Stolen identity

Online security is important and I mean it.

This morning, while sending some money through MoneyGram at Wal-Mart, a lady complained about her pre-paid Visa account, which was charged without her notice. She contacted the company and asked for clarification about the amount that has been charged. She said she has not been using her Visa card, but she was surprised that about $300 has been billed to her. She complained to the lady, who worked at Money Center. Later on, she said that the name of the person, who used her account, was someone that she doesn’t know.

I told her, “Your identity is stolen.” She didn’t understand. “But I never lost my purse,” she said. I explained to her about the danger of entering personal information on the Internet, because people will steal it at no cost or without even losing her purse. In the end, she said, “Well, I don’t know much about computers.”

I hate to be technical and I asked her the kind of Internet browser that she uses, but, instead of helping her, I confused her more.

So, who’s fault is this? Some guy out there can hack your system and steal your information. Cyber theft, although the danger has been spread out throughout the universe, is happening everyday. A friend of mine experienced it, so, beware, my friends! The good news about identity theft is that it is decreasing as of February 2007 according to Javelin Strategy and Research.

Internet may not be the only medium for identity theft, but it is the biggest factor. Thus, the only solution is to prevent it from happening. Make sure you have a firewall on your PC. Windows firewall is not good enough, but Zone Alarm, so far, is the best FREE firewall. Also, don’t use Internet Explorer, but use some other browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox or Opera. They’re more reliable and faster, besides, you can easily set your security while browsing as you want it. At least, you’re a little safer.

Update your antivirus regularly. AVG has a free antivirus and it is one of the more reliable ones. Also, clean your Internet trace in your temporary folder, and clean the cookies. Wipe any other traces, like Word documents or filesharing softwares. Use iISystem Wiper or CCleaner. Use your AdWare and your Spybot often. That way, you get rid of spywares, malwares and other crap. If possible, use anonymity software like Tor, when you’re online. It does make your internet performance slower, but anything to be safe worths the time, right? I personally like to use Tor, so no one knows what I’m doing online (Hey, I’m using someone else’s IP address).

If you use Linux, these stuff are actually unnecessary, although, as it is always recommended, you need to turn on your firewall. The firewall is robust and you’re just free from spywares, malwares or other crapwares.

Identity theft should be a history. Surf the net safely or use Linux. Problem’s solved!

Computers: Masculine or Feminine

A pastor of a church who was previously a sailor, was very aware that ships are addressed as “she” and “her.” However, he often wondered what gender computers should be addressed. To answer that question, he set up two groups of computer experts. The first was comprised of women, and the second of men. Each group was asked to recommend whether computers should be referred to in the feminine gender or the masculine gender. They were asked to give 5 reasons for their recommendation.

The group of women reported that the computers should be referred to in the masculine gender because:

1. They have a lot of data, but they are still clueless.

2. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half of the time, they ARE the problem.

3. As soon as you commit to one, you realize if you had waited a little longer, you could have obtained a better model.

4. In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on.

5. A big power surge will knock them out for the rest of the night.

The men, on the other hand, concluded that Computers should be referred to in the feminine gender because:

1. No one but the Creator understands their internal logic.

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else.

3. The message “Bad command or file name” is about as informative as, “If you don’t know why I’m mad at you, then I’m certainly not going to tell you”.

4. Even your smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for later retrieval.

5. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

The “Power” of Ctrl+C

Disclaimer: This post is written only for Internet Explorer users.

Do you ever know the power of Ctrl+C? While doing your Word work, Ctrl+C is very helpful, especially if you have to type a long sentence over and over. Just copy and paste it, but it’s not so powerful if you are online, especially if you use Internet Explorer.

Here’s what SourceCodesWorld.com says, “It is true, text you last copied for pasting (copy & paste) can be stolen when you visit web sites using a combination of JavaScript and ASP (or PHP, or CGI) to write your possible sensitive data to a database on another server. Hopefully you haven’t copied a credit card number recently before surfing!”

Just try this. Open your Internet Explorer browser and copy any text by using Ctrl+C. Then, click here. Voila! Your copied text is shown. Imagine if you just copied your password, your credit card number, your social security number and so on. Anakin Skywalker would say, “What have I done?” Would you say what Homer Simpson usually says? “No!”

But, for those who use any other browsers than Internet Explorer (IE), such as Netscape, Firefox, Safari, Opera and SeaMonkey, there is nothing to worry about (I have tried using these five browsers and the copied text is not shown). You are fine. However, if you insist on using Internet Explorer, this is how to prevent from “showing” your password, credit card number and yada yada yada to hackers and to the “public”:

1. On your IE browser, click tools; then, go to Internet Options –> Security.

2. Press Custom Level.

3. In the Security Settings, select “disable” under Allow paste operations via script (Located under “Scripting”). Then, click OK.

Happy surfing! But my advice to you, don’t use Internet Explorer. The Mozilla family, Firefox, Netscape and SeaMonkey, are great, but Opera is also a good option. I can’t say much about Safari.

Best of luck!