Giving identity thieves and hackers the big finger – protect yourself!

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Thursday, 28 August 2008

Page 1 of 3 ! What should you do to protect yourself, your computer, your online accounts and your digital self from being hacked? As with all protective measures, there’s no one single “magic bullet” solution, but instead, layers of protective technologies and practices that you need to employ to thwart the “bad guys” on multiple levels. Please read on. Why am I writing this article? Because I’ll be on ABC Melbourne 774 this afternoon to talk about the issue on online security, and I thought I might as well turn what I’ll talk about into an article, because I might not be able to cover everything fully in the interview. So whether you’re here because of the ABC radio segment, or you’re a regular iTWire reader, welcome! What’s the issue? Well, from what I’ve been told, someone at the ABC had their Hotmail email account hacked into, as well as their eBay account, and an online criminal has used those details to order 40 things from eBay. Naturally, the person in question isn’t impressed, and wants to know what to do to protect themselves from something like this ever happening again, or at least to greatly minimise the chances. Criminals are crafty people, so there’s no absolute 100% guarantee you’ll never get hacked or electronically “broken into” again, but there are certainly quite a number of things you can do to protect yourself. Here’s a list of what you should consider doing to protect yourself. Most of this advice is for PCs running Windows but some (such as the password information) is applicable to Macs or computers running Linux.  1. Make sure your operating system, browser and other software has all of the latest updates, patches and bugfixes installed – whether you’re using a Windows PC, Mac or Linux. On Windows PCs, click on Start, then All Programs, then click on “Windows Update”. On Macs, click on the Apple in the top left hand corner of the screen, and from the menu that appears, click on “Software Updates”. It also important that you ensure you are running the very latest version of your browser(s). Internet Explorer is now up to version 7 (with a new beta of version 8 now available), Firefox is up to version 3.0.1, Opera is up to version 9.5.2 and Apple’s Safari is up to 3.1.1. 2. Watch out for “social engineering” tricks in spam emails which try to fool you into running software you’ve received by email, or trick you into visiting a website which has one purpose: to probe your computer for unpatched vulnerabilities so it can then try to automatically install malware in what’s known as a “drive-by download” which will then pop-up advertisements and potentially scan your computer for information worth stealing, as well as install “keylogger” and other spy software. In short, if you get any suspicious email, don’t open it, and if you do, don’t click on any links or open any attachments. You can ignore all those emails which purport to be from airlines, courier companies, banks or which purport to have incriminating video clips of you, naked pictures of celebrities, improbable news items or ridiculous claims like “I’ve kidnapped your baby”. The online crims will try ANYTHING to get you to open up their emails and click the link or open the attachment, so please resist temptation and ignore anything that is remotely suspicious. 3. Don’t use the same username and password for all of your different accounts! If you do, you make it very easy for someone to be able to break into many different parts of your digital life. If necessary, purchase software such as Roboform Pro http://www.roboform.com/ (US $29.95). It manages and remembers all your passwords for you. It can also generate very strong passwords automatically and can protect all your usernames and passwords with a single “master password” so people in your family or office can’t snoop and get into all your accounts. A well regarded free alternative to Roboform is Keepass http://keepass.info/. In addition, some of the major Internet Security packages also come with username and password remembering software inbuilt, such as Norton Internet Security. But whether you use software such as Roboform, Keepass or something else, please don’t use the same username and password, and to be extra safe, change your passwords every few months to something new. At worst, keep them written down and put them in a safe location (away from your computer), but consider using a password remembering program to make your life easier. There are 6 more steps - please read on to page 2! << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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