My Online Security

As PC and browser security closes more and more holes, hackers are spending more time and effort finding ways to try to trick you into giving them access to your PC or giving up your personal data.

Phishing, or fraudulent e-mails posing as legitimate messages, remains a popular tactic by hackers. There’s little technical knowledge required to set up a phishing scam. All a person has to do is set up a real-looking Web site and spam hundreds of thousands of e-mail addresses, and wait for an unsuspecting victim.

Bank-related phishing e-mails remain the most popular, because we all notice a message from our bank and are likely to feel a sense of urgency to act. One common format is the “warning” e-mail. Ironically, hackers will base the theme on the premise that your account has already been hacked! One phishing e-mail I recently received came with the subject line, “Suspicious Activity Logged on Your Account – Please Respond Immediately.” The e-mail had very convincing graphics, and sounded alarming. I instinctively knew it was a fake, but because the e-mail did happen to branded with my bank’s name, just in case I called to make sure there were no issues with my account.   If you ever question an e-mail from a bank or credit card institution, just call you bank’s main number (but NOT the one in the e-mail…hackers use fake numbers too).

PayPal and eBay are also common themes used in phishing e-mails. In fact, a week ago I surfed over to Phishtank.com, a reporting site for phishing Web sites. Out of the top 50 most recently reported, 18 were fake PayPal sites, 6 were fake eBay sites, 22 were banks, and 4 were misc (including a fake MSN login Web site and a UK customs site).

There are two new ones that recently showed up in my inbox that I haven’t seen before. The first was from FedEx, telling me that my package was not delivered. Since I had recently sent a package, I was fooled!  Luckily, when it asked me to track the package using my credit card, I wised up and went directly to FedEx.com to track my package (it had been delivered).

The second was from a dating site. The phishers put together a realistic looking dating site and ask you to join. It looks like a scheme to capture your passwords (based on the assumption you use the same or similar passwords for many different sites).

The lesson? Phishing e-mails have not abated. So when you receive a suspicious e-mail in your inbox, be wary. And when in doubt, use the phone. Your bank (assuming it’s still in business!) and other financial institutions won’t mind.

* Become more computer literate and Internet savvy.

* Keep the computer in a “public” area in your house.

* Monitor your child’s computer use. Talk with your children about their online activities and their online friends.

* Check out parental controls available on your online service. Block adult chat rooms. Block Instant/Personal Messages from people you don’t know. Install filtering/blocking software, or use a “clean Internet provider” that filters at the server level.

* Do not let your children have online profiles, so they will not be listed in directories and are less likely to be approached in children’s chat rooms, where pedophiles often search for prey.

* Tell your children to never “go private” into a private chat room.

* Tell your children to never give out personal information, including name, address, school they attend or teachers’ names, parents’ names, etc.

* Tell your children to never, never, never tell anyone where they will be or what they will be doing, and they may never meet someone from online without you.

* Tell your children to never respond to rude or offensive e-mail, messages, or postings.

* Do not allow your children to post, send or receive pictures online. Picture files generally end with GIF, JPG, or JPEG.

* Monitor the amount of time your child spends on the Internet, and at what times of day. Excessive time online, especially at night, may indicate a problem. Time on the Internet is time taken from other healthy activities.

* Tell your children to let you know if anything seems strange to them, if they are asked personal (”what are you wearing” type) questions, or if their online friend invites them someplace.

* Changes in your child’s behavior (mention of adults you don’t know, secretiveness, inappropriate sexual knowledge, sleeping problems, etc.) may indicate a problem.

* Letting children use the Internet unattended, particularly talking in chat rooms, is the equivalent of dropping them off in Central Park and saying, “Go make some new friends.”

Here are some great sites for kids