Bill Hely's Computer & Online Security

Internet Crime At Frightening Levels

by Bill Hely on March 16, 2010 · 0 comments

The FBI has released a report that clearly indicates that the level of Internet crime is not only just as bad as we suspected it was, but getting much worse, with losses more than doubling between 2008 and 2009.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) which issued the report is a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center. The center acknowledges that the loss figures could be conservative because they are based only on complaints reported to IC3.

Ironically, the most reported e-mail scams involve the scammer claiming to be from or affiliated with the FBI. The aim of course being to extract information from the target.

The report is actually an interesting read, with many colorful graphics clearly displaying such revealing data as:

Most common complaint categories
The number of perpetrators per 100,000 of population (USA)
The top locations of perpetrators (US states plus countries)
Some interesting case studies
And so on…

Download the 25 page report in PDF format

Yes, it does affect you personally…

Unfortunately there is still a public perception that most Internet scams are dreamed up by lone social misfits pounding a keyboard in their bedroom or basement.

The truth is that those days are long gone; most of today’s scams are perpetrated by professional criminals with considerable resources available to them.

To stay ahead of the these grubs you need three things:

The right information and advice;
The right security tools;
The right mindset.

None of those things are going to just fall into your lap. To stay safe online you must be proactive — you must educate yourself and you must actually take some action.

Information sources such as this blog can assist you immensely, but only if you review the posts regularly. So do yourself a favor and subscribe to notifications of new posts.

See the ‘Subscribe Now’ box towards the top right of this page. You have nothing to lose and you could gain substantially, if even one tip or article or idea saves you from loss.

Microsoft Patches & Updates for March 2010

by Bill Hely on March 10, 2010 · 0 comments

Yes folks, it’s Patch Tuesday again! On the second Tuesday of each month Microsoft releases software patches & updates for their various products, so this is a very important day for all Windows users who care about their privacy and security [full summary here].

Why? Well..

Often a Microsoft patch or update will close a vulnerability that, if left unaddressed, could allow an attacker to take complete control of your computer.

And that’s something you REALLY don’t want!

Keeping your installation patched up-to-date is so important that, whether or not you have Automatic Updates enabled, at this time of each month it’s still wise to manually double-check that everything that matters has been installed. Don’t be put off by the word “manually” — it’s a quick and easy process.

HERE’S HOW: [Click Here to Continue…]

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Why the Proposed Australian Internet Filter is an Outright Con

by Bill Hely on March 3, 2010 · 0 comments

Is the Internet censorship filter proposed by the Australian government really about protecting children, or is it just a politically motivated waste of money and resources?

I keep seeing in various magazines and newspaper articles, letters to the editor and suchlike, people declaring themselves in favor of a government mandated Internet filter implemented at the ISP level.

Invariably their position is that the government’s line of “protecting children” can only be a good thing.

Rather than condemn these people for their belief we should be striving to educate them. They either have no knowledge of the situation and are simply taking protection at face value or, more likely, they are amongst the many who have been conned by the the lies, obfuscation and misdirection that have emanated in a steady stream from the office of the Federal Communications Minister.

Many thousands of gullible people have fallen for a carefully woven and very intentionally devised fabrication. [Click Here to Continue…]

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Cyber Criminals Are Robbing Us Blind

by Bill Hely on March 2, 2010 · 0 comments

We all know that data theft, credit card theft, etc. And we know that spyware, viruses, Trojans and other cyber nasties are a threat. But have we been underestimating the real effect?

As regular readers will know, I’m not a fan of Norton/Symantec or McAfee anti-malware products. I believe you can do a lot better for less money and consequently experience far fewer “system problems”. However, there is no disputing the fact that the big companies like those two certainly have the resources necessary to conduct, collate and analyze large global surveys. Hence they are certainly worth listening to when they publish such information.

In January of this year Symantec conducted a survey of 2,100 businesses and government agencies located in 27 different countries, and the revelations concerning the extent of data theft were quite sobering.

Now, the part of the survey I’m interested in asked those entities if they had ever suffered a cyber loss in the preceding 12 months.

Guess how many replied in the affirmative? [Click Here to Continue…]

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School Spies On Kids — At Home!

by Bill Hely on February 19, 2010 · 2 comments

Yes, you can be spied on through your own webcam! Let this true story be a lesson in how otherwise fun and useful technology can be turned against you if you don’t stay constantly alert.

A Philadelphia School district is facing a class-action lawsuit bought by parents of its high school students.

In 2009 the Lower Merion School District issued laptop computers — all factory-fitted with webcams — to its high school students. Commendable and progressive, no argument there.

Now for the “What what on earth were they thinking?” part of the story… [Click Here to Continue…]

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Microsoft Patches & Updates for February 2010

February 10, 2010

This is Microsoft’s biggest batch of patches & updates in a long time, and you really MUST pay due attention.
Yes folks, it’s Patch Tuesday again! On the second Tuesday of each month Microsoft releases software patches & updates for their various products. This month there are something like 13 updates addressing a total of 26 [...]

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Democracy, wherefore art thou?

February 7, 2010

First the UK government announces it is going to record and store everything about everything you do, then Australia reveals its Great (Chinese-like) Firewall plans, and now it’s the Yanks’ turn.
Back in November last year I published an article entitled “Right to Privacy? Hah!“ The opening paragraph went like this:
“This is a story about something [...]

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It’s Browser Upgrade Time!

February 4, 2010

If you are running Firefox as your preferred browser you should UPGRADE NOW! The latest version 3.6 continues to improve on an already excellent product.
If you’re not running Firefox as your preferred browser, WHY NOT?
And if you’re still sticking to that bloated, troublesome dog Internet Explorer — well, words fail me. Know what a masochist [...]

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Customer Service is More Than a Contact Form

January 23, 2010

As regular readers will be aware my blog topics tend to be somewhat diverse, but I strive to stick to subjects that will be of interest to at least a good percentage of my readers. So I’m excusing this departure from the technical on the basis that quite a few of my subscribers are in [...]

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Very Important Security Update

January 22, 2010

January 21 saw the release by Microsoft of a very important out-of-band security bulletin to address recently publicized flaws in Internet Explorer.
So-called “out-of-band” bulletins are those released at a time other than Microsoft’s traditional Patch Tuesday — the second Tuesday of each month. Out-of-band announcements are bulletins/patches/updates that Microsoft believes are too important to delay [...]

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