What is Spear-Phising?

Darren Mott of the Cleveland FBI Cyber Crime SquadHackers posted a tip to prevent the newest way of taking over your home computer. The trend is called spear-phising and it’s a way to gain access to people’s e-mail account using information gleaned from Facebook.

How do they do it? A scan is performed of your Facebook account that gives folks clues to your password. After your email account is compromised, invitations are sent to others asking them to open and install malware. The first tip to prevent this takeover is to change your password to something more secure like a character and number combination not easily deciphered. Another tip is give privileges to each user of your computer. Give kids their own login and password that doesn’t allow them to install software on your machine. Then keep the administrator login in yourself so you can control what gets loaded on your computer.

Did this tip make sense?

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What do they want from you?

How do you think Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube are making the majority of their money? Right now every social networking company wants your information because they are striving to build up their Business Intelligence (BI).

Social Networking sites are making money hand over first from selling your information to third party companies. The more information you type into your profile, tweet or podcast is causing their bank accounts to soar. Even if you have a locked down account, it doesn’t matter because you agreed to each of the social networking site’s legal agreements. They want your information and they can do what they want with it.

Takeaway: Be aware of the information you are typing into your social networking accounts.

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Tweens/Teens Web Safety Tips

As the Internet’s popularity continues to soar, more online users are flocking to social networking sites and the need web safety grows exponentially. The United States government has recently updated their web safety portal called On Guard Online. They recently posted new tips to safely crawl social networking websites.

Social Media Site Safety Top Tips:
* Restrict access to your page
* Don’t post full name, credit card or bank account numbers
* Choose a screen name that is gender neutral
* Post only information that you are comfortable with others seeing and knowing
* Consider not posting your photo
* Flirting with strangers online could have serious consequences.
* Be wary if a new friend wants to meet you in person.
* Trust your gut if you have suspicions.

http://www.onguardonline.gov/topics/safety-tips-tweens-teens.aspx

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Scared Straight For My Kids

I received an email from a friend that attended an Internet safety course last week at their local high school and they were scared straight. The parent wanted to know if there were any books or websites that we’d recommend to get a primer on keeping their kids safe online. Besides visiting Leading Hands, below is what we recommend to get started.

Internet Safety Books:

1. MySpace Generation - Candice Kelsey
   
2. The Safe Side - Internet Safety - John Walsh & Angela Shelton
   

Internet Safety Websites:

1. http://www.onguardonline.gov
2. http://www.wiredsafety.com

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Be S.M.A.R.T. - 5 Online Safety Tips

As the internet population continues to rapidly increase, the need for Internet Safety is even more critical. Whether you are a parent, teen or senior, here are simple steps you can take to protect yourself from encountering a sticky situation online. Remember that the moment something is posted online, it’s there forever and the world knows about it. Be S.M.A.R.T. online.

Read the complete article
http://leadinghands.org/blog/?page_id=606

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How Safe Are You On The Internet?

As a parent if you are concerned about the safety of your child on the Internet, then check out this six question quiz from the United States Government sponsored website Girl’s Health. The quiz asks questions about behavior with chat rooms, instant messaging, email and security of websites.

http://www.girlshealth.gov/safety/internet/quiz.net.cfm

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10 Technology Safety Tips for 2009

Now that your 2009 resolutions have worn off, now refocus and get your technology safety hat on. I recently read some tips by Anne Krishnan that inspired this article and to add a few of my own into the mix.

1. Pay attention to Phishing - Ask yourself, why would your long standing bank lose your info?
2. Watch out for pop-up ads - they won’t improve your system
3. Don’t respond to email forwards - these quick money claims are not real
4. Create SPAM account - create a new gmail, yahoo, etc… email account just for shopping
5. Download new browser - Upgrade your browser to the latest IE or Mozilla for enhanced security
6. Don’t click on every link - clickjacking is real
7. Go hands-free - don’t text while driving
8. Manage online profile - Google yourself and see what comes up and fix it
9. Back-up your files - Storage is cheap, back-up your data
10. Go Dark - Too much technology is not good, turn it off every once in awhile

Be safe online in 2009!

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Clickjacking

Have you heard of Clickjacking? A friend of mine recently had it happen to him; don’t let it happen to you.

Clickjacking is when a hacker embeds code in a website, then a user clicks on it, and allows the hacker to take over their browser. Once in control, they can click any link without the knowledge of the browser user. If they can take over your browser when you walk away, imagine the possibilities.

So how do you protect yourself?

1. First of all download a browser that has higher security features than Internet Explorer; I suggest Mozilla Firefox.
2. Then download a Mozilla Add-on called “No Script” which will turn off off all suspicious code on websites. It is not easy to browse at first because you have to approve the content your want to see. If you don’t whitelist or approve areas on your screen, you will see nothing.

Is there anything else we can do to prevent Clickjacking?

Read more about Clickjacking

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NetLingo - How many do you know?

How would you rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 on your technology vocabulary? As a parent do know the top 50 Internet acronyms?

How many of these these terms do you know?

1. LMIRL - Let’s Meet In Real Life
2. POS - Parent Over Shoulder
3. PAL - Parents Are Listening
4. KPC - Keeping Parents Clueless
5. ASL - Age/Sex/Location

Read the complete list at Netlingo.
http://www.netlingo.com/top50teens.cfm

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Are You a Safe Cyber Surfer?

The National Criminal Justice Reference Service publishes many articles on Internet safety. The website sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice features articles and tips on how to stay on the safe side of the Internet Super Highway. Download articles from “How to Bank Securely Online” to “What to do to Avoid an Internet Scam”.

7 Tips to Stay Safe Online

1. Protect your personal information
2. Know who you’re dealing with
3. Use anti-virus and anti-spyware
4. Update your web browser and system frequently
5. Protect your passwords
6. Backup important files
7. Know who to contact if something goes wrong

How many of these seven do you do?
http://www.ncjrs.gov/internetsafety/general.html

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