Archive for the ‘Security’ Category

Computer Security

Wednesday, October 24th, 2007

In Today’s Society, Protecting Your Computer Is A Requirement

Advances in computer technology is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it affords us quick and easy access to numerous conveniences such as bank statements, favorite shopping centers, school and health records, and more. On the other hand, it can also grant the same access to those who aren’t supposed to get it. Although it’s a rare occurrence, hacking has become the biggest criminal nuisance in computer history.

Make no bones about it. There’s nothing innocent or cute about the hacker. Today’s hackers aren’t the pimply-faced teen rebels that you might be thinking of. Instead, this generation of hackers are grown individuals who are more than likely earning a living by stealing the identities of innocent, law abiding individuals and then selling those identities to others who want to slip by the system. And the only protection against these seedy people is prevention.
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Tracking People Over The Internet

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007

You might think your anonymous online rants are oh-so-clever. But they’ll give you away, too. A federally-funded artificial intelligence lab is figuring out how to track people over the Internet, based on how they write.

The University of Arizona’s ultra-ambitious “Dark Web” project “aims to systematically collect and analyze all terrorist-generated content on the Web,” the National Science Foundation notes. And that analysis, according to the Arizona Star, includes a program which “identif[ies] and track[s] individual authors by their writing styles.”

That component, called Writeprint, helps combat the Web’s anonymity by studying thousands of lingual, structural and semantic features in online postings. With 95 percent certainty, it can attribute multiple postings to a single author.

From there, Dark Web has the ability to track a single person over time as his views become radicalized.

The project analyzes which types of individuals might be more susceptible to recruitment by extremist groups, and which messages or rhetoric are more effective in radicalizing people.
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Olympic Torch Invitation Virus – Most Destructive Virus Ever

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

A hoax. The Invitation virus hoax is a knock-off on the old A Virtual Card for You hoax. The text of the “Invitation” virus hoax email follows:

WARNING You should be alert during the next days:

Do not open any message with an attached filed alled “Invitation” regardless of who sent it.

It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which “burns” the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why you should send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it. If you receive a mail called “invitation”, though sent by a friend, do not open it and shut down your computer immediately.

This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus.

This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

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Are You a Victim of Identity Theft?

Monday, October 8th, 2007

Identity theft is a popular crime today. But unlike other crimes, the victims of identity theft often are unaware that a crime has been committed until after the damage to their credit and their name has been done. Would you know before it is too late if your identity is stolen? Here is what to check for to stop identity theft in its tracks.
One of the most common way criminals use another person’s identity is to apply for new credit cards or loans under a false name. If you receive letters or phone calls from creditors stating that you have been approved or denied a credit card or loan you never applied for, you should contact the creditor right away and get to the bottom of the situation. This is one of the first signs that something is wrong and can save you a lot of problems down the road if you investigate soon enough.
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