How to Stay Informed

Be updated with current and future security threats now

Now that we have discussed the threats to your online security, let’s review and summarize how you can remain informed about potential threats.

The Internet and e-mail are amazing resources that everyone utilizes to communicate with each other. 

Unfortunately, it is also being used for malicious activities such as scammers that use the e-mail to get money from computer users.

Fortunately, there is an easy way to recognize any attempts of scamming that arrive through e-mail. 

Knowledge is power and the descriptions indicated below are three of the email scams currently being used by scrupulous individuals.  Stay informed and read on.

Scams via phisher

How this e-mail scam works is through this:  usually, you will receive an e-mail from a service online provider or through a bank that ill ask you to go click a specific link or visit a particular website and from there you will be elicited to provide your personal info. 

This type of scam is called phishing. 

Basically, this scam is where victims are asked and tricked to entering all their personal info like passwords, account numbers to an organization or company that presents itself as legitimate.

Ingenious scammers who create a site that looks a lot like the authentic web site do this trick. 

E-mails are usually used to invite and bait potential online victims to go to the fake website. 

As much as possible, always be cautious and wary of e-mails that ask you to click a link and give out personal sensitive info like bank details.

You should know that any info provided on these fake sites are farmed and harvested by scammers which they in turn use to steal the funds from the user’s bank account or steal the identity of the victim.

Be aware that companies that are legitimate would never ask for any sensitive info through e-mail. 

Never, ever click on these e-mail links.  Never give out any info about you.  If there are doubts on the veracity of the e-mail, it is always best to directly contact the legitimate company.

How to know a scam if you see one

Generally, a scam has the following characteristics.  It makes the promise to give you lots of money, lots of prizes or a job. 

It also asks you for donations.  It also proposes business deals that are lucrative.  It also asks that you provide personal and very sensitive info.  It also asks that you follow a specific link to a particular website and log in to a particular account.

Educating yourself is an essential contribution against being vulnerable to fraud as well as any virus or security threat.

The worm

Just this year, a worm that has the ability to e-mail itself in massive amounts target users of Yahoo Mail by arriving in inboxes with a subject that says:  New site, along with it an attached forwarded message.

The worm was written using JavaScript and allows embedded scripts written in html to automatically run in the browsers of users. 

Basically what this worm does is fool unknowing e-mail recipients to believe that they have received an online card and to click on a particular web link to access it. 

However, once clicked, a Trojan is immediately downloaded to the user’s computer and is disguised as am html file thus innocently appearing as a web site page. 

Receiving any e-mail that is similar to this should not let you be fooled.   As much as possible, do not in any way follow these links in an e-mail message especially if you are not sure that it would lead you to a greeting card web site. 

As much as possible, check the site’s true destination prior to clicking it.  It would help if you course your mouse over the link and thru doing so immediately see the file extension.

All in all, staying informed is one way to harness power thru knowledge of current trends and updates on potential security and online threats. 

This allows ample time for anyone to prepare their system and thereby prevent unnecessary crashes and problems brought about by malicious and threatening viruses, worms or scams.

Believe it or not, luck has little to do with this.  The meeting of opportunity and preparation does much to make safe computing a reality that is possible and livable, now.