Protect yourself online by knowing your enemies

Ever wondered where all your junk emails come from? You check your email only to see senders whom you don’t know and subjects that say ‘congratulations! you win in our lottery’, ‘we need a Filipino nanny here in London’, ‘we will give you a bank account with millions in it’ or even peculiar ones like ‘ ‘I decided to contact you to accept me as your foster child’ . You might be curious but these are the types of email you should not believe in. Here, we will explain the usual malicious stuffs going on the internet and give you some tips on how to surf the internet safely and effectively.

Spam
E-mail spam, also known as junk e-mail, is a subset of spam that involves nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by e-mail. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spam). Usually, popular emails like Google’s Gmail and Yahoo provide a folder reserved for emails which they suspect as spams. It is in your own discretion if you will read these spams or delete it permanently. There are also instances that emails from unrecognized or new websites will be sent here. As long as the email provider suspects this is spam, it will automatically send it here even though it is not really a malicious email. Every time you don’t receive an email which you expected to receive, just check your Spam folder and look for that email.

Phishing
In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites (YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Windows Live Messenger), auction sites (eBay), online banks , online payment processors (PayPal), or IT Administrators (Yahoo, ISPs, corporate) are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing)

Spyware
Spyware is computer software that is installed surreptitiously on a personal computer to intercept or take partial control over the user’s interaction with the computer, without the user’s informed consent. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware)
Spyware is a big problem. It comes in the form of pop-ups, the kind of advertisements that just suddenly comes out from nowhere every time you visit a certain website. It is better that you exit these pop-ups rather than entertaining it. Spyware may seem harmless in introducing itself to you though bright and lively words but once you click on them, spyware will be saved in your PC. Trojan is one of the most popular and destructive spyware there is. Trojan’s name was derived from the Trojan horse itself that was a gift from the Greeks to the city of Troy only to realize it was a trick and bought down the city’s defeat. The virus will lie dormant but after a few perk-ups, it can infest your files or your whole PC. Never let a Trojan virus get inside your system.

Tips:

* Everytime you use public internet cafes, make sure that before you leave the cafe, you should log out in all the websites you visited. It is not enough that you close your browser. You can also clear all your private data by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Del in Mozilla Firefox.
* Some features of today’s popular browsers like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome include those that can save your password. Just click on Not Now or Never every time you are asked by the browser, “Do you want to save your password?”.
* In Instant Messaging, don’t check the box that says Remember my ID and password. If this is checked, it can be possible that the next user of that computer can have access to your private information and can chat with your friends without them knowing it’s not you.
* If you receive mean or threatening comments online, don’t respond.
* Don’t click on Internet pop-up ads because they might install spy ware on your computer.
* Install an antivirus that is reliable, efficient and fast.
* It is also advisable to to turn on your firewall while surfing the internet. A firewall is an integrated collection of security measures designed to prevent unauthorized electronic access to a networked computer system. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewall_(networking)).