Safety(inter)net

So you have checked your anti virus program is running and up to date, your firewall is on and the machine is running like a dream.  You are ready to surf the net and if you are like me you check your emails first.  Gramps has sent you some photos and that whacky neighbour of yours has sent some hilarious stuff on getting old, where does she find them? and oh this is from a Nigerian princess, her family is being persecuted by the government and they need to leave the country fast but they have this 20 million dollar fortune that they cannot take with them, unless, you dear friend could put the money in your account and as a reward keep say 10 per cent for yourself.  Why thats 2 million dollars just for sending these poor people my bank account details, yeh right, the only money being exchanged is when all your money is siphoned off by them.  Believe it or not even though this scam has been around for years people in their thousands still fall for this or a version of it.

Another scam is an email from your bank with some message about checking your details, you click on a link and are taken to an exact mock up of the homepage you would expect to see when you log on to do online banking.  You are asked to enter your details and password and they drain your account of every penny.

Millions of people fall for this one each year even though the banks are forever saying that they will never email you for your details.

Unfortunately the unwary surfer is still at risk just by surfing, the criminals use various techniques to separate you from your hard earned cash and one of these is by placing a keylogger on your hard drive.  It is easy to do, you have probably come across adverts to download free stuff, screensavers, animated emoticons all sorts of widgets.  Well have you ever wondered why these things are free, wheres the catch?  Well the catch is that on some of these are included a nasty little virus whose job it is to record every keystroke you make and transmit the details to the criminals.  They then have access to your emails and even your bank account if you bank on line.  Running an antispyware program regularly will uncover these viruses and eliminate them.

Now I do not wish to sound like a kill joy and certainly it is not my intention to scare anyone from using the internet.  However there are things to look out for and things to avoid, it is just a case of being sensible and using common sense.  Microsoft send you security patches all the time to help you stay ahead of the criminals, make sure you are getting these and installing them,  you do not have to be paranoid but use the tools provided to keep you and your computer safe and if you are ever unsure about an email just delete it.

I will be doing follow up columns to this one soon but if you are unsure or need advice just skype me, my skype name is technocretin or send me an email to computerassistance@consultant .com.. 

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