How to Saveguard Our Personal and Financial Data?

Some people think that financial security only relate to a well-refunded retirement plan, a good health insurance or the sufficiency of income to meet their expenses. However, the meaning of financial security brings us to further than that. Today, financial security is also means protecting your privacy and knowing that you are safeguarded against crimes that could rob your money, your good credit rating and even your identity.

As science has spawned new and exciting technologies, from online shopping to mobile payment, it has opened up new opportunities for frauds and swindles, from computer hacking to identity theft. Every year, consumers and financial institutions lose millions of dollars to credit cards and debit card theft by unauthorized users pretending to be legitimate users of the cards. It may not possible to stop this fraudulent activity entirely, but it is possible to protect your personal and financial data by taking proper safeguard.

To safeguard your personal and financial data, you SHOULD always:

• Install a firewall - This is a software program that blocks unauthorized users to access your data. Majority of the new computers come up with firewalls integrated into their operating systems. Unless you are using a older computer or dial up, in such case, you may need to buy a firewall separately and install it by yourself. Click this link for more understanding on firewalls.

• Install and update antispyware and antivirus programs - Protecting your data against viruses and Trojan Horses that may steal or modify your data on your own computer. Besides, many operating offer automatic updates, you should turn it on as it is available for you.
  

• Lock your access - Use a strong password or pass-phrase to protect access your confidential data.

• Limit transportation and transmission of data - Avoid transporting or transmitting your confidential data if not necessary to do so. For instance, transport your confidential data via email.

• Avoid accessing financial information in public - Refrain logging to check your bank balance when you are using the wireless access that offered by the coffee shops.

• Encrypt stored confidential data - Whenever is possible, encrypt stored confidential data, no matter it is stored temporarily or permanently.

In order to protect your privacy now and ever, you should aware the latest fraudulent activity exists and take accurate and consistent prevention against it. It then can lessen dramatically the opportunities of your confidential data being stolen.

Related links:
- http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/103893/Six-Ways-to-Safeguard-Your-Online-Assets
- http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST06-008.html

Prepared by Carrie Hon.

The threat of online security: How safe is our data?

Do you truly believe that your data is well protected? If your answer is a yes, now you should be aware that as we continue to derive countless of benefits from the Internet, the main issue that continue to concern us is online security, which once compromised could prove to be extensively disastrous and damaging. In fact, online and data security threats continue to grow in number and sophistication, therefore it is an enormous concern which bears the potential harm of collapsed computer system, lost confidential data and so forth.

One of the most common types of online fraud involves identity theft, which simply means the private information of victims such as credit card number is being intercepted illegally when it is transferred over the network due to the vulnerabilities of computer security. As a result, the thief can do whatever that they desire using the stolen number. Another category of online fraud takes place in the form of data theft which encompasses the theft, perusal and manipulation of private data. In order to illustrate the startling adverse impact of this fraud, we look at a case in U.S back in 2001. What happened was two employees working in the accounting division of Cisco Systems managed to broke into the company’s system which handled stock distributions and successfully transferred shares worth US$6.3 millions to their private portfolio.

Next, we shall discuss some of the underlying threats to online security. First, Malware, is a software designed to penetrate and damage a computer system without the owner’s informed consent. Generally, Malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, rootkits, spyware and so forth. Specifically, computer viruses are small software programs which intent to interfere with computer operations and they may corrupt and damage your data or even erase everything on your hard disk! On the other hand, worms are self-replicating programs which do not required to be attached to other programs as it spread by exploiting security loopholes of operating system. For instance, Windows ExploreZip worm, is a destructive software with malicious purposes of crippling the file system by writing invalid data and destroying files on hard disk.

To know more about the devastating impact of Malware and to get information on Trojan horses, these are some helpful links:

Malware: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10257277-83.html

Trojan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_horse_(computing)

Today’s viruses spread and are created at a faster rate as they capitalize on the increased network services such as Word Wide Web and e-mail. For instance, the statistics below (Microsoft Security Intelligence Report April 2009) shows the startling total number of new unique samples of virus detected in the second half of 2008.

Hence, preventive measures are definitely needed to be in place. The following are some suggestions:

1) Firewall- Firewall is a part of computes system useful in preventing unauthorized access to networks especially private network such as company’s Intranet. All messages going into the network must first be screened by the established firewall and meet its security criteria.


2) Anti virus software is capable of detecting and eliminating known viruses, hence it is vital to install a good package with comprehensive protection and ensure that it is always updated.

3) Data encryption- Encryption involves transfoming text into some unreadable form of codes and only the intended recipient posseses the key to decode the document back into a readable format. Thus, encryption should be widely used especially when the transmission of documents entail top security data.

4) Never open an e-mail attachment from someone you don't know.

5) Avoid opening an e-mail attachment from someone you know, unless you know exactly what the attachment is. The sender may be unaware that it contains a virus.

ReView oN a pOst oN Internet Security

Recently, I have come across a blog in ecommerze.blogspot.com. This blog is mainly talking about "What are the passwords commonly used by most of the Internet users?"

Based on a statistical analysis of 28,000 passwords from a US website, the result reveals that people often do the easy things. Why say so? This is because, after the research has been done,it was found that 16% of Internet users preferably took their first name as a passwords and another 14% relied on easiest keyboard combination such as 123 and 123456. Not only that, there are 5% of Internet users like to use the name of movie or name of popular star as their password. This is particular true to the young teenagers. Besides, the words such as "password", "Yes", "I love you" or even "I hate you" are commonly used by the users.

Robert Graham, researcher who did this analysis and published the conclusion advises the users that to better protect against cyber intrusion, users are encouraged to choose a password which is longer than eight characters with one capital letter and one symbol.

Passwords that show no imagination and distinctiveness are easy prey for information pirates.

For more information, please visit to the links below:

- Technology News

Phishing : Examples and its Prevention Methods

Phishing is an act of sending an e-mail to user fallaciously claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to acquire the sensitive information. The e-mail directs or links the user to visit a Web sites where they are ask to update their personal information such as password, credit card details or bank account numbers. Phishing is usually appear from well know and trustworthy Web sites like eBay and PayPal. However, it also occur through voice phone calls, text messages or other electronic communication methods.

Here, there are some examples of phishing :

The phishing attack shown below is an example of involving eBay e-mail. In this case, eBay claimed that user has to change the password to continue to logon to eBay. The user may also feel stress as there is a threat in the e-mail which noted that a their account will be suspended if they did not take action. The aim of this phishing is to get the password from the users.

Second example is a mail entitled "Verified by Visa" sends to the Visa credit card holders. It claims that the users have to verify their Visa card to ensure the security of the card. The mail looks exactly like the VISA's legitimate site which create the most dangerous phish scam. The purpose of the mail is also to get the password from the Visa credit card holders.

However, there are several methods to prevent from it. The image below shown the suspicious of the phish scam and some methods of how to identify it as phishing spam. In addition, there is alos several preventions provided.

1) Normally, legitimate business and financial institutions would hardly ask for personal information via e-mail. Thus, if you receive such e-mail, call the organisation and ask if it's legitimate or check its legitimate Web site.

2)Look up for the spelling error or bad grammar. It is a tip-off to beware.

3)Next, you may look at click able link with text suggesting you use the inserted link to verify your account. When you point to the hyperlink text, the bottom left of web page will show the real web site address to which you will go. It is important to note that the hyperlink does not point to the legitimate web site.

4)If there is threat which caused you to be uncomfortable of it, you may just type the company's genuine website manually on the address bar rather than trusting any hyperlinks in the suspected phishing message.

5)It is recommended to use Internet Explorer 7 which includes Microsoft Phishing Filter which helps protect you from the web fraud and the risks of personal data theft by warning or blocking you from reported phishing Web sites.

Related links are provided below for further information :

• Top Ten Internet/ Email Spam
• All About Phishing
• Tips to Safeguard from Fraudulent Emails / Phishing Attempts