Security threats in your daily INTERNET life

Internet has revolutionized the life of the people all around the world. About 80% of the data on the internet is due to e-mail. Today every user on the internet surely having an e-mail ID. A lot of communication either related to business or personal issue takes place over the Internet. But in general users of the internet only knows the ways that is sufficient to carry out the work, they are not aware of the security threats present all around them. Here I’m mentioning some of those security threats…

Lottery wining e-mails:

Now a-days most people are receiving e-mails stating that they have won a huge sum of money in the lucky draw or sender’s grandfather had left the huge amount for him/her and with your help that person can get that money and in lieu of that you will get some share in that huge amount. This thing is called as Social Engineering. The sender of the e-mail takes you in confidence and then directs you steps for attaining the amount. The sender tries to fool you and instead of giving money to you, actually wants money from you. The sender first asks for your personal details as your name, the mailing address, phone number, photo identity proof that may be either the passport or driving license, etc. When you go ahead with this first step the sender then asks for the processing fee for the papers, and after that asks you to collect the money in person by coming over there. Many persons are fooled and suffered a lot from all these fraud e-mails. Some who believed these fraud people lost their huge sum of amount and who went there for money kidnapped over there and their family members were asked for ransom, while some others even lost their lives in all this. On the other hand the information given by you is being used in the terrorist activities. Only your photograph is changed from the identity proof given by you and rest all things remains same, thus the terrorist does all the activities on your name.

So, in future whenever you get this type e-mail that is offering you money always mark it as spam and delete it.

Banking over the Internet:

Another threat over the internet is related to online banking. The online banking where on one hand facilitated their customers, but on the other hand increased the threat to transmit the sensitive information over the internet. However a high care is taken to prevent the misuse of user’s information but again some unsocial agents deploy the same social engineering to get your sensitive information regarding your bank account details. The idea here deployed is sending an e-mail, saying that due some technical problems or some other problems your online account is disabled and you can re-activate it by clicking the link below, and logging in to your account. The link in the email takes you to the bank’s website for logon. But actually the website, on which you have reached from the link in the e-mail, is not the authentic website of the bank but is actually the fake website that looks exactly same as the bank’s website whose purpose is to get the user’s log id and password, so that he/she can access your bank account for your funds. The technical term for this in computer’s world is known as Phishing. Thus when you enter your account’s username and password on the fake website it is sent to the sender of the e-mail and you are simply shown a simply error message. In this way your bank account’s security is compromised.

Thus, if you are getting this type of notification, there is no need to panic. If you have activated your account for online banking then simply open a new browser window and type in the URL of your bank’s online banking and then logon to your account to check your account. One thing you should keep in mind to never click on the link available in the e-mail. Never go to bank’s online banking website by clicking to any link in any e-mail or on any web page that is not believed to be authentic. If you have received these types of phishing e-mails then always inform the technical support department of the bank to take appropriate steps.

Job Offers:

Another trap to get money from the people is fake job offers, especially from abroad. In this, the unsocial people collect individual’s data from job portals that he/she has put on the job portal like Monster.com, Naukri.com, Shine.com, etc. for jobs. In this, an e-mail is communicated to the individual stating that his/her profile matches with the requirements of the job openings in their company, and they offer you to go forward on the process to join the company. Generally the process consists of a telephonic interview after that those people demand for processing fee for the papers necessary to join the company and also ask fee for visa to work in their country. Once the payment is received from the person, then no response is made from these fraud people.

So, whenever you receive such email, always check the authenticity of the email. Search for the company profile over the internet. After consulting with some knowledgeable persons reply or go forward on such matters.

Social Networking:

A lot of social networking sites are point of attraction to the people now a day, like Orkut, Wayn, Facebook, etc. These services where made a platform for friends to meet and, discuss and share their emotions but also made the personal information about the people public. Whereas option is available on these sites to show the information you want, but that also is not 100% guaranteed. As there are scripts used for all these security related tasks and an expert programmer can easily fetch all your personal data. I’m not saying that you should not use social networking sites but be cautious while submitting the information on these sites. Special care must be taken by the girls and ladies while posting the information and photographs on these sites. A lot of cases have been heard regarding theft of the photographs of girls from these social networking sites and misused over other sites. Another thing you should also keep in mind that you should never trust the person on the other side if you do not know him/her personally, never reveal your phone number or mobile number to that person. Even if you have met your childhood friend on these sites, it may be possible that it is not the same person whose name is written over there and whose photograph is displayed on the profile. I myself have seen three profile of my friend on the internet with his name and photograph on all the three profiles; out of these only one profile was authentic that was created by himself rest others were fake and were made by unsocial people on these sites.

So, from next time always be careful in using these sites and do keep in mind what I told above.

Some important tips for using Internet:

• Always remember to sign out of all your account. Many people simply close the browser window in hurry instead of signing out, and think their account is safe. But this not the case, the session remains valid as long as the valid cookie (used for managing user’s session on the internet) remains on the user’s computer. A cookie is invalidated by signing out of the account. If due to some problem you have lost your internet connection or due to some other problem not able to sign out then simply clear your private data, for this simply select the option from the tools menu. The main thing is to delete the cookies from your browser and your session is invalidated.
• Always think twice before you activate your account for online net banking; do you really need it! These things are not for fun. As far as possible access your net banking account from your personal computer or laptop only. If any time you have to access your account from cyber café or some others computer then use the on screen keyboard utility to enter your password to prevent password theft.

Precautions:

• Never pay attention to lottery wining e-mails, mark it as spam and block sender.
• While banking over internet never disclose your sensitive information as your login password, profile password, etc. to anyone.
• Use the on-screen keyboard utility when accessing your account from public computer or some other's computer.
• If you receive a job-offer always research about the company over the internet, and also consult some learned person before replying.
• Never disclose your personal information on social networking sites, as there is risk of information theft.

Internet has emerged as a very powerful tool for communication, but by knowing these security related issues you can take full advantage of it, and will not have to suffer in future.

Wish you happy and better internet experience…

Planning network for home or office…. Go for

The current time is where everyone likes to be connected to their loved ones and the Internet has played a very vital role in this. Now almost all middleclass families are having computer in their home and also have access to the internet. Similarly the support of internet to your business can give it new heights.

Now the condition is again changing, instead of having a single system, there is more than one system and every system likes to be connected to the internet. So, now whenever you are planning for the internet connections, and if you are going to use it regularly, then go for the broadband connection. It will give you a good experience and will be economical also. There’s lot of offers available in the market so it’s difficult for one to make choice.

Selection of ISP:

The broadband service provided by BSNL and MTNL are for stationary access, whereas the services provided by the mobile companies as TATA Indicom, Reliance, Idea, etc. allows you to access the internet on the move. So depending upon your need select your connection. I suggest that you must go for the stationary connection, provided by BSNL and MTNL over their basic phone connection, as here are very few moments when you will have to access the internet on the move unless you are from corporate world. You can also go for the broadband connection provided by the mobile companies but that will be not economical. Stationary broadband will give you good bandwidth (speed) so you can have good working experience. The service provided by mobile service providers through the USB modem or device not gives the good speed. So, you are not going to work smoothly with the interactive multimedia content, like watching videos, or video conferencing with your loved ones.

Selecting Customer Premises Equipment (CPE):

The broadband service provided by BSNL and MTNL requires you to setup ADSL modem for accessing the service. I will suggest you to purchase the modem having more than one LAN port and also having Wi-Fi port this will help you access the service on more than one system and also wirelessly. However this let you spend some more money but it will be beneficial for the future.

Typical Wi Fi Router with inbuilt modem (front view)

Rear view

The most important thing over here is the Wi-Fi! As it will be good for you, because the future is of Wi-Fi. Maximum devices are now being Wi-Fi enabled like the mobile phones and printers. This also lets you get of the rid of the wiring overhead for accessing the network. It also lets you easily add devices to the network. All laptops are now Wi-Fi enabled, for accessing Wi-Fi network on desktop computer just use the USB Wi-Fi Adapter, which is also easily available. It lets you to move out of the rooms and provides you access to the network in your whole premises. The most important is placement of the Wi-Fi router (modem). The modem acts as the Wi-Fi router (or Access Point) for the devices in range. The placement of the router (modem) plays a dominant role for better reception of the signal.

The router will be placed in the open location so that you get good signal reception. If possible place it in the center of your home or office at a height of 1.5 to 2 meters, which will give you better signal strength.

Security:

Now the most important thing with the Wi-Fi is the security. You think that you placed the router at the best location and getting good signal reception all over your premises that’s all! You think that the signal seizes to extend out of your premises! It is not the case; the signal continues to extend beyond the boundary of your premises. Thus to protect your data and internet connection, security is the most important concern. The most common wireless encryption standard is Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), but it has shown to be easily breakable even when correctly configured. So, Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA and WPA2) became the standard in 2003 and is now shipped with almost all Wi-Fi enabled equipments. By default the Wi-Fi routers are configured in the “open” mode, i.e. anyone who is in the range of the Wi-Fi signals can access the network and if the person having some technical knowledge then he/she can change the settings of your router. Thus it is advisable to first change the IP address range of you router and then change the SSID i.e. the network name and then set the network access key. Also it will be better to hide the access point so that it is not discoverable from the devices in range.

So whenever you are going to set up small networks in home or in your office then go for Wi-Fi. It is the best option available with least overhead. The wireless router with inbuilt modem will let you to connect the devices with each other and also to the internet. So turn your home or office into a “hot spot” for you.