Ryan Russell

Are Your Kids Putting You at Risk

This chapter reviews the challenges of preventing activities of family members from putting one at risk for identity theft. Families often share a single computer and Internet account, but this blurs distinctions among identities of family members. Tech savvy children learning to push the boundaries of what computers can do, might engage in activities that inadvertently or deliberately exposes ones private information. Educating the family about how identity theft occurs, how it can be prevented, and how the childrens activities can cross ethical and legal boundaries. Certain types of software popular among young people pose a significant risk for exposing private information by encouraging conversation with strangers on the Internet. Chat programs, online role playing games, and messages boards are examples of forums that allow information gathering by outsiders. Children need to be taught to use anonymity skills when using these types of applications.

Configuring Your Browser and Firewall

This chapter provides examples for configuring firewalls, including two of the most popular personal firewall products and an external firewall product for people securing multiple computers in the home. The chapter reveals that not all browsers provide the same ability to manage web privacy in the same way. By understanding how browsers differ, it is possible to make good choices about which browser, and which configuration options to use, and how to best protect ones private information as one traverse the web. The firewall tab allows selecting a protection level without having to know very much about how firewall operates. This chapter recommends the paranoid setting, which blocks any computer on the Internet from originating a conversation with ones computer. If one interacts with web-based applications that do not work without session cookies, one might find that the paranoid setting cause those applications not to work correctly.

Identity Theft: Are You At Risk?

This chapter investigates the forms of identification that make up ones identity in an Internet-enabled world. It focuses on physically securing the sources of information that identify one as an individual, using tangible security methods. The chapter introduces some ways one can protect personal information using the less tangible features of computers and the Internet. The chapter also examines the crime of identity theft from the perspectives of the criminal and the victim, which can be an individual or a business. Identity theft is a crime involving someone impersonating a victim for the purpose of financial gain or other personal gain, and so it is usually associated with another form of financial or cyber crime. Perpetrators of an identity theft are motivated by many reasons and might attempt to impersonate a victim for a short period of time for immediate personal gain or for a short period of time for immediate personal gain or for a longer period of time in an attempt to hide their own identity for some reason.

Self Defense on the Web

This chapter examines the ways that private data can be exposed over the Web and suggests ways one can help prevent that from happening. Managing risk on the web involves learning to identify and avoid suspicious web sites that are more likely to have malicious intent for private information. One needs to be careful how one manages account and password information to minimize its exposure. One can protect credit card and other purchasing information using several services that help manage this information on ones behalf more securely than one can. The security policy states that the web site will never sell customer information, stores it securely, and uses it only for the purpose of communicating news about new products to customers. Many trustworthy web sites provides digital signature when it is necessary to install an applet or plug-in in order to view the site. One can view the digital certificate for the signed applet in the same way one views a Web server site certificate, using the features of the browser provided for this purpose.

Connecting to the Internet Safely

This chapter examines the ways a computers network connection can be used to gather data about ones computer and about software the computer is running on. The chapter explores several kinds of network setups and provides note of specific risks associated with each type. If one connects to the Internet using a dial-up modem, the computer is better protected than if the Internet connection is always on. Computers using dial-up Internet connections are less susceptible to intruders from the Internet, because they are only connected for short periods of time. Nonetheless, personal firewalls are necessary even with dial-up connections, to protect the computer while it is connected to the Internet. A firewall is important even if ones dial-up service provider is AOL and makes use of AOLs parental controls features, because these features are not equivalent to the protections provided by firewall software. It is recommended that to move from one connection to other, one should understand the risks involved and purchase appropriate security protections at the same time.

Protecting Your Hard Drive

This chapter discusses the problems in operating system or other software might. Cyber criminals commonly enter a system through poor passwords created by users, which is why it is recommended to create passwords that are difficult to crack. Cyber criminals might also use malicious programs to damage data and possibly steal information. To protect ones system from such programs, one needs to install antivirus software and carefully consider about deciding what programs one install on machine. Further, this chapter explores how BestCrypt also supports encryption to further enhance the security of data. To ensure the files deleted can never be recovered, one needs to use a program that will wipe the deleted data from hard disk. Passwords are a useful tool for protecting ones computer and its data from unwanted users.

Keeping Your E-mail Private

This chapter discusses the methods that can be used to keep e-mail private as well as aspects of identity. The chapter also discusses a number of common scams involving e-mail and the Internet, and explores how one can identify these scams by certain indicators. Privacy is an important issue when it comes to the Internet and e-mail. Many sites provide privacy policies that outline their rules on what is done with information that is provided by the user or obtained through other measures. These privacy policies might explain whether one could be added to mailing lists, if employees can routinely access personal information, the rights of individuals under a certain age, or if the information is shared with the government, law enforcement, or other organizations and individuals. Viruses are a major risk one faces using e-mail. One should install and regularly use antivirus software with up-to-date signature files to ensure that the data is safe.

If You Become a Victim

This chapter describes the precautions one can take, both online and offline, to protect private data. The chapter explains what should be done when someone succeeds in using ones identity to commit an associated crime of fraud. One should begin by understanding what has happened and should report the crime to police. It is important to help collect documents that the police will need to investigate the theft, such as bank records, credit card statements, and credit bureau reports. If one can obtain these documents, the investigation can be sped up by eliminating the need to complete permission affidavits. After one notifies the police, one should notify the merchants, lenders, banks, and other service providers with whom ones identity was fraudulently used to obtain goods or services. In each case, it is necessary to let the appropriate entities know that one has been a victim of fraud, and one needs to request that the account be closed.

Disaster Recovery Planning: The Best Defense

Whether caused by an act of nature, system failure, security breach, or administrative accident, avoiding downed services is impossible. Thinking through what to do before a crisis happens is a necessary part of business known as disaster recovery planning. This chapter helps one in creating a disaster recovery plan, so that one can identify key areas where prevention may avert the disaster or at least minimize the risk of downtime and how to proceed in the event of any type of loss. Ensuring that the backup and restore systems are optimized is essential. Adding fault tolerance to the Web site eliminates single points of failure in configurations that can be the cause of downtime. The chapter discusses various methods of increasing redundancy and describes another form of redundancy, protection, and recovery; choosing a remote hot site location and services in the case of a natural disaster, such as flooding. This chapter explores the relatively new field of insurance as it relates to e-commerce liabilities.

Disaster Recovery Planning

Whether caused by an act of nature, system failure, security breach, or administrative accident, avoiding downed services is impossible. Thinking through what to do before a crisis happens is a necessary part of business known as disaster recovery planning. This chapter helps one in creating a disaster recovery plan, so that one can identify key areas where prevention may avert the disaster or at least minimize the risk of downtime and how to proceed in the event of any type of loss. Ensuring that the backup and restore systems are optimized is essential. Adding fault tolerance to the Web site eliminates single points of failure in configurations that can be the cause of downtime. The chapter discusses various methods of increasing redundancy and describes another form of redundancy, protection, and recovery; choosing a remote hot site location and services in the case of a natural disaster, such as flooding. This chapter explores the relatively new field of insurance as it relates to e-commerce liabilities.