|
|
|
|
December 18, 2006 Internet Security - Still Important The Internet is a wonderful place for fun, information, keeping in touch with family and friends, shopping and much more. But there are dangers with using the Internet, and you need to know the basics to stay safe.
An excellent reference on Internet safety is the newly-published Own Your Space: Keep Yourself and Your Stuff Safe Online (www.amazon.com, $13.59). The book covers threats that lurk on the Internet and what you need to do to stay safe. Author Linda McCarthy has written seven books on computer security and is a security architect at Symantec. The book is targeted toward teens, but there’s plenty of learning for adults as well. "Too many people don’t even take care of the basics in protecting their computers and themselves," said Ms. McCarthy in a recent phone interview. "Six months ago the most reported attacks were against financial institutions, but now the most reported are against home networks." McCarthy went on to talk about children and the Internet. "Teens are too trusting of people on the Internet and are easily tricked into giving out personal information." She emphasized the need for parents to keep communications open and to continually remind their teens to not give out any personal information--and to let their parents know if something doesn’t sound or feel right. McCarthy’s inspiration for writing Own Your Space was the destruction of her own "pretty darn secure" home network by her two teenage boys, who were doing what many normal teenagers do on the Internet these days: downloading music and games, playing games, sending e-mail, chatting and Instant Messaging, often in a wireless environment. McCarthy’s book focuses on threats from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spyware, adware, hijacking, phishing and more and how these programs can gain access to your computer. The book provides historical background about these threats, examples from her own and others’ experience and disasters resulting from cyber attacks. McCarthy describes how best to protect yourself, your computer and its data and especially your finances and credit rating. The key points she emphasizes are: * Keep your operating system current by installing the most recent patches, many of which have to do with plugging up security holes in Windows, Outlook, Outlook Express and Internet Explorer. * Install anti-virus and anti-spyware software and update them regularly, because new viruses and spyware are being created all the time and you need the latest updates for the best protection. * Use a firewall, both hardware and software. If you use a hardware firewall, secure it by enabling encryption and changing the SSID and password from the default. * Never download software from unknown sites. Even when downloading from known sites, take time to read both privacy policy and the EULA (end user license agreement), since in addition to allowing downloading of the software you wanted, it may also allow downloading of spyware and sharing your e-mail address. * Never open attachments to e-mails sent from unfamiliar sources, unknown persons or groups. * Use passwords that are mixes of letters, numbers and symbols (symbols such as &$!%). * When using Instant Messaging (IM), Chat Rooms or Blogs, never give out personal information, such as your full name, address, phone number, credit card numbers, school or identifying descriptions. Always remember that the Internet is neither private nor anonymous, so be careful what you say. Log off if you get into an uncomfortable conversation or if the dialogue becomes abusive or destructive. Children (including teenagers) should be instructed to tell their parents about such dialogue (there are legal implications of libel and slander associated with this kind of online behavior). * Check the security of your computer periodically at these Web sites: www.grc.com or www.symantec.com. These recommendations and others are detailed in Own Your Space. Not satisfied with just writing the book, McCarthy has made it her mission, in addition to her corporate duties, to educate teens about Internet security by giving talks and holding seminars at middle schools and high schools worldwide. "It continually amazes me how teens are using the Internet and how trusting they are about giving information," she said. She also encourages young people to consider a career in computer security, a field that she says is growing and is interesting, challenging and rewarding. "The worst thing we can do is to not use the Internet," said McCarthy, as she talked about the good things available to your children and yourself on the Internet: information, help with school work, help with social and personal problems (things teens have trouble discussing with parents), keeping in touch with old friends and meeting new friends, sharing pictures, music, shopping and much more. The 228-page book includes an index and is written in a conversational style that reads easily. But there’s a wealth of detailed information to wade through and a lot of repetition of points--all of which tends to slow you down. We think the book is valuable and should be a must-read for parents and teens. The latter group will be a "hard sell," but will pay big dividends--even if your teen knows it all. |
