Since we all use computer regularly in our daily lives, I thought I'd mention a couple things here in the off-topic area.
It's important to keep your information safe on the internet. Coming from a computer background, I thought I'd review a couple things that may help us out.
Phishing:
This ain't done with worms and a pole. This is when a criminal hacker sends yo u an email trying to lure you into providing personal information. It may look something like this:
Hi, this is your bank. Due to recent security concerns, we're asking everyone to verify their information. Please click on the link below and fill out the requested information.
Thank you for helping us keep your information safe.
I. B. Banker
Of course the link doesn't take you to your bank's website. Instead it goes to a spoofed site set up by the thief. They log your information and use it to steal your identity or sell it to someone who will.
The answer to this one is to never open email from someone you don't know.
Pharming:
This one is more sinister as you, the consumer don't really have alot of control over it. This happens when crackers hijack a DNS server and put bogus numbers in the data tables. Here's how it works.
You type www.dimensions.com into your computer. When you click go, your browser goes to your ISP and asks for the corresponding IP, or internet address for the site. This is a number in the format xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx . The DNS server provides this information to your computer and it then goes out to the site. It's the same concept as looking up a number for a restaurant in the phone book.
In pharming, the thief puts a fake number in the DNS table so you don't go to the actual site. Instead you go to a spoof site that captures your information theft or sale to another thief.
This is not something you can prevent as the DNS server is run by your internet provider. But i ran across something that can help you detect if this has occured.
Create a favorite in your browser's favorites tool bar. Past the following code into the url line of the favorite under the properties screen:
javascript:alert(%22Actual URL address: %22 + location.protocol + %22//%22 + location.hostname + %22/%22);
Now, if you go to a site and something looks out of the ordinary, click on this favorite and it will show you the actual web address of the site. If it's not what you expected, be careful.
Look at the site you are on. If anything looks out of the ordinary
I know this was a long post but I found this information and thought it would be useful.
Talk to you later.
It's important to keep your information safe on the internet. Coming from a computer background, I thought I'd review a couple things that may help us out.
Phishing:
This ain't done with worms and a pole. This is when a criminal hacker sends yo u an email trying to lure you into providing personal information. It may look something like this:
Hi, this is your bank. Due to recent security concerns, we're asking everyone to verify their information. Please click on the link below and fill out the requested information.
Thank you for helping us keep your information safe.
I. B. Banker
Of course the link doesn't take you to your bank's website. Instead it goes to a spoofed site set up by the thief. They log your information and use it to steal your identity or sell it to someone who will.
The answer to this one is to never open email from someone you don't know.
Pharming:
This one is more sinister as you, the consumer don't really have alot of control over it. This happens when crackers hijack a DNS server and put bogus numbers in the data tables. Here's how it works.
You type www.dimensions.com into your computer. When you click go, your browser goes to your ISP and asks for the corresponding IP, or internet address for the site. This is a number in the format xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx . The DNS server provides this information to your computer and it then goes out to the site. It's the same concept as looking up a number for a restaurant in the phone book.
In pharming, the thief puts a fake number in the DNS table so you don't go to the actual site. Instead you go to a spoof site that captures your information theft or sale to another thief.
This is not something you can prevent as the DNS server is run by your internet provider. But i ran across something that can help you detect if this has occured.
Create a favorite in your browser's favorites tool bar. Past the following code into the url line of the favorite under the properties screen:
javascript:alert(%22Actual URL address: %22 + location.protocol + %22//%22 + location.hostname + %22/%22);
Now, if you go to a site and something looks out of the ordinary, click on this favorite and it will show you the actual web address of the site. If it's not what you expected, be careful.
Look at the site you are on. If anything looks out of the ordinary
I know this was a long post but I found this information and thought it would be useful.
Talk to you later.
