April 2008

Navigating the risks of Internet

risk Corner

Navigating the risks of Internet

One night, tired of surfing the Internet, I kept watching detective film. I generally do not like this kind of movies but the dialogue was between a detective and his daughter, sitting at a computer, I drew attention: " daughter, I have always tried your safety. I have always protected from damage you may cause. This home features the most modern security systems, is connected to the nearest police station. Therefore we have never had an intruder, but ... so I never imagined is that the intruder enter through the screen. "

I recently gave some talks about the great benefits provided by the Internet, use blogs, forums, wikis, free software and many other free resources that, properly used, allows us to interact with the world. However, every opportunity is accompanied by risk. Technological developments raises the risk.

In this part we will deal with the risks of the Internet. Input, to reassure the Internet, there are many more benefits than risks. That is, it's worth the risk.

The risks of the Internet. The virtual world of the Internet or, if preferred, the wild world of Internet is populated by strange creatures, hackers, bloggers, geeks, freaks, surfers, nerds, chaters, spammers, spywarers, mixed with real-world creatures known: pedophiles, pedophiles, voyeurs, thieves, swindlers, counterfeiters, pirates, rapists, and many others that escape my mind. My wild world qualifier is not due to the strange creatures, many inserted into a collective consciousness that promotes freedom of consciousness and social justice, but it is a world characterized by little control. On the Internet, the rules are conspicuous by their absence.

The interaction with these people on the network creates risk, but such interaction is transparent to us. Being connected means interaction with some or many of the creatures of the network, for example, a cracker might be trying to undermine our security, if indeed we do. A pederast could be trying to have virtual contact with our children (the intruder who surprised the detective), a spammer is sending us unwanted information, or at least not requested. A spyware is putting a Trojan on our team as we visit your page incautiously.

are many risks to which we submit to become Internet users, with a little help from wikipedia and some web pages will outline the most Common:

1. Risk of infection.

When we become infected is because our immune system has been compromised. Bugs are handled can be viruses or bacteria. The virtual forest also has various forms: viruses, worms and Trojans, but with a special feature: "All are global," ie, not cause epidemics ... generate pandemics. Like real-world viruses, there are those that produce small discomfort to those who generate big headaches and even pocket:

Virus: program that can infect other programs by modifying them to include a copy of itself. Some may remember messages like this: " is shutting down the system. Save all work in progress and log off. Any changes will be lost unsaved. Time remaining to shutdown: 00:00:59 ... Windows must now restart because the service ... Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service terminated unexpectedly " . If you remember it because they were attacked by the Blaster virus , one of the viruses written to attack both the Windows operating system vulnerabilities:

The Windows, he always hated Windows, whatever version, system is attacked by virus writers. The Melissa virus (1999), for example, generated losses of more than $ 300 million affecting more than 15% of the world's computers that used Windows and Word. In those years I was terrified of any. Doc external.

Windows users should be patching the cracks this system. Therefore, many have opted to change the system. I told a friend: "My best antivirus is Linux." However, neither the Linux escapes attack. Maybe it's a good antivirus, antispam good, a good anti spyware, anti trojan good and, in general, a good sailor. That is, carefully navigate the tangled jungle of the Internet.

worms and Trojans. worms or worms are programs that copy themselves, saturate the resources of our teams making slower, they differ from viruses because they infect files and programs. Moreover, u No Trojan is a program that unlike viruses and worms do not infect programs or files or copy themselves. When you run it opens doors to allow the intruder to control our team. This is called cracker intruder or thief information. Its main objective is to break or crack security systems, not only equipment but also commercial software. That is, some crackers are also software pirates. An interesting variant of these Trojans are called spyware.

Spyware. spyware These gather information about a person or organization without their knowledge. The most common function is to collect user information and distribute it to advertising companies or other organizations. Because spyware is commonly used Internet connection to transmit information, makes the consumption of bandwidth is increasing, posing as a further consequence the slowness of our equipment. When someone tells me that your Internet is slow, we always recommend running a good anti-spyware. Spyware Terminator is one of them is also free.

2. Risk mail

The e-mail are growing rapidly. For example, in 1998 there were 253 million, while in 2006 amounted to 1,600. Generally mail viruses we receive, in addition to the always annoying spam email

Spam. Some email users first thing they do is clear more than half of their post dubious origin, including spam . This unsolicited email, generates waste of time and, of course, productivity.

Phishing. "Dear customer of Bancolombia ...." Sure, some recall an email that began with this sentence. Do not miss the unwary who fell into the networks of these hackers. But not only was Bancolombia, the attack is the major banking institutions in the world. Phishing unwary searches the network to supply personal information, especially data from your bank account or credit card. There are cases renowned as Bancolombia, Citibank, BVA and Santander, asking that they update their accounts or y occasion. The most unusual, funniest say, is that fraudulent activity has been reported in the state. Phishing is via email, leading the unwary to a rogue site, with full appearance be real.

These thieves send your emails to everyone and are not attacking bank users, know some of will and will not miss the unwary.

Attachments. A friend frequently have problems with viruses, slow computer, and other symptoms that reflect the misuse of your emails. I could not make him understand that the beautiful PowerPoint presentations (ppt or pps extension), mass, bring one or another virus, worm or Trojan. The e-mail attachments are ideal hiding places for the Trojans, is a means of rapid spread and which fall many, many, unsuspecting, especially lovers of PowerPoint slides.

"Unfortunately Care should be taken now to open this type of email because a new vulnerability in Power Point, presents the risk that anyone can take advantage and install a Trojan called MDropper-BH that makes the computer download malware, turning your PC a zombie "

Taken from the following blog: http://mipropiadecadencia . blogspot.com /

way of malware. This is a word that means malware (bad icious soft ware) in this category are the above programs. That is a Trojan horse, worm, virus and spyware are malware.

3. Risk chat.

Here we return to the introduction this corner. For the chat is that the intruder entered the house detective. Online criminals lure victims with cute phrases, chat know the language of children and youth, the emoticons used properly, posing as another child or young person, share the latest music, in order to spend ... time until the victim falls into your network. By this means it is possible to convince the unsuspecting child or young person to connect your camera and display her body are also known cases where the victim provides parental information (bank accounts and credit cards) and, most regrettable, information on the habits, which allows the criminal, you know when your victim is alone. This is just a sample of what the attacker can do. The effects on moral, ethical, religious, etc. yet to explore. It is well known the proliferation of sects, terrorist groups, xenophobic, racist, anarchist, well ... how much pollution can control the world without the Internet.

4. Risk of slippage. The absence of governance

The issue of Internet governance is in vogue. The lack of control they demand. However, it will be a topic for another corner. Also there are other risks of the Internet have not tried as the case of online games, free programs , useless information (Internet junk), impersonations, violations of privacy, piracy, and a very long list . My purpose is to call attention to the most common ones to which we are exposed.

I end on a note published in the newspaper El Tiempo of Bogotá, on 30 March: " In two years could collapse too much information online to Nemertes Research says " the apocalypse of the Internet?

Some excerpts of note are the following: " At some point it will be almost impossible to see a video, download a song or 'chat' ", " research [...] that only the current traffic YouTube is equal to that endured throughout the Network in 2000. On that website you can see more than 80 million people post videos at a rate of almost 200,000 Daily ".

The note ends with the effects of a paralysis of Internet banking collapse of virtual goodbye to our emails, most telephony services could not be used (goodbye to the blackberry and other new technologies), E-commerce lose millions,

Some benefits that have led to the Big Bang of the Internet are:

Your free email: www. gmail.com , Www.hotmail.com