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Email, banking, shopping, music, games - these are just some of the things that make the Internet such a fun and useful tool for business and entertainment. But, along with all of the benefits, the Internet holds many hidden dangers. This issue of the Worthwhile Wire will discuss some of these problems and how you can protect yourself.
Spam Email has become the most used service on the Internet, over 85% of people online use email everyday. This results in billions of email message being sent over the Internet daily. The fact is though, over 80% of these messages are estimated to be Spam! Spam is unsolicited commercial email that is targeted at selling you a product or service and can often be offensive and vulgar. Spam, and the removal of it, costs companies millions of dollars per year and these costs are passed on to you, the consumer. This unwanted mail also causes lost productivity and frustration by filling you inbox and making it harder to find the messages that you really want or need to read. How to Protect Yourself from Spam - Use a separate email address when you sign-up for things online (this is how most spammers get your email address). Keeping this address separate from your other email accounts can be one of the best ways to help keep Spam to a minimum.
- Ask your email provider if they provide Spam filtering for their customers. The Worthwhile Company provides Spam and Virus filtering for all of our customer email accounts.
Viruses Computer viruses got their name because of the way that they spread. One infected computer sends out copies of the infection to other computer and the process repeats itself over-and-over again. By some estimates, up to one in every 10 emails sent over the Internet is infected with a virus. Most computers are infected when the user opens an email attachment or runs an infected program. The virus usually is designed to either steal personal information from your computer or to cause damage by deleting files. The virus then tries to send itself to other computers to continue the cycle. How to Protect Yourself from Viruses - Ensure that your computer always has up-to-date anti-virus software installed and running. This is your best defense against virus infections.
- Never, never open email attachments that you are not expecting or that you are unsure of.
| Phishing The Federal Trade Commission reports that Identity Theft resulted in over $500 million in financial losses to consumers in 2004 alone, with over half being Internet-related. “Phishing” (pronounced like fishing) scams are one of the methods used to steal your identity online. Most scams work by sending you an email that looks like it is from a well-known organization like a bank or retailer. The email often requests that you logon to a special web page that requests information like your account number, password, username, or some other piece of sensitive information. The page usually looks just like the legitimate site but is designed to steal your information and use it to gain access to your accounts. How to Protect Yourself from Identity Theft - Never give personal information such as account numbers or passwords that are requested in an email. Legitimate organizations will almost never email you to request or to verify this kind of information.
- If an email contains a web page link for you to logon to an account, make sure the website address destination matches the name of the company or organization.
You have already taken the first step in protecting yourself online, becoming informed! The Internet can make our lives more productive and fun, and by staying informed on issues that affect your privacy and security you can keep it that way! | |
