Online Security

I have to do continuing education classes for work and I went to my first one for this year yesterday. It was actually really interesting - an FBI agent talking to us about cybercrime and online security. Useful stuff! So, I thought I'd share some of what he told us. First of all, it is pretty scary how at-risk we all are - a recent AOL poll showed that 81% of home computer users don't have basic security measures in use. Not only is that bad for them, it's bad for all of us due to the growth of spyware and so-called botnet armies - people take over your computer to use it to attack other computers and you never even know! So, if you don't already have security software get some and if you do, make sure it's updating properly and that you have all your software updated too. The FBI polls people too and found that 90% of companies have had some sort of internet security problem and 64% have suffered financial losses, but only 9% of those are reported to the authorities - I guess they don't want to start a panic. Totally understandable. And, it appears that now the whole spyware thing is a bigger problem than viruses - they can actually steal your information (passwords, usernmaes, etc.) right from your computer and email it back to someone who in turn drains your back account before you even know the information is gone! Definitely going to make sure that my anti-spyware software is running properly! So, what can you do? Well, here's some tips and resources he gave us . . .

Stay Safe Online Top 8 Cyber Security Practices (from www.staysafeonline.org)
1. Protect your personal information. It's valuable.
2. Know who you are dealing with online.
3. Use antivirus software, a firewall, and anti-spyware
4. Be sure to set up your operating system and Web browser software properly, and update them regularly.
5. Use strong passwords or strong authentication technology to help protect your personal information.
6. Back up important files (and keep off-site copies)
7. Learn what to do if something goes wrong.
8. Protect your children online.

Some resources
1. Identity theft (FTC) - www.consumer.gov/idtheft
2. Reporting Internet Crime - www.ic3.gov
3. Identifying hoaxes - www.snopes.com, www.hoaxbusters.org
4. Information Sharing - InfraGard - www. infragard.net

There you have it, lots of resources for staying safe online. I love that there's a place to report these things (www.ic3.gov) - they collect reports and if they get enough of one thing, they can actually investigate! I just always felt like there was nothing I could really do about the stuff I see, so it's nice to know there's something that can be done. By the way, sorry that none of the web pages are links, you'll have to copy and paste, I was just too lazy to create links for everything today LOL!