If you are using a PC, with an internet, then you are not safe!.There are a number of problems that arise due to Internet usage.Form e-mails to virus threats, most of our daily activity with our computer are hindered due to these troubles.The remedy? Not so fast!, go on and read further and you'll know what these problems are and what can be done to curb them.
VIRUS
Whenever people talk about troubles regarding internet usage or troubles that internet causes, people always come up first with this problem-VIRUS!.Every computer user is aware of the damage a virus can inflict on their system.So is this digital organism capable of inflicting damage very seriously? the answer is yes and no.(what?)Yes - because if unchecked you can lose sensitive data, viruses can cause your system to stop responding often and the worst- it can wipe out your data. No - because if you know how to safe guard your system, you'll be mile away from the troubles cause by the viruses.
The main transportation way the viruses take is the data space on a external drive or e-mail from an unsuspecting user.Additionally the viruses can spread to other systems connected to a network, if they have affected the main file system that is shared by all users in a network. In simple terms, Viruses can spread only if there are transferred from an inflicted computer to a non-inflicted one. More like a hot to host situation(like the real life counterpart-without a host the viruses cannot live!).
But there are other threats that are even greater trouble than viruses.In many cases, viruses are confused with worms.As discussed before, a virus spreads only if it is transferred to another computer through a network or through an external data drive.A worm, however, can spread itself to other computers without needing to be transferred as part of a host.All that the worms need is a means to spread themselves, it might be a local-network or an internet. However, with networks such as the World Wide Web in place, running services such as e-mail and file sharing systems such as P2P, viruses can spread seemingly without a host.This is the reason why viruses and worms are often confused with.
Viruses can affect system files, most often the executable files of a program, they can even affect the core scripting files of a program.Not only that, but some viruses are cleverly hidden or bonded with other executables, hence they ensure that the virus is also activated when the host program gets activated. For a virus to replicate, it must be allowed to execute the code and write to memory. This is the prime reason why many viruses attach themselves to executable files that may be part of a legitimate program. When an user runs the host program, it might actually trigger the active code of the virus, before executing the host program.
But internet was not the first source of virus, before internet became famous, viruses were programmed to copy themselves ,when activated onto a removable media like a floppy disk and they store themselves to the boot sector of the disks so that the virus gets executed in any other computer where the disk might be used.This trend stopped with the downfall of the major removable memory available some years back-Floppy disks.But now since the removable media has once again come to lime light, in forms of external drives, portable thumb drives, the old virus behavior continues. In fact, people carry viruses from any computer they use to browse outside (may be an internet cafe or friend's house) and bring home the viruses.
Unlike the real life counterparts, digital viruses cannot evolve themselves and become intelligent to get invisible from anti-virus softwares.The programmers behind the viruses must get intelligent for that or the virus must contain artificial intelligence, which is more unlikely(for now , who know what might happen tomorrow!).Viruses can be divided into two types,on the basis of their behaviour when they are executed: Resident and Non-resident viruses. Non-resident viruses immediately search for other hosts that can be infected,infect these targets, then give back the control to the host program that helped them to execute.Resident viruses do not search for hosts when they are run. Instead, a resident virus loads itself onto memory upon execution and transfers control to the host program. The virus stays active in the background and tries to infect other files in the system or tries to copy itself to any other media available.
How are viruses detected?, some antivirus softwares use the method of correlating the modified date of a file or checking the file size of the possible infected file.But the programmers who create viruses are also getting clever by the day, they can still create viruses that cannot be detected easily.The war between viruses and t anti-virus softwares can be never ending!.
Other malware such as worms and Trojans have also been the cause for a number of Internet troubles in the past. Unlike viruses and worms, Trojans cannot replicate and spread on their own. The term ‘Trojan’ is derived from the classical myth of the Trojan horse. Towards the end of the siege of Troy, the Greeks left a large wooden horse outside the city. The Trojans, convinced that it was a gift, moved the horse to a place within the city walls. As it turned out the horse was hollow and had Greek soldiers hiding inside it. These soldiers then opened the city gates of Troy at night, making it possible for the Greek army to fight back.These days there are numerous antivirus software, if you can afford one, buy a licensed antivirus software, else download from a range of free antivirus softwares like AVG.
Make sure that any removable media is checked for viruses, before you open it.And most important of all, update your antivirus software constantly, and try to run a full disk search once a month.Avoid installing softwares from unknown sources.Due to the recent troubles with removable media, there are a number of softwares that can detect viruses or malwares when the removable media is connected to your computer, try using them.(one such software is USB Disk security).Another software that you need to have in your computer is a firewall.It is essential because these days there are numerous web application(applications that run from internet itself) these can access your computer files, if there is no proper protection.
Spams / junks
One of the main problem, concerned with internet is that there is no governing body for internet.internet is not an private entity, it's accessible by all.Due to the "openness", Internet has become a playground for villains.There are potential hazards around every corner on the World Wide Web. One of the main problem with internet usage is SPAMMING!.Spamming in earlier days referred to indiscriminate mailing to a person.Initially when the "e-mail" was surging to popularity, the e-mail providers were unable to provide users protection from spammers, the result? you got hundred of mail everyday!
But now the e-mail providers have stopped the problem substantially, but spamming is still prevalent in different forms.That brings us to the question, While spam may be defined as indiscriminate mailing, is it always concerned with e-mails?the answer is no.Apart from e-mail spam, there is also spam in instant messaging (IM) spam, search engine spam, spamming a blog with comments, and mobile phone messaging spam.Some websites use certain techniques to do away with spamming(Captcha method is widely used, my be sometime I'll write an article about it!).Some websites like forums and community websites allow timed postings that allow user to post comment or topics only after certain time interval between posts or comments.But spamming still continues and there seems to be very less ways to avoid it.
But there is one question some of us might not have wondered - How do these spammers obtain your e-mail addresses? There are various tools that can be used to harvest e-mail addresses. Some of the most common ones are using a spider or a ‘bot’ to crawl the Web and collect e-mail ids. These Web spiders go around looking for e-mail addresses all over the Web.
The most common targets are sites where you give out your e-mail address for purposes of registration, or a Web site where you put up your mail id so that other members of that site/group can contact you.Spam mails contain titles like you've won or a great deal etc., yet there are some clever spammers, who do the spamming thanks to stupid users(really harsh isn't it).Who forward e-mails believing they will get lump amount of money if they forward a mail from a big multinational company ,to 10 of their friends.Let me give you a reality check-no big company likes to share it's profit, even with it's share holders!.Never keep forwarding things until you think they are worth you time and your friends' time.
Spammers do a lot of intelligent work to some how deliver that darn mail into your inbox.They counteract the e-mail filters by altering spellings or letters of the keyword.For example, the e-mail provider might filter e-mails as spam based on the word Money but spammers may use the word differently as M@ney , you'll still understand but the e-mail program wont!.One of the major sources of spam are pornographic Web sites, online pharmacies and casinos and surveys.These spammers may make a great deal of money from spamming others.
There is more damage than receiving an unwanted e-mail, there is a problem of loss of Bandwidth or increase in the server loads due to spamming.This particular event of server overloading has happened to many famous websites(including Yahoo!).To curb this nuisance, it is best to report any spam to your ISP or to the concerned webmaster of a site and be cautious about putting up your e-mail address on a Web site. If you must give out your e-mail,make sure that the site has adequate privacy measures in place.Some claim that to fool this e-mail collecting spider by changing you e-mail id display from
Phishing
What could be worse than some one spamming you e-mails since they know your ID? if you think there is nothing worse than spamming, think again.There is another internet threat called Phishing,it is also called spoofing.It is the act of attempting to acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by posing as a trustworthy person or business which needs these details for some business transaction or for you to claim a prize.The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, PAN and bank account numbers.
Such attacks are classified as social engineering attacks because the deviants acquire the details by gaining the victims trust.If you ask me, they are luring people into a trap, hence this should be called fishing.So why do they call it phishing? .When the internet was not there, a similar kind of scam existed.People used to call it phone-phreaking - what they did was, call up a person, speak to them like a staff from a bank ,know their credentials(saying the bank is checking the customer status) and then use the information is wrong way.Sometimes they even posed as a legitimate business man and did this phreaking.
Hence some believe that the Phishing term came from Phreaking.Since financial transactions are done online these days, the threats of phishing has increased.Anyone, knowing your transaction can take advantage of the situation. A number of companies have filed cases against these unknown attackers claiming millions in damages.Many of us might have experienced phishing.Some mails indicate that you have won so much dollars, to claim prize you have to visit a website or reply to the mail.If you do either of them, you are sure to go to a dead end.Also some mails indicate a business deal stating that some guy in insurance company had noticed that some property worth hell of cash is lying around without any claim.So they want you to pose as a friend or well wisher, pay them some money (and the mail goes on and on).If you reply to this mail, you are one big phis! caught in a phishing net.
Now we talk about the more secretly used, yet publicly demised dirty side of internet-pornography.Do you know that more than half the number of websites in the world are based on porn!(OMG!) just kidding, many believe this exaggeration, but the number if quite large, getting about 20 percent of the total websites out there.Pornography sites are one of the sources of all the threats mentioned above!.This thing is not only images, but also videos and stories(we have other kinds of Shakespeare I guess!).
But this next fact is no joke-Pornographic material is also one of the most searched for on the Internet. According to Google, 68 million searches are made every day for some variation of the word “porn”.
I got the following from the internet:
Pornography Time StatisticsEvery second - $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography
Every second - 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography
Every second - 372 Internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines
The reason behind pornography being demised is the fact that it becomes highly addictive.Being freely available in abundance on the Internet makes it the most surfed content. Excessive viewing of pornography has a disturbing effect on an individual’s personal and social life. Most of the successful Internet entrepreneurs are those who own pornographic sites.With rapid technological advancements in interactive software development, some sites even offer interactive game-like entertainment apart from the conventional photographic and video pornography( I guess they got bored with GTA and World of warcraft!). One of the worst thing about this is, internet provides easy access of porn to consumers in those countries where pornography is illegal—such as India or China.
Check out your junk or spam mails folder to see if I'm correct about pornography spammers.The other major issue raised against pornography is the showcasing of illegal material which we need not talk about here.These are troublesome since underage children can wander into such sites easily.There are a number of ways to curb this problem, these days browsers have built in tools to let you decide the sites that you might want to avoid( like site exclusion and parental control).Some softwares offer even more protection(like child lock) by constantly monitoring the internet activity and notifying of any illegal sites(one example for such software is net Nanny, zone alarm,etc.,)
These are the major problems that arise due to un-protected, casual use of internet.Let's use internet for the reason it was invented-to share credible information and not for other things that we talk about in secrecy.Internet is by far the most powerful tool mankind has ever created, it open new doors to immense knowledge.