Personal, Computer, and Internet Security:

A Primer on how to look out for danger.

Lesson One:

Don’t Panic.

There is risk to using the Internet.

There is more risk crossing the street.

You look both ways, you reduce the risk.

Knowledge is your best defense.

Lesson Two:

Keeping your computer safe

Install an anti-virus program and keep it updated: new viruses come out almost every day!

Running some version of Microsoft Windows? Keep Windows updated at the Windows Update site!

Lesson Two:

Keeping your computer safe

Using Internet Explorer? Set ActiveX controls to prompt you before running an ActiveX script. Be careful what you say YES to.

Look out for adware and spyware. Ad-Aware and Spybot can scan and remove many kinds of adware, spyware and malware.

Lesson Two:

Keeping your computer safe

Watch out for “free” browser or email enhancing programs.

You can lose control over your web browser because a new toolbar for it looked like fun.

Lesson Two:

Keeping your computer safe

Adware: advertiser supported software. Some is benign, some is very aggressive and hard to remove.

Spyware: programs that “phone home” and report on your web surfing habits, or data files that can be accessed from the net that keep records of what you’ve been doing on the Internet.

Malware: programs that do evil things.

Lesson Three:

Keyboard Con Artists

Con artists are as old as known human history. Now, as in days gone by, they are taking advantage of people’s greed, ignorance and laziness.

“Social Engineering” is a new term for a scam that uses the way people think to take advantage of them.

Lesson Three:

Keyboard Con ArtistsNigeria 419 Scam: A bank official or surviving member of a political family needs you to help bring millions of dollars out of their country. For your trouble, they will give you thirty percent of it.

Wow! Free money! What could be wrong with that?

Well, they’d forgotten to mention it, but you need to pay a few little fees first. How much money can you get your hands on?

According to the RCMP, this scam has taken Canadians for more than $30 Million and counting! Many prominent people have fallen for this scam.

Lesson Three:

Keyboard Con ArtistsPyramid Scheme: You send your $10 to buy several “Reports” from a list of people then add your name to the list to sell reports and the free money will start rolling in!

No, it won’t. There’s a very good reason pyramid schemes are illegal, whether they’re called “Multi Level Marketing” or simple fraud. All the money funnels to the top and disappears.

Lesson Three:

Keyboard Con ArtistsWork From Home: Now you can stuff envelopes or put together simple knick-knacks for some quick cash or a steady income. Perfect for shut-ins or handicapped people.

It’s a scam. You need to buy a kit or materials off the company and somehow there’s always a reason you never get paid. The quality of work wasn’t high enough, the contract got cancelled, etc.

Lesson Three:

Keyboard Con ArtistsThe Bank Scam: A “bank inspector” needs access to your account to trap a thieving employee. The inspector needs to hold on to your money for some reason as proof but they’ll give you a receipt.

Scam: the “bank inspector” heads for the horizon while you’re waiting for them to come back. Real banks never play games like this with money.

Lesson Three:

Keyboard Con ArtistsThe Bank Scam II: A realistic looking email arrives from your bank telling you to go to a website and activate some new service by typing in your bank account and PIN numbers. A variation on this gets you to give out your eBay account information.

Scam: the email and website are fakes, using graphics linked from the real bank site to help make them look real. Your bank account gets cleaned out.

It looks so real.

The Scotiabank logo is linked from the real Scotiabank website.

The link says “www.scotiabank.com”. Ah, but that’s not where it takes you.

The support numbers to call are forgeries.

Lesson Three:

Keyboard Con Artists

Protecting yourself:If you get an email from your bank or some othercompany you deal with that wants you to go to some website and enter personal information orrun a program on your computer, go straight to the source and phone the company involved and ask them if it is real. Look up the number in the phone book yourself, don’t trust what it says in theemail.

Lesson Four:

Safe Surfing for Kids

The Danger: a predator will learn personal information about your child and use it to trick them or gain more information. Phone number, address and name of the child’s school should never be told on a public chat or forum.

The Solution: Set clear rules on computer use. Check on what your child is doing. Ask a local teacher or librarian about things you don’t know.

Lesson Four:

Safe Surfing for Kids

Chat programs can be a great way to stay in touch with friends. On a chat program you can pretend to be anyone. So can everyone else.

Tell your child never to give out personal details on a chat program like their phone number, which can be used to find their address and other local information. Predators use personal details to gaina child’s confidence by seeming like a close friend.

Lesson Four:

Safe Surfing for Kids

A predator might con a child by describing local landmarks or seeming to know the child’s school. This new friend might then suggest the child meet them at the local park or arcade.

Protection: Have your child tell you about their online buddies and which ones they don’t know in real life. Check the chat logs to see if the online buddy seems to be fishing for personal information.

Lesson Four:

Safe Surfing for Kids

Protection: Monitor how many hours a child is online and set reasonable limits. Check that these limits are respected.

Make sure your child knows they can talk to you about what they’ve seen or done online.

Keep your credit card numbers secure and check your statements for any new or unusual charges.

Lesson Five:

Credit card safetyEmail is not a secure way to send credit card information. Think of email as being as secure asa postcard sent through the regular mail.

Look for the https:// web address (See the extra letter ‘s’?, that means secure encryption.) and the locked padlockon your web browser.

Lesson Five:

Credit card safety

Secure web browsing is still just a tool. If the company itself is not trustworthy, giving them your credit card is going to be a bad idea no matterhow safely you sent it to them.

Lesson Six:

OverviewAt the end of the day, remember the old truism:If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Use your head and think about the offer or scam first before acting. Would envelope stuffing by hand really be a money maker in this day of fast automatic machine envelope stuffers?

Merchandise sold through email is suspect at best and much more likely to be fraudulent, misleading or simple theft.