Encryption takes data in its original (plaintext.) form and uses a mathematical algorithm (cipher) and an encryption key to transform it into an unreadable form (ciphertext). Decryption takes ciphertext and transforms it back into plaintext, which once again uses the cipher in conjunction with a key. What do you think of when you hear the word encryption ? Is it spies sending their superiors information in secret code?

See the original post here:
Understanding Encryption

Most people have introduced encryption as a way to secure communications on your WLAN. You can also use encryption to secure at-rest data or data that is located on a hard drive or similar storage medium (CD, DVD, and tape).

See the original post:
Protecting Data With Encryption Or Lockout Software

Phishing is an illegitimate method of extracting the personal and other financial details of a person. Basically, it is a process of tricking a person on the internet to retrieve their banking passwords, bank accounts, phone number, credit card details, etc. This practice has grown over exponentially over last few years

View original post here:
Phishing – What Is It?

The Conficker Cabal was the nickname given to an ad hoc partnership, led by Microsoft, to fight the Conficker virus . Back in February Microsoft announced a partnership with various technology industry leaders and academia which was to implement a coordinated, global response to the Conficker worm. Together with security researchers, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and operators within the Domain Name System, Microsoft coordinated a response designed to disable domains targeted by Conficker. Shortly afterwards Microsoft also announced a $250,000 reward in return for information that would result in the arrest and conviction of those responsible for illegally launching the Conficker virus

Link:
What Is The Conficker Cabal?

Firstly, for those of you who don’t already know, HYIP stands for High Yield Investment Program. HYIPs are one of the most common scams on the internet today, though they became a source of income for scammers well before the digital age. There are a huge number of people looking to make extra money, for many reasons, including becoming debt free or in the hopes of giving up their day job. A large proportion of those people have internet access and will come across some of the thousands of HYIPs that are circulating the net at any time

Excerpt from:
What Exactly Is A HYIP Scam?

Yes, thats right, its YOU !!! You could be forgiven for thinking that the biggest threats online come from spyware, viruses or phishing emails but you would be wrong nonetheless. The biggest security threat is in fact an uneducated user, someone who doesn’t even understand the threats to their online security. If there is any chance that I am describing YOU then do something about it now – read these 101 tips to keeping yourself secure , along with the rest of this site! (The easiest way to do that is by subscribing to daily updates via my RSS feed )

Originally posted here:
Revealing The Secret Identity Of The Single Biggest Threat To Your Online Security

If you have been following the Virus Bulletin conference of 2009 then you will be as excited as I am at the amount of information coming out of the meetings. One of the first bits I picked up on was the talk of the Koobface virus which has been plaguing Facebook for some time now. To explain just how complex the Koobface threat is heres Ivan Macalintal, a security researcher with trend Micro – You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video You can read more about this at the Kaspersky Labs Security News Service – Threat Post

See the original post here:
Ivan Macalintal (Trend Micro) On Koobface

The following email forward has been circulating for quite a while now and is obviously still popular as it arrived in my inbox again yesterday. This particular one is worded for the benefit of U.S. computer users as it references the Department of Homeland Security but there are plenty of other variants for other countries too. The email claims that the government has installed keystroke loggers into new laptops (and other computers too presumably) – GOVERNMENT AND COMPUTER MANUFACTURERS CAUGHT INSTALLING HARD-WIRED KEYSTROKE LOGGERS INTO ALL NEW LAPTOP COMPUTERS! Devices capture everything you ever type, then can send it via your ethernet card to the Dept. of Homeland Security without your knowledge, consent or a search warrant each time you log onto the internet! The real life implications of this are plain: Computer manufacturers appear to be cooperating with the Department of Homeland Security to make every person who buys a new computer subject to immediate, unrestricted government recording of everything they do on those computers! EVERYTHING ! Even though I have an interest in reading about conspiracy theories from time to time I am still pretty certain the above email is a total hoax

Go here to see the original:
Are The Governments Of The World Spying On Us By Installing Keyloggers In New Computers?

In the digital age that we now live in it is, in many respects, safer to use a credit card online than it is to use it in the world at large. That said, credit card fraud is still very much on the increase so you would do well to keep your wits about you. If you believe you have already become a victim of credit card fraud then report it immediately, to the credit card issuer and to the police. The sooner you act, the sooner action can take place to ensure that the situation doesn’t get any worse. Also, report it to the credit agencies, such as Experian and Equifax, so that the fraudster cannot open any new accounts in your name should they have also been able to steal your identity .

Read more:
10 Easy Methods To Avoid Credit Card Fraud

Sometimes I receive emails that sound like they should be hoaxes but arn’t. This one, about Japanese rice art, is one example of something that sounds too bizarre to be true. The pictures, however, are quite genuine – Subject: Rice Art Stunning crop art has sprung up across rice fields in Japan. But this is no alien creation – the designs have been cleverly planted. Farmers creating the huge displays use no ink or dye.

More here:
Japanese Rice Art Is No Hoax

How to avoid vishing scams If you don’t already know what vishing is then you need to read yesterday’s post – What Exactly Is Vishing ? Today I am looking at a few very simple ways of ensuring you don’t become a victim of this crime. Rule #1 can be applied to just about every scenario you may ever come across online – DO NOT REVEAL YOUR SENSITIVE INFORMATION TO ANYONE , INCLUDING BANK EMPLOYEES. Whether you are contacted via email, IM or phone you should never, ever, reveal sensitive information to someone you cannot completely trust. If you always keep that in mind then you will have improved your internet security immeasurably

View post:
How Can I Avoid Vishing Scams?

The following cartoon from Consumer Reports WebWatch is cute and a little funny too – You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video Fortunately, it also makes some good points about what phishing is and how such crimes are committed. If it has piqued your curiosity then you can learn a whole lot more by reading my recent post : Phishing – What Is It And How Can You Avoid It?

View post:
Phishing Cartoon Drives The Message Home

I felt compelled to write a quick note today about the deaths of Patrick Swayze and Keith Floyd. That is because there are so many celebrity death hoaxes that sometimes people never really know whether the news they are reading is true or not. Today for instance, I have received a huge number of visitors to my page about a Patrick Swayze death hoax that circulated earlier in the year. Alas, today’s news is true

Excerpt from:
Celebrity Deaths Of Patrick Swayze And Keith Floyd Are Not Hoaxes

Here are a few links to some of the best articles I’ve come across on my internet travels this week – ———————————————————————————————– Malware is here to stay but what makes it so effective? PcMag.com answers that question by looking at The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Malware . ———————————————————————————————– Bev over at TEKBLOG seems to put a lot of time into looking for scams on Twitter

Follow this link:
For This Week’s Homework Please Bring An Apple Mac, Your Resume And A Strong Cup Of Coffee

DoS = Denial Of Service DDoS = Distributed Denial Of Service What is the difference between the two? Whilst DoS and DDoS sound remarkably similar there are in fact differences between the two – DoS A DoS Attack is a Denial of Service attack. This means that one computer and one internet connection is used to flood a server with packets (TCP / UDP). The point of such a denial of service attack is to overload the targeted server’s bandwidth and other resources

Excerpt from:
DoS vs DDoS – What Is The Difference?

Popular Searches

• dos vs ddos
• dos vs ddos attack

Conficker is the most recent addition to my list of notable malware, having only been released into the wild around October of last year. Many people predicted that Conficker would do some crazy stuff on April the 1st of this year but nothing of note really happened. That doesn’t mean to say that Conficker has gone away though. The Conficker virus, also known as Downadup, Kido and Confiker, is known to have infected up to 6 million computers around the world.

Follow this link:
Malware That Changed The World – The Conficker Virus

The Anna Kournikova worm was released back in 2001 and, whilst it was not aimed at causing data loss, it did cause embarrassment and disruption for many personal and business users. The worm was spread via email with an attachment that claimed to be a picture of Anna Kournikova, who many a hot-blooded young male found incredibly hard to resist. You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video Opening the bogus attachment simply sent copies of the worm by email to all addresses found in the recipient’s address book in Microsoft Outlook.

Read the original post:
Malware That Changed The World – The Anna Kournikova Worm

Remember this? (I know I do as it was the one and only infection I’ve ever had on my PC). The Blaster Worm, also commonly known as ‘Lovsan’ or ‘Lovesan’, was first spotted on the 11th of August 2003. The worm spread quickly on computers that ran Microsoft operating systems such as Windows 2000 and Windows XP

View post:
Malware That Changed The World – The Blaster Worm

Back in November of 2007 the OSX/RSPlug Trojan appeared for the first time. What was it though that made it notable?

Originally posted here:
Malware That Changed The World – The OSX/RSPlug Trojan

So, Mac users don’t get viruses and their machines arn’t targeted by cybercriminals in any way huh? Yeah, right. Less than 24 hours after Mac OS v10.6 (Snow Leopard) was released and already there are reports of fake websites trying to trick Mac owners into downloading malicious code. Credit : http://www.flickr.com/photos/bizmac/3863377541 According to security researchers at Trend Micro, fake websites that claim to have Mac OS v10.6 available for download have already been spotted

Read the rest here:
Fake Websites Offer Trojan In Place Of Snow Leopard

A man walks into a bar and says to the bartender, “If I show you a really good trick, will you give me a free drink?” The bartender considers it for a while and then agrees. The man reaches into one of his pockets and pulls out a tiny rat. From the other pocket he pulls out a tiny piano. The rat stretches his arms, cracks his knuckles, and then proceeds to play the blues. When the man finishes his drink, he asks the bartender, “If I show you an even better trick, will you give me free drinks for the rest of the evening?” The bartender agrees, thinking that no trick could possibly be better than the first

See original here:
The Talking Frog Scam

In 1917 a journalist by the name of  H.L. Mencken had grown weary of all the reports of war and death that ensued from World War I. He thought it was about time someone published something a little more light-hearted to serve as a temporary distraction. His chosen subject? The history of the bathtub in the United States

More:
H.L. Mencken And The Bathtub Hoax Of 1917

Yesterday The Register had an article that piqued my interest because of it’s Pink Floyd -esque title. The post talks of how malware authors have developed a cross-site scripting worm which is now weaving it’s way across a Chinese social networking website in much the same way that the Mikeyy worm did on Twitter back in April of this year. This new worm, known as Pinkren-A, actually poses as a Pink Floyd video clip of one of their classics – ” Wish You Were Here”. You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video Whilst the above video clip of the Pink Floyd reunion is quite safe to watch, the one that is embedded in a message which is being circulated on the social networking site ultimately leads to the execution of a malicious piece of Javascript which then leads to further machines becoming infected

More:
Hey, Teacher, Leave Those Worms Alone!

Security experts Symantec recently released a list of the top 100 search terms made by kids who use computers that utilise their OnlineFamily.Norton service . Check out the following which made up the top 10 – 1. YouTube 2. Google 3.

Read this article:
Discover The Top 10 Subjects Your Kids Are Searching For Online

Do you want to use a computer without getting viruses, spyware and other nasty surprises? Do you use Windows but yearn to be like a Mac user? If so, you need to learn the 10 golden rules of avoiding viruses like a Mac user – Rule #1 – BUY A MAC Because everybody knows that Macs don’t get viruses . Rule #2 – USE A GOOD ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM I’m hoping you already know what an antivirus program is

Continue reading here:
The 10 Golden Rules For Avoiding Viruses Like A Mac User

BitDefender have officially released their 2010 product lineup. A one year license for three PC’s costs $79.95. Its good to see that the new products are fully compatible with Windows 7 but beyond that I don’t know too much about them

Continue reading here:
BitDefender Releases Total Security 2010 – Is It Any Good?

The largest internet-related medium for scams, fraud, malicious programs and time-wasting junk is, without doubt, email. The following tips will help you avoid such pitfalls – DON’T OPEN SUSPICIOUS EMAIL ATTACHMENTS Though not the only source, email attachments can often be a hive for viruses. Therefore you should never, ever, open any attachments that your computer can execute. These include files that end with the following – .exe .com .inf .scr .pif .vbs It will serve you well if you believe all email attachments to be guilty until proven otherwise

Original post:
Basic Email Security For Internet Noobs

Yesterday I highlighted 10 passwords and said anybody who uses any of those must be an idiot. So here today are some tips for avoiding any more bad password choices – PASSWORDS SHOULD NEVER BE RECYCLED Personally I would say that you should never, ever use the same password twice. Ever.

Read the original:
Bad Password Mistakes

The first known usage of the term ’spyware’, as far as I am aware, was back in October of 1994. On the 17th of that month the phrase cropped up in a posting made on Usenet, a globally distributed bulletin board system. http://www.flickr.com/photos/anylorak/3550635479/ Several years later, in 2000, Steve Gibson, owner of Gibson Research (a computer software development firm), discovered that advertising software components from two companies had been installed onto his system and he suspected them of collecting information without his knowledge. Later on he would retract that claim but he still reprimanded the advertising companies Aureate and Conducent for secretly installing spyware and giving him a hard time to remove it.

See original here:
How Did Spyware Begin And Who Created The First Tool To Remove It?

Do your kids download music, movies and who knows what else from the internet? If they do then they are probably just typical kids as I would imagine the majority of them download huge amounts of data these days. NOT SO SAFE In fact, downloading has become so commonplace that many parents think it is perfectly safe and acceptable. They may, however, be wrong on both counts.

See more here:
Digital Tips For Downloading Kids

You know you’re spending too much time on the web when you read something that piques your curiosity but then forget where it was because you’ve surfed a thousand sites since. Anyways, wherever it was, someone had posed the following question – Can Hackers Legally Break Into Sites That Don’t Post ‘Warning’ Notices? There were many answers, many of which seemed to concur that hackers did indeed have free reign to do as they pleased on websites that didn’t expressly say they couldn’t.

See the article here:
Can Hackers Legally Break Into Sites That Don’t Post ‘Warning’ Notices?

After my post about The Two Biggest Reasons Why Men Continue To Get Scammed By Women I thought it only fair to view the situation from the opposite side of the fence. Today’s pictures demonstrate the valuable assets men gladly use in order to entrap women into marriage – House + Car + Cash = Huge Boobs . Fair trade?

See the original post here:
The Three Biggest Reasons Why Women Allow Men To Con Them Into Marriage

Antivirus Firewall Keylogger Remover Antispyware Adware Remover All the above are essential in my opinion. How many have you got installed on your system? If the answer is not many or, worse, none, then the following security vendors may be worth a visit as all sell popular and proven products – Ad-Aware (Ad-Aware from Lavasoft) Aladdin (eSafe) ALWIL (Avast! Antivirus) Authentium (Command Antivirus) Avira (AntiVir) Bit9 (FileAdvisor) Cat Computer Services (Quick Heal) ClamAV (ClamAV) CA Inc. (Vet) Doctor Web, Ltd. (DrWeb) Eset Software (ESET NOD32) ExpLabs (Link Scanner) Fortinet (Fortinet) FRISK Software (F-Prot) F-Secure (F-Secure) AVG Technologies (AVG) Hacksoft (The Hacker) Ikarus Software (Ikarus) Kaspersky Lab (AVP) McAfee (VirusScan) Microsoft (Malware Protection) Norman (Norman Antivirus) Panda Security (Panda Platinum) Rising Antivirus (Rising) Secure Computing (Webwasher) Softwin (BitDefender) Sophos (SAV) Sunbelt Software (Antivirus) Symantec (Norton Antivirus) If the paid versions of antivirus products are too costly for you then here’s another list you gotta read : The Top Ten Free Antivirus Of 2009

Link:
The Top 29 Security Vendors 2009

How can we resist? http://www.flickr.com/photos/contraquien/2248974027/ Any of you guys got any advice on how we can deal with these twin threats to our future financial well-being?

Read more:
The Two Biggest Reasons Why Men Continue To Get Scammed By Women

The following post originally appeared here about a year ago but I’ve bumped it back up because there is currently an email going around that makes reference to the picture… Judging by the following picture, working in a power plant in the Texas area is risky business indeed – Is this is a genuine tornado or a hoax ? There is actually an element of truth to this photo – the tornado is quite genuine. As often happens though, someone with too much time on their hands and a copy of Photoshop has had a little fun with it. The power plant (which is really an oil rig) has quite clearly been added, as you can easily tell from the way the clouds cut out around the spire at the top.

Read the rest here:
The Texas Tornado Hoax

If you think that communicating with your friends and family via email is safe then you are right. Unfortunately, however, you could be your own worst enemy and jeopardise your online safety if you make silly mistakes. The following 3 tips should help you avoid that so read them well – 1. Never give your personal information to strangers.

Continued here:
Email Safety Tips For Kids

Sitting by the side of the road one day, on the lookout for speeding drivers,a police officer spotted a car puttering along at 20mph. He thought to himself: “That driver is just as dangerous as a speeder!” So he turned on his lights and pulled the driver over. Approaching the car, he noticed that the four passengers were all old ladies , and all wide-eyed and white as ghosts

See the original post:
Road Sign Confusion

Insurance Fraud is a costly business for those who provide policies and cover. Here in the United Kingdom, it is currently believed to cost insurers way in excess of one billion pounds a year.

More:
What Is Insurance Fraud?

The day before yesterday Steven Tyler, lead singer of rock group Aerosmith, fell off the stage in Buffalo Chip in Sturgis. Ironically, the band were performing their hit “Love In An Elevator” at the time, a song which contains lyrics about ‘going down’.

Continue reading here:
Steven Tyler – Going Down But Not Dead Yet

I’m sad to report that swine flu has claimed its first celebrity victim – And we all know who gave it to him, right?

See the rest here:
The Secret Identity Of Swine Flu’s First Celebrity Victim Revealed

Earlier today social networking site Facebook and micro-blogging service Twitter were both hit by DDoS attacks. I’ve heard that the service on Facebook was significantly slowed and Twitter was totally inaccessible for a couple of hours and too slow to use effectively for a few hours after that too. Both Twitter and Facebook believe that their services were hit by a Denial of Service attack, meaning that their servers were bombarded with data with the express intention of bringing them to a standstill.

See the article here:
Facebook And Twitter Knocked Out By DDOS Attack

Inundated with junk email ? Fear not! International Do Not Spam Registry to the rescue! Sign up now and you’ll never receive any more junk email. Or so the email says – National Do Not Email Registry I know you are all tired of getting junk mail. The following link is a National Do Not Email Registry, if you elect to submit your email address they will remove you from junk mail.

View post:
The International Do Not Spam Registry

The following email is one that I’ve had on my hard drive for a couple of years but actually received for the first time in the mid-1990s I believe. Microsoft , of Xbox 360 fame, used to be known for their somewhat wealthy founder Bill Gates who was once the richest person on the planet. He lost that crown a while back.

Continued here:
Microsoft’s Bill Gates Gives His Millions Away

Internet security vendor McAfee has catalogued more than 1.2 million unique samples of malware in the first half of 2009, meaning that this year is well on course to smash last year’s record in malware creation. In the first half of 2008 McAfee identified around half a million unique pieces of malware whilst the second half of 2008 saw one million new incidents, giving a total of around 1.5 million unique pieces of malware for the whole of 2008. According to Dave Marcus, Director of Security Research and Communications at McAfee – “In the first half of 2009, we have seen about three times the unique malware discovered in the same period in 2008

More:
2009 : Year Of The Malware

Is your computer bogged down? Running slow? Exhibiting strange behaviour? Well maybe you need a registry cleaner

Link:
Rogue Cleaners Lead To The Dark Side Of The Windows Registry

Do we ever really know what we are eating? This following email hoax cruelly suggests that Kentucky Fried Chicken changed the way they are known to ‘KFC’ because they don’t actually use chickens in their food! KFC has been a part of our American traditions for many years. Many people, day in and day out, eat at KFC religiously. Do they really know what they are eating? During a recent study of KFC done at the University of New Hampshire, they found some very upsetting facts.

See the original post here:
KFC – Kentucky Fried… What?

Don’t sweat, its nothing you said. If the number of people following you on Twitter has dropped significantly then it isn’t because they all suddenly found a copy of your real picture or read that tweet about your smelly socks. Nope, its because Twitter nuked them into oblivion

Original post:
We Nuked Them!

Hopefully you read my recent post that explained exactly what cyberbullying is. But… Do you know how to identify whether your child is being cyberbullied? Spotting the tell-tale signs is, in my opinion, essential especially since the Megan Meier case.

Read the rest here:
Do You Know The Tell-Tale Signs Of Cyberbullying?

Yesterday Panda revealed that their Cloud Antivirus product was now generally available in Beta version 2. You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video I’ve personally tried this Cloud AV before and found it to be quite adequate.

See the article here:
Panda Release Cloud Antivirus Beta 2

Forty years ago today man stepped foot on the surface of the moon. Or so they say. I’ve previously looked at some of the reasons why the moon landing may have been a hoax or a conspiracy – Part 1 – Setting up the moon landing conspiracy Part 2 – Possible motives for faking the landing Part 3 – Covering it up Part 4 – Hushing it up Part 5 – No Return Part 6 – Aliens Part 7 – Faked Photos Part 8 – Video Evidence But today, on the anniversary of the moon landing, I was wondering again what you think

Read more from the original source:
Apollo 11 Moon Landing – Glorious Achievement Or 40 Year Hoax?