone unknown to them online as opposed to offline
• When asked how they responded the last time they were contacted online by a complete stranger, just 3% of online teens said they told and adult or authority figure
• Most kids will not report inappropriate Internet contact to their parents because they are afraid of losing Internet privileges
• 61% of 13-17 yr olds have a personal profile on social networking sites
• 44% of online teens with profiles like Facebook and Myspace have been contacted by a stranger, compared with 16 percent of those without profiles.
• 71% have reported receiving messages from someone they do not know
• 45% have been asked for personal info from people they do not know
• 48% of 16-17 yr olds report that their parents know "very little" or "nothing" about their online activities
• MySpace deletes 25,000 profiles weekly of users who don't meet the site's 14-year-old minimum age requirement
• From 2007-2009 MySpace has deleted 90,000 accounts because they were created by registered sex offenders

Fortunately research shows that adults are catching up with kids in the use of text messaging. In 2006-2008, texting by adults ages 45 to 54 increased 130 percent. Half of texting adults say they started sending messages so they could communicate with their children. Bravo, NetLingo is here to help!

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Online Cyber Security Tips

In today’s digital age, cyber security is as important, if not more so, as actual security guarding a real piece of company property. However they may differ, they both have safeguard strategies that need to be implemented to the letter to be effective.

The following are some guidelines for use in cyber security:

Up-to-date anti-virus software

This is a given: all computers must have anti-virus software. The anti-virus software is specifically created and designed to protect your computer against known viruses.

There is one caveat, however. New viruses are created almost daily. There is a need, therefore, to update your anti-virus program on a regular basis to recognize these new variants of viruses.

Like flu shots, only that they are done more often, these regular updates can help stop these viruses. These regular updates are antidotes for these man-made vermin.

Firewalls
Firewalls are virtual defensive fortifications to protect your computer from the outside world. They filter unauthorized data from elsewhere, mostly the Internet, while allowing authorized or ‘good’ data to enter your computer.

All types of firewalls are available in most computer stores, and some computer manufacturing companies bundle them together with their computers that you purchase.

Emails
The simplest rule is this: if you don’t know the person who is sending you an email, be very careful about opening the email and never open any file attached to it.

Sometimes, you may have a vague idea who the sender is, but you should still be careful.
Some tell-tale signs include unusual hyperlinks and/or urgent messages to open the attached file. Some of your friends may have been conned and unwittingly forwarded you a virus-laden email.

When in doubt, delete. Your friend will understand.

Passwords
Passwords were created to be your virtual key to computer data. Like real-life keys, passwords are only as good if they are difficult to ‘duplicate’ or guessed.

Some of the guidelines are: Don’t share your password, don’t use your same password in more than one place, and most importantly, create a password that is difficult to guess.
Here are some time-tested rules in password-making:

1.) Passwords should have a minimum of 8 characters, and should be as meaningless as possible.

2.) Use all kinds of types possible – lower case, upper case, numbers, symbols, special characters, etc.

3.) Change your passwords regularly, every three months, for example.

4.) Never give out your password to anybody.

Back-up Data
Experienced computer users know one primary rule: always back up your data. Small amounts of data can be stored on disks and on CDs if they are more than the disk can handle. For computers in a network, the usual backup is through the network data storage system. The overall idea is that if anything happens to your primary data, you can always retrieve them from somewhere.

File sharing
Another big no-no for experienced computer users is sharing them with strangers. Your computer operating system may allow file sharing from other computers in your network or from the Internet. This is one sure way of infecting your computer. Be sure to turn off and disable file-sharing if it is not needed.

Disconnecting from the Internet
Cutting your computer’s connection with the Internet when not in use lessens the possibility of accessing it. If your computer has no firewall or updated anti-virus protection, someone could harm it.

Update security patches
Just like your anti-virus program, there is a need to regularly update your other computer programs. Sometimes, bugs are discovered in your regular programs that can be an entrance to your computer for any malicious person to attack and infect.

Software companies create patches for these and post them in their sites. They can be downloaded and are automatically patched up into your program in question.

Regular security checkups
Like a car’s multiple systems, a computer security programs need regular checkups, too. Sometimes, you may discover that a program is outdated through simple oversight.  Some security settings have to be adjusted according to your present needs. Twice-a-year evaluation is good enough.

Security awareness
Like preparing for emergencies in real life, it is good policy to make sure that family members or probably your employees would know what to do during computer emergencies.

They must at least be aware of proper computer security practices – how to update virus protection programs, how to download patches, how to create proper passwords.

Cyber security, like any real security, needs everybody’s help for it to succeed and avert those dreaded computer attacks.

Cyber Safety Statistics Parents if you don't know about the need to protect your kids online.

• 95% of parents don't recognize the lingo kids use to let people know that their parents are watching

• 89% of sexual solicitations are made in either chat rooms or Instant Messages
• 20% of children age 10-17 have been solicited sexually online; that's 1 out of every 5 kids
• 75% of youth who received an online sexual solicitation did not tell a parent
• One third of kids have been contacted by a stranger and half of these were considered inappropriate
• 81% of parents of online youth say that kids aren't careful enough when giving out information about themselves online
• 76% of parents don't have rules about what their kids can do on the computer
• 65% of parents believe that kids do things online that they wouldn't want their parents to know about
• 4,000,000 children are posting content to the Web everyday
• 15,000,000 youth use Instant Messaging
• 9 out of 10 parents will never know that any inappropriate contact has occurred
• 14% have actually met face to face with a person they have met on the Internet
• 1 out of 17 kids have been harassed, threatened, or bullied
• Nearly three-quarters (73%) of online teens believe that someone their age is most likely to be approached by someone unknown to them online as opposed to offline
• When asked how they responded the last time they were contacted online by a complete stranger, just 3% of online teens said they told and adult or authority figure
• Most kids will not report inappropriate Internet contact to their parents because they are afraid of losing Internet privileges
• 61% of 13-17 yr olds have a personal profile on social networking sites
• 44% of online teens with profiles like Facebook and Myspace have been contacted by a stranger, compared with 16 percent of those without profiles.
• 71% have reported receiving messages from someone they do not know
• 45% have been asked for personal info from people they do not know
• 48% of 16-17 yr olds report that their parents know "very little" or "nothing" about their online activities
• MySpace deletes 25,000 profiles weekly of users who don't meet the site's 14-year-old minimum age requirement
• From 2007-2009 MySpace has deleted 90,000 accounts because they were created by registered sex offenders

Fortunately research shows that adults are catching up with kids in the use of text messaging. In 2006-2008, texting by adults ages 45 to 54 increased 130 percent. Half of texting adults say they started sending messages so they could communicate with their children. Bravo, NetLingo is here to help!