"A world without borders"
This has been a utopian dream for centuries. People all over the world living and working together in peace and harmony. A consummation devoutly to be wished for!
Well, the internet is going a long way to creating a world without borders where people all over the globe are living and working together.
The peace and harmony part is still a little shaky, suffice to say.
I am constantly amazed at our increasingly global society. I work with colleagues from all over the world. They can keep in touch with their friends and family with their cell phones and communication software like Skype as easy as if they were just down the street.
Maybe easier.
A generation ago, barring a pay phone, you still had to be at home or in the office to receive a phone call. My Dad paid $4/month to lease a home phone back in the mid 70's. Recently, while my Android smartphone was being repaired, I bought a nice little Tracfone for $11 to tide me over.
A couple of Christmases ago I bought an amplified microphone for my 11 year old son. He wanted an expensive model, at least $120. I figured whatever I got him would be broken or destroyed in a few months no matter what I spent, so I was pleased to find a cheap but adequate used mic on eBay for about $20 plus shipping.
I was a bit startled when it showed up in the mail badly wrapped with a hand written return address from Hong Kong. Regardless, my son was pleased with his present and someone in Hong Kong was happy to have made a sale!
The internet and the web are driving an increasing commercialization of the world.
Money, markets and employment are no longer limited by borders.
The problem is that in the worlds of money and politics there are both good actors and bad actors. Today's technologies are nothing short of a playground for the bad actors. They can easily operate globally from remote countries where the legal authorities are weak or look the other way.
Internet technology is cheap, standardized and ubiquitous. This has led to a boom in global communication and business, but provides an open door for the 4Ms: Mischief, Malice, Malfeasance and Mayhem.
Not to mention good old fashioned fraud. Worst of all, you could be part of the scheme.
A common technique of hackers and internet evil doers is to enlist unwitting computer users into participating. They create a network of so-called bot computers by infecting and controlling a user's computer. Such "botnets" are the number one source for "click fraud", sending spam email and Denial of Service (DOS) attacks.
Click fraud is a scam where the bot computers are used to drive up advertising revenue that are based on the number of mouse clicks on a web advertisement. The use of these computers makes it difficult to trace the original source and the computer owners may not even be aware that they are being used.
And this is no small matter.
Several botnets have been discovered where the enlisted computers numbered in the millions. The largest botnet discovered was the BredoLab botnet based in Romania. At the time it was dismantled in 2010 it consisted of an incredible 30 million bot computers managed by 124 command and control computers worldwide, according to thetechworld.com.re
Denial of Service attacks tend to have a political agenda behind them. So called "hacktivist" groups such as "Anonymous" and "LulzSec" have become famous for targeting corporate and government agencies that they disapprove of and disrupting access to their web sites.
If "war is politics by other means", as Clausewitz taught us, then computer viruses and Denial of Service attacks are war by other means.
Over the past two month cyber-attacks have been launched against major US banks including JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America. The attacks include efforts to disrupt their networks and bring down their web sites through Denial of Service (DOS) attacks that flood their networks with messages.
Senator Joe Lieberman (I) is quoted as saying that he feels this was not independent hackers but a sophisticated effort by the Iranian military to disrupt key components of the American economy.
Iran has denied they caused the attack, but it is widely believed that the Iranians have stepped up the cyber capabilities since they were the victim of a computer virus that attacked their nuclear facilities, known as the Stutznet Virus. The head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has asserted that they are prepared for a "Cyber War" that he believes could cause more destruction than a "physical confrontation".
How concerned should you be?
There are an estimated 40,000 new viruses and other malware released each day. Anytime you visit a web site and download a file you could be at risk. How do you know who operates that site with those Kate Middleton pics?
Last year, the web security firm Armorize identified over 6 million pages on e-Commerce web sites that have been infected to serve malware to page visitors,
The consequences to your computer range from running slow because you are part of a botnet, having your hard drive erased, your monitor disabled to being the victim of identity threat and financial fraud.
What can you do to protect yourself in this chaotic new world?
The good news is that most victims of viruses and network breaches could have avoided the problem by doing the basics.
First, you must protect your computer with Antivirus software. Many people disable their AV software because it defaults to running in the background all the time. This can kill performance, using up memory and processor time.
If so, you should still be able to set it to run a full scan once a day at a scheduled time when you are not around. For example during the day when you at work or at night when you are asleep.
Second, when you visit a web site where you have to provide personal information always make sure that the site is running the Secured Socket Layer (SSL). SSL provides a secured, encrypted connection between the web server and the browser. You can tell the site is using SSL because it will have "https:" instead of "http:" on the URL address line and there will be an image of a padlock displayed.
Third, if you operate a web site that handles sensitive information, such as an e-commerce site, it is critical that you use SSL and Signed SSL Certificates. Signed SSL Certificates authenticate your web site for the user, ensuring that your users will have confidence in your site. Without this feature, even with SSL, the user could be supplying personal information to a scammer that will use it against them.
Last and not least, be vigilant.
Don't open emails or click on links in emails unless you know and trust the sender.Don't download anything from a web site unless you know and trust the site.Don't ignore signs that your computer has been compromised. Unexpectedly slow performance, disabling of virus scanning, freezing and unexpected reboots could be signs that you have been infected.In a world without borders you need to throw up few yourself to protect your computer. Make sure you use a firewall and antivirus system. Never provide information on a web site unless you double check that it is running SSL. If you are a web site operator, make sure you protect yourself and your customers with a signed SSL Certificate.
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