Cyber security seminar offers tips to keep computers safe
Someone you don't know and probably will never meet could be watching you as you type on your computer. He may know every key you strike. Learning your computer-using habits. Studying every site you enter and word you type. Stealing your passwords. And maybe your money and identity. In 2003, Floridians reported losing $25 million because they were victimized by some sort of security fraud, said Andrew Valentine, a cyber security analyst with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Computer Crime Center. "In order for there to be an attack, there must be a vulnerability," Valentine told a Naples audience at a cyber security seminar Thursday. "Hackers exploit vulnerabilities to achieve a goal." Residents' home computers and business computers are tools hackers may use to obtain lists of valid e-mail addresses. These e-mail addresses sell for $30 each in the Internet underground, said Neil Sindicich, the FDLE Computer Crime Center's Cyber Security Awareness For Everyone training coordinator. Companies can buy these e-mail addresses — that hackers can capture from a resident's home or office computers — and send unsolicited advertisements to everyone on the list. Or, they may send them e-mails that contain viruses, computer worms and trojan horses that may hide spying programs allowing them to observe everything you type and look at online, he and Valentine said. These e-mails, which often will include attachments to be downloaded, don't necessarily need to be opened and downloaded for the virus to invade. A worm could be embedded in a file and become activated by an action you perform without knowing it may cause a problem, Sindicich said. "Worms will just sit dormant until certain conditions are met — like a date," Valentine explained. "Some worms even jump from computer to computer and delete themselves as they go." An open network connection is like an open door. They may invade a computer through the network, as well. Cyber attacks often are carried out by thieves, teenagers who want to see how far they can push a system and what kind of reaction they can spark and business competitors, said Sindicich and Valentine. They also include disgruntled workers showing their ire, terrorists and hackers who use a home or office computer to try to cover their tracks while trying to commit a crime without being caught. "To date we haven't seen a large-scale cyber attack by terrorists, but the ability is there," Valentine warned. "I predict we will see something like that in the near future." Residents may suddenly find unwanted pornography on their computers. Some hackers could embed a trojan horse in an e-mail, for example, open a back door into a resident's computer, load pornography into it, close the door and call police. Valentine said residents then may get a knock on their front doors by local police. Installing virus scanning software, updating it routinely for the newest viruses, worms, trojan horses and spying devices can help keep personal and business computers safer, Valentine said. These scanners should be used every 12 hours every day to protect against unwanted viruses, he said. "The average amount of time it takes for a virus to come out after a system vulnerability is announced is 12 hours," he said. "Time is no longer on our side." Miriam and Fred Blum, part-time Naples residents from Wisconsin, said they try to keep up with the latest viruses to make sure their business is safe. They own a business specializing in cheese and a diabetic-approved sugar alternative, and try to protect their Internet site. "We run a virus scan one to two times a day," Miriam Blum said. "The e-mails worry me a lot. Our daughter filters all of our e-mail." They use special computer devices to help ward off disaster, such as fireballs and virus scanners, and so far have not experienced any major problems, Fred Blum said. "I think we've been lucky pretty much," he said. To protect home and office computers, residents should not use auto-reply features on their computers because it simply signals spammers and hackers that an e-mail is legitimate, Sindicich said. They should install updated virus scanning software and run it every day. No e-mails with attachments should be downloaded from strangers. Firewalls and strong passwords that are not simple to crack should be used. Security patches and spyware-destroying computer programs must be installed to help prevent cyber attacks and identity theft, Valentine and Sindicich said. "The biggest risk is complacency," Sindicich said.
Reproduced from an article published by bonitanews.com
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