9 Ways to Protect Yourself from Hackers Online

Here are 9 tips that can help you protect against cyber-attacks:

1. Make your password harder to hack

Hard passwords include upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters. They should be at least eight characters in length. They should also not spell out words easy for hackers to find, like your pet’s name or the name of a family member.

2. Change your password regularly

A very common mistake made by users is to create one hard password, but then never change it. Remembering a long list of complicated passwords can be difficult. But no password is unbreakable. Hackers are better able hack multiple accounts if those accounts all have the same password. A password management service, like Dashlane or PasswordBox, can help you keep track of hard passwords. These services permit users to easily store and secure their passwords.

3. Clear your browser history

This goes for all the devices you use in a day – your home computer, your work computer, or your friend’s iPad. Internet browsers like Firefox or Chrome keep track of where you’ve been and what you’ve done online. They keep records of every site you visited. Information about what you sent from or saved on your computer can be kept for days or weeks. It is very easy for anyone who sees that information to steal a detailed record of your online activities.

4. Do not use free Wi-Fi

An increasing number of public places now offer free wireless access to the Internet. Often, a user does not need a password to connect to these wireless networks. These services might be useful, but they’re also an easy way for hackers to access everything on your device. Unless you really need it, it is best not to use it.

5. Use HTTPS

HTTPS is officially known as “hyper-text transfer protocol secure.” It is similar to HTTP, which is used to enter Internet addresses. HTTPS adds an extra layer of security and encryption while online. Communications between users and sites that support HTTPS are encrypted. The information is also authenticated. That means that HTTPS can determine whether or not a website is real.

6. Watch what you click

One of the most popular and successful ways hackers infect your computer is through a technique called phishing. Phishing occurs when someone opens an email attachment that looks real. But the attachment is actually a virus that immediately infects the user’s computer. If someone sends you a file or a website you did not ask for, it is best to not click on it

7. Try not to use public computers

For many people, not using a public computer can be difficult. Those without a computer or Internet access at home often use Internet cafes to get online. However, the more different people use a computer, the more likely a virus has infected it.

8. Use anti-virus protection

There are many anti-virus services available for users. They can offer many different types of computer protection. Some anti-virus services are even free. They are a great way to have a professional help keep users one step ahead of hackers.

9. Be careful while using thumb drive

Thumb drives, also known as flash drives, are small and easy storage devices to use across different computers. They are a popular device that people use to exchange files and documents. They can also spread viruses easily across computers and networks.

100rabh

Ethical Hacking

Ethical Hacking is testing the resources for a good cause and for the betterment of technology. Technically Ethical
Hacking means penetration testing which is focused on Securing and Protecting IT Systems.

            Why Hackers Hack?
 
 The main reason why Hackers hack is because they can hack. Hacking is a casual hobby for some Hackers — they
just hack to see what they can hack and what they can’t hack, usually by testing their own systems. Many Hackers are the guys who get kicked out of corporate and government IT and security organizations. They try to bring down the status of the organization by attacking or stealing information.

 The knowledge that malicious Hackers gain and the ego that comes with that knowledge is like an addiction.
Some Hackers want to make your life miserable, and others simply want to be famous. Some common motives of
malicious Hackers are revenge, curiosity, boredom, challenge, theft for financial gain, blackmail, extortion, and
corporate work pressure.

 Many Hackers say they do not hack to harm or profit through their bad activities, which helps them justify their
work. They often do not look for money full of pocket. Just proving a point is often a good enough reward for
them.

    Prevention from Hackers
 
 What can be done to prevent Hackers from finding new holes in software and exploiting them?

 Information security research teams exist— to try to find these holes and notify vendors before they are exploited. There is a beneficial competition occurring between the Hackers securing systems and the Hackers breaking into those systems. This competition provides us with better and stronger security, as well as morecomplex and sophisticated attack techniques.

 Defending Hackers create Detection Systems to track attacking Hackers, while the attacking Hackers develop
bypassing techniques, which are eventually resulted in bigger and better detecting and tracking systems. The net
result of this interaction is positive, as it produces smarter people, improved security, more stable software,
inventive problem-solving techniques, and even a new economy.

 Now when you need protection from Hackers, whom you want to call, “The Ethical Hackers”. An Ethical Hacker
possesses the skills, mindset, and tools of a Hacker but is also trustworthy. Ethical Hackers perform the hacks as
security tests computer systems.

 Ethical Hacking — also known as Penetration Testing or White-Hat Hacking —involves the same Tools, Tricks and
Techniques that Hackers use, but with one major difference:

 Ethical hacking is Legal.

 Ethical hacking is performed with the target’s permission. The intent of Ethical Hacking is to discover vulnerabilities from a Hacker’s viewpoint so systems can be better secured. Ethical Hacking is part of an overall information Risk Management program that allows for ongoing security improvements. Ethical hacking can also ensure that vendors’ claims about the security of their products are legitimate.

 As Hackers expand their knowledge, so should you. You must think like them to protect your systems from them.
You, as the ethical Hacker, must know activities Hackers carry out and how to stop their efforts. You should know
what to look for and how to use that information to thwart Hackers’ efforts.

 You don’t have to protect your systems from everything. You can’t.The only protection against everything is to unplug your computer systems and lock them away so no
one can touch them—not even you.

About Cyber Secuity

Cyber Security refers to a set of techniques used to protect the integrity of networks, programs and data from attack, damage or unauthorized access.

Types of Cyber Security

What do the Professionals Need to Know?

If you've ever been interested in a career in cyber security, now is a great time to gain the education you need to help keep the internet safe. In our increasingly connected world, where even household appliances are connected to the internet, there are also more opportunities than ever before for cyber criminals to wreak havoc on businesses and individuals alike.
Cyber attacks have come a long way from the email viruses of old (although those still exist as well). As criminals adapt to changing times, so too do the IT security experts whose job it is to keep our data safe. Here are some of the most common types of cyber attacks, and some of the cyber security methods used to fight back.

Malware

Malware has been around for a long time, and continues to plague computers to this day. Malware is catch-all word for any software designed to damage a computer or computer system. The first widely spread malware, known as the Melissa Virus, was unleased in 1999. Eighteen years later, malware remains a dangerous weapon, used by cyber criminals to harvest information, commit fraud, or just cause mayhem.

Cyber security strategies for malware

For both homes and businesses, a good anti-malware software is essential. Anti-malware programs can both find and remove malware that has been installed on a computer, and prevent malware from installing itself in the first place. Also essential is instructing users to practice common sense when using the internet: never open unexpected email or chat attachments, and be careful when clicking links on the internet if you can't be certain where they'll lead.

DoS (Denial of Service) attacks

One of the simplest forms of cyber attack, DoS attacks shut down a target's servers, making it impossible to access their websites or use their online services. This is most commonly done by flooding a target's servers with traffic until they overload and crash. One of the most common forms DoS attack involves getting large numbers of attackers to flood their target's servers at once, making it almost impossible to block the incoming traffic.

Strategies for DoS attacks

The simplest method for thwarting DoS attacks is having extra bandwidth. If you fear your business might be targeted for DoS attacks, simply having enough server space to handle the increased traffic can render the attacks moot. There are also third-party services who can help your company stay online during a DoS attack

Phishing

In a phishing attack, a cyber criminal attempts to extract personal information out of you by tricking you into giving it to them. Bolder scam artists might attempt to acquire a victim's social security number or bank account information. However, many phishing scams involve tricking a victim into giving away their password for a single website or app. A recent phishing scam used Google Docs to trick users into entering their Google login information.

Strategies for Phishing attacks

Phishing attacks are particularly worrisome because they involve tricking users through the appearance of legitimacy; the Google Docs scam spread by tricking users into opening a shared document sent to them by someone they knew and submitting their login info. Their attackers could then steal that information and send the document to everyone on the victim's contact list, causing the scam to spread rapidly.
The simplest way to combat phishing is to make sure employees know both of how common and damaging attacks can be; remind them to keep their guard up when checking emails and to report any email they find suspicious. Additionally, have employees use two-factor authentication for their email accounts. This can prevent scammers from accessing compromised accounts.

Secure Usage of Credit & Debit Card/ATM

Security Threats

Identity theft

The fraudulent acquisition and use of person’s private identifying information, usually for financial gain. It can be divided into two broad categories :

• Application fraud

Application fraud happens when a criminal uses stolen or fake documents to open an account in someone else's name. Criminals may try to steal documents such as utility bills and bank statements to build up useful personal information.

• Account takeover

Account takeover happens when a criminal tries to take over another person's account, first by gathering information about the intended victim, and then contacting their card issuer while impersonating the genuine cardholder, and asking for the mail to be redirected to a new address. The criminal then reports the card loss and asks for a replacement to be sent.

Credit card fraud

Credit card fraudis commited by making use of credit/debit card of others for obtaining goods orservices. The threat emerge due to stealing of information like Credit card number, PIN number,password etc. Theft of cards and cloning of cards are also employed to commit such frauds.

Hackers use complex techniques like Phishing, Skimming etc. to gain credit card information from innnocent users.

• Phishing

Phishing is a way of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and creditcard details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail spoofing or instant messaging and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one.

• Skimming

Skimming is the theft of credit card / Debit card information. Thief can procure victim's credit card number using basic methods such as photocopying receipts or more advanced methods such as using a small electronic device (skimmer) to swipe and store hundreds of victim’s credit card numbers. Common scenarios for skimming are restaurants or bars where the skimmer has possession of the victim's credit card and makes note of card details for further use.

• Vishing

It is one of the method of  social engineering over the telephone system, most often using features facilitated by Voice over IP (VoIP), to gain access to private personal and financial information from the public for the purpose of financial reward. The term is a combination of “voice” and “phishing”.

• Social Engineering

Social engineering involves gaining trust – hence the fraudster poses as a member of staff or even security guard. The fraudster would then ask the customer to check the card for damages. The fraudster would have gained confidence from his prey using various tactics such as offering assistance to the customer who perhaps would have tried to use the ATM without success or perhaps the customer who is not familiar with use of ATM machine and requires assistance.

Steps to be followed before Credit card & Debit card/ATM card usage :

• Whenever you receive the card from the bank make sure the mail is completely sealed and there is no damage.
• Whenever you receive the card from the bank immediately sign on the card.
• Try to cover the last three digit number on the card.
• Register your phone number to check the account transactions.
• Change the pin number immediately.

Secure usage of credit/Debit cards at  Shopping malls and Restaurants

• Always keep an eye how the vendor swipe your card.
• Always make sure that the transactions happen at your presence.
• Never sign a blank credit card receipt. Carefully draw a line through blank portions of the receipt.
• Don’t give away your personal information in the survey forms given in restaurants/shopping malls.

Secure usage of credit / Debit card over internet

• Always use secure websites for transaction and shopping.
• Please look for signs of security.
• Identify security clues such as a lock image at the bottom of your browser, A URL that begins with http ( These signs indicates that your purchases are secured with encryption to protect Your account information).
• Always shop with merchants you know and trusts.
• Always log off from any website after completing online transaction with your credit / debit card and delete the browser cookies
• Treat all e-mail messages with suspicion to avoid phishing scams. Do not respond to e-mail  messages asking for personal information including financial information, as banks do not ask for such information.
• Never send payment information via e-mail. Information that travels over the Internet (such as e-mail) may not fully protected from being read by outside parties.
• Please be careful when providing personal information online.
• Please be wary of promotional scams. Identity thieves may use phony offers asking for your personal information.
• Please keep your passwords secret. Some online stores may require you to register with them via a username and password before buying. Online passwords should be kept secret from outside parties the same way you protect your ATM PIN.
• Always make sure to use the virtual keyboard for net banking.

Do’s

• Before you use an ATM, please ensure that there are no strange objects in the insertion panel of the ATM.( to avoid skimming)
• Shield the ATM pin number during transaction. Don’t carry the transaction receipts along.
• Please change your ATM PIN once in every 3 months. As advised by banks.
• Keep your credit card receipts to guard against transaction frauds, check your receipts against your monthly statement.
• Only carry around credit cards that you absolutely need.
• Shred anything that contain your credit card number written on it. ( bills)
• Notify your credit card issuers in advance of your change of address, then you change home address.
• If you lose your credit card, please report the loss immediately.
• When you dispose  a card at the time of renewal/upgradation, please make sure to cut it diagonally before disposal.

Don’ts

• Don’t accept the card received directly from bank in case if it is damaged or seal is open.
• Don't write your PIN number on your credit card.
• Don't carry around extra credit cards that you rarely use.
• Don’t disclose your Credit Card Number/ATM PIN to anyone.
• Don’t hand over the card to anyone, even if he/she claims to represent the Bank.
• Don’t get carried away by strangers who try to help you use the ATM machine.
• Don’t use the ATM machines if the device is not in good conditions.
• Don’t transfer or share your account details with unknown/non validated source.
• Don’t access Netbanking or make payment using your Credit/Debit card from shared or unprotected computers in public places.
• Don’t open unexpected e-mail attachments from unexpected sources or instant message download links. Delete suspicious e-mail immediately.
• Don't give out your account number over the phone unless you initiate the call and you know the                company is reputable. Never give your credit card info out when you receive a phone call. ( This is               called Vishing )
• Don’t provide your credit card information on a website that is not a secure site.
• Don’t share any confidential information such as password, customer id, Debit card number, Pin CVV2, DOB to any email requests, even if the request is from government authorities like Income Tax department, RBI or any card association company like VISA or Master card.
• Don’t address or refer to your bank account problems or your account details and password on social networking site or blogs.
• Don’t store critical information like your ATM PIN number on your mobile phone.

About Social Network

Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small exploring the interests and activities, or who are interested in person, especially in the workplace,schools,colleges and universities, it is most popular filled with millions of individuals who are looking to meet other people, to share first-hand information and experiences about interests like cooking,golfing,gardening,developingfriendships professionals alliances, finding employment, business-to-business marketing and even groups sharing information about baking cookies to the Thrive Movement. The topics and interests are as varied and rich as the story of our universe.

The other side of Social Network is security and privacy issues and is entirely treated as two different issues. As security issue, the third person gains unauthorized access to the information of protected resources and the privacy issues is someone can gain access to confidential information by simply watching you what you type your password. But both types of breaches are often intertwined on social networks, especially since anyone who breaches network and opens the door to easy access to private information belonging to any user. The reason behind Social network security and privacy lapses exist because of the amounts of information the sites process each and every day that end up making it much easier to exploit a single flaw in the system. Features that invite user participation - messages, invitations, photos, open platform applications, etc. – are often the avenues used to gain access to private information.

The popularity of social networking sites has increased at astonishing levels. There is no arguing the usefulness of sites such as Face book, Twitter and LinkedIn. They can be used for professional networking and job searches, as a means to increase sales revenue, as a tool to keep the public informed of safety and other issues or as a way to reconnect with friends from way-back-when.

Uses of Social Networking

• Meeting the people online across the world
• Making friendship with the people who are far away
• Profile building
• Self representation
• Exchanging / Sharing the information related to studies or education, current affairs, sports, business, transport, movies, latest news updates, event announcements, exchanging the thoughts etc
• Share the data files, videos, music, photos   
  
  
  
  Social Networking Risks and Challenges
  Social networking has become most popular activity in today’s Internet world, with billions of people across the world are using this media to meet old friends, making new friends, to collect and share information, social networking while being a popular media has several disadvantages associated with it. These sites can be trapped by scammers or hackers leading to loss of confidentiality and identity theft, of the users. Social Networking sites are becoming very popular especially among the growing kids. These sites expose the kids to various risks like online bullying, disclosure of personal information, cyber-stalking, access to inappropriate content, online grooming, child abuse, etc. In addition there are many more risks like fake profiles with false information, malicious application, spam, and fake links which leads to phishing attacks etc.,
  a. Illegal content:
  In General, anybody who access social networking or media sites may not deliberately seek out inappropriate content and may inadvertently access content while undertaking online access or searches or they may seek it out or be referred content by others. The content that includes sexually explicit, illegal images of sexual abuse, violence, criminal activity or accidents, from video clips, promotes extreme political views, potentially used in the radicalization of vulnerable members of the community, basis of race, religion, sexual preference or other social/cultural factors. They may also exposes to online advertising which promotes adult content.
  The illegal content on the sites, images of child abuse and unlawful hate speech. Age-inappropriate content on the sites, such as pornography or sexual content, violence, or other content with adult themes which may be inappropriate for young people and they might discover content through their smart phones that may be blocked by home and school internet filters
  b. Spam
  As we all know that spam is usually unwanted e-mail advertising about a product sent to list of e-mails or group of e-mail addresses. Similarly spammers are sending the unwanted mails or messages to the billions of users of social networking sites which are free; and are easily accessible by spammers to gather the personal information of the unsuspecting users.
  Social spam is unwanted spam content appearing on social networks and any website with user-generated content (comments, chat, etc.). It can be manifested in many ways, including bulk messages, insults, hate speech, malicious links, fraudulent reviews, fake friends, and personally identifiable information. Bulk messages in social networking sites are a set of comments repeated multiple times with the same or very similar text. These messages, also called as spam-bombs, can come in the form of one spammer sending out duplicate messages to a group of people in a short period of time, or many active spam accounts simultaneously posting duplicate messages.
  c. Abusive, vulgar, or irreverent language:
  User-submitted comments that contain swear words or slurs are classified as profanity or abusive or vulgar or irrelevant language. Common techniques include “cloaking” works by using symbols and numbers in place of letters. These bad words are still recognizable by the human eye, though are often missed by website monitors due to the misspelling.
  d. Insults:
  User-submitted insults are comments that contain mildly or strongly insulting language against a specific person or persons. These comments range from mild name-calling to severe bullying. Online bullies often use insults in their interactions, referred to as cyber bullying. Hiding behind a screen name allows users to say mean, insulting comments with anonymity; these bullies rarely have to take responsibility for their comments and actions.
  e. Threats:
  User-submitted threats of violence are comments that contain mild or strong threats of physical violence against a person or group.  It may also quickly turn into a stream of racism and provoke to insulting comments, and threats against others. This is a more serious example of social spam.
  f. Hate speech:
  User-submitted hate speech is a comment that contains strongly offensive content directed against people of a specific race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
  g. Malicious links: User-submitted comments can include malicious links that will inappropriately harm, mislead, or otherwise damage a user or computer. These links are most commonly found on video entertainment sites, such as Youtube. What happens when you click on malicious links can range from downloading malware to your device, to directing you to sites designed to steal your personal information, to drawing unaware users into participating in concealed advertising campaigns

Understanding About “The Internet”

The Internet stands for Interconnection of Computer Networks. It is a massive, heterogeneous combination of millions of computers, network devices and smart phone devices, all connected by wires and wireless signals.

There are different definitions for Internet

1.The series of interconnected network allowing communication of data surrounded by millions of computers worldwide.

2.A global communication network that allows computers worldwide to connect and exchange information.

3.A worldwide system of computer network, a network of networks in which users at any one computer can get information from any other computer

The word “Internet” exactly means “network of networks”. The Internet consists of thousands of smaller regional networks spread throughout the world. The Internet is referred as a physical part of the global network. It is a giant collection of cables and computers. Although it started in the 1960's as a military experiment in communication, the Internet evolved into a public free broadcast forum in the 70's and 80's. No single authority owns or controls the Internet. No one “owns” the Internet, though there are companies that help out to manage different parts of the networks that tie everything together, there is no single governing body that controls what happens on the Internet

How Is the 'Internet' Different from the 'Web'?

In 1989, a large subset of the Internet was launched as the World Wide Web (www). The 'Web' is a massive collection of HTML pages that transmits through the Internet's hardware. You will hear the expressions 'Web 1.0', 'Web 2.0', and 'the Invisible Web' to describe these billions of web pages. The World Wide Web is some part of Internet as Internet is having a variety of data other than web pages.

The web is one of software application or services that run on the Internet. It is a collection of documents and resources in the form of web pages. It provides easy access to a huge range of information that is stored on computers around the world. The expressions 'Web' and 'Internet' are used interchangeably by the layperson. This is technically incorrect, as the Web is contained by the Internet.

What Is 'Web 1.0', 'Web 2.0', and 'the Invisible Web'?

Web 1.0: When the World Wide Web was launched in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, it was comprised of just text and simple graphics as a collection of electronic brochures. The Web was organized as a simple broadcast-receive format. We call this simple static format as 'Web 1.0'. Today, millions of web pages are still quite static, and the term Web 1.0 still applies.

Web 2.0:In the late 1990's, the Web started to go beyond static content, and began offering interactive services. Instead of just web pages as brochures, the Web began to offer online software where people could perform tasks and receive consumer-type services. Online banking, video gaming, dating services, stocks tracking, financial planning, graphics editing, home videos, webmail services like Gmail, yahoo mail etc... all of these became regular online Web offerings around 2000. These online services are now referred to as 'Web 2.0'. Names like Facebook, Flickr, eBay, and Gmail helped to make Web 2.0 a part of our daily lives.

The Invisible Web is a third part of World Wide Web.

Technically a subset of Web 2.0, the Invisible Web describes those billions of web pages that are purposely hidden from regular search engines. These invisible web pages are private-confidential pages (e.g. personal email, personal banking statements), and web pages generated by specialized databases (e.g. job postings in Delhi or Mumbai). Invisible Web pages are either hidden completely from your casual eyes, or require special search engines to locate.

What is a web site?

Web site contains one to millions of inter connected pages, has hyperlinks to connect and help to find your way around the web site. You can find different kinds of information on the web- like games, health matters, holiday destination, train timetables, weather forecast and many more. There are millions of web sites available on the Internet, and you can find anything that interests you.

A Web Address

Each Web site has its own unique address, which is called a Uniform Resource Locator or URL. To visit a site, you need to type its address in the address bar of your web browser.

Usage of Internet

The Internet is used mainly for communication, to gather information, education, entertainment, current affairs, online learning, commerce, publishing, etc.

In the usage of Internet, publishing is not just used for organization or businesses, anyone can create their own web sites and publish their information or files on the Worldwide Web.

Through the Internet, thousands of people around the world are able to access information from their homes, schools, Internet cafes and workplaces.

The Internet is a global collection of computer network, that help in exchanging data using a common software standard. Internet users can share information in a variety of forms.

• The user can connect easily through ordinary personal computers and share the knowledge, thoughts by making the use of an Internet.
•  We can send electronic mail (e-Mail) to family members and friends with accounts on the Internet, which is similar to sending letters by post. The E-mail can be sent within minutes no matter where they are without postal stamps etc.
•  We can post information that can be accessed by others and can update it frequently.
•  We can access multimedia information that includes video, audio, and images.
•  We can learn through Web-Based Training and Distance Learning on the Internet.

Features of Internet

i) Geographic sharing

The geographic sharing of the Internet continues to spread, around the world and even beyond. A main feature of the Internet is that once you have connected to any part of it, you can communicate with all of it.

ii) Architecture

The architecture of Internet is most ever communication network designed. The failure of individual computers or networks will not affect its overall reliability. The information will not change or destroyed over time or while transferring in between sites.

iii) Universal Access

It is easy to access and make the information like text, audio, video and also accessible to a worldwide people at a very low price. Access to Internet is same to everyone no matter where they are.One can connect to any computer in the world, and you can go to many excited places without leaving your chairs.

Benefits of Internet

There are many advantages of Internet:

• The Internet is loaded with data and information in a range of formats.
•  The Search engines that are available online are, fast and powerful.
•  The Internet is easy to use.
•  Students can become researchers due to easy access to data.
•  Students are motivated to share their work online with the world.
•  The Internet appeals to different learning styles.
•  Unlike paper the web can present dynamic data sources which change over time.
•  The characters in an e-Mail don't get transposed or mixed up when they are sent over long distances.
•  Student can access libraries around the world.

The Internet is a very large store room of learning material. As a result, it significantly expands the resources available to students beyond the standard print materials found in school libraries. Students can access the latest reports on government and non-government websites, including research results, scientific and artistic resources in museums and art galleries, and other organizations with information applicable to student learning. At secondary schooling levels, the Internet can be used for undertaking reasonably tricky research projects.

As Internet is a powerful resource for learning, and is an efficient means of communication, it is very useful in education and provides a number of learning benefits. It includes the development of independent learning and research skills, by improving access to specific subject learning across a wide range of learning areas, as well as in integrated or cross-curricular studies and communication and collaboration, such as the ability to use learning technologies to access resources, create resources and communicate with others.

Access to Internet

The Internet is a time-efficient tool for teachers that enlarge the possibilities for curriculum growth. Learning depends on the ability to find relevant and reliable information quickly and easily, and to select, understand and assess that information. Searching for information on the Internet can help to develop these skills. Classroom exercises and take-home assessment tasks, where students are required to compare website content, are ideal for alerting students to the requirements of writing for different audiences, the purpose of particular content, identifying and judging accuracy and reliability. Since many sites adopt particular views about issues, the Internet is a useful tool for developing the skills of distinguishing fact from opinion and exploring subjectivity and objectivity.

The Internet is a great tool for developing the communication and collaboration skills of students and children. Above all, the Internet is an effective means of building language skills. Through e-Mail, chat rooms and discussion groups, students learn the basic principles of communication in the written form. This gives teachers the opportunity to incorporate Internet-based activities into normal literacy programs and bring variety to their teaching strategies.

Collaborative projects can be intended to improve students’ literacy skills, generally through e-Mail messaging with their peers from other schools or even other countries. Collaborative projects are also useful for engaging students and providing significant learning experiences. In this way, the Internet becomes an effective means of advancing intercultural understanding. Moderated chat rooms and group projects can also provide students with opportunities for collaborative learning.

Privacy Issues

Many children are skilled navigators of the Internet. They are comfortable using computers and are fascinated by the information and images that can be explored at the click of a mouse. Recent figures show that 90% of school-age children have access to computers either at home or at school. The ability to interact and communicate with others is one of the biggest attractions of the Internet for children. We are watching about spending time with people in chat rooms and instant messaging through mobiles, playing games, entering contests and filling forms in popular online activities. Unfortunately, most parents don't really understand how such activities can put their children's privacy at risk or even threaten their safety. Surprisingly in India, most parents never know about some of the activities that their child is participating on the Internet.

In today’s Internet communications scenario, the personal data is valuable and protecting the same has become a skill that the children need to understand and learn.

The privacy of children can be compromised in certain online activities:

• Filling forms for various surveys,contests,downloading games on commercial or free web sites.
• Giving details about personal information when registering for e-mail access & Chat access.
• Providing information when registering for free game downloads.
• Providing information when registering for social networking web sites.

Privacy

Some websites prompt students to complete a form revealing their name, e-Mail address, age and gender, and sometimes even their telephone number and postal address, in order to access information. Some requests are legitimate: much depends on the nature of the website requesting the information. Providing personal information online can result in a student being targeted for spam (unsolicited e-Mail), advertising materials and/or viruses. Privacy issues also apply to students developing personal websites and publishing online. Personal details, including photographs of themselves or other students, may lead to the information being captured and reused by others for illicit purposes.

Exposing your Computer to Unwanted Software

Usually, many peer-to-peer file sharing programs do not employ good security or access control. If users are not familiar with the programs or if there is improper configuration of the settings, it will be dangerous for all the contents stored in user's hard disk to be exposed to other users.

Contracting Computer Viruses

Besides, the computers of P2P software users can easily contract computer viruses especially when the file downloaded is from an unknown source. Moreover, these P2P programs may also contain viruses and worms, which prevent users’ computers from functioning properly.

Slowing down your School Internet Speed

Last but not least, if you host a large amount of files for other people to download through P2P software via the School campus network, the network traffic thus created can slow down the entire campus network.

Peer To Peer (P2P) Networking

A peer to peer (or P2P) computer network uses diverse connectivity between participants in a network and the cumulative bandwidth of network participants rather than conventional centralized resources (client-server architecture) where a relatively low number of servers provide the core services. Sharing content such as audio, video, data or any form of digital data by connecting the nodes via largely ad hoc networks.

Risks in Peer to peer networking due to their unstructured networks and sharing with unknown computers or persons may rise to affect or infect your computers with viruses, spam.

Tips for P2P Networks

• Use filtering software, you trust to filter the data communication from your system.
•  Use file sharing program controls and adjust the P2P program to run whenever required. Disable automatic starting.
•  Always update Operating System, Antivirus and Anti Spyware packages.
•  Do not use an administrative account. It may expose the whole system to other users in P2P networks. Create separate account for normal operations.
• Treat all download files with suspicion.
• Take back up of important files. This will help you in recovering the files.
• Delete any pirated software, files, etc. Alternatively, never download them at all.

 

Guidelines for Maintaining a Good Password

• Use at least 8 characters or more to create a password. The more number of characters we use, the more secure is our password.
• Use various combinations of characters while creating a password. For example, create a password consisting of a combination of lowercase, uppercase, numbers and special characters etc..
• Avoid using the words from dictionary. They can be cracked easily.
• Create a password such that it can be remembered. This avoids the need to write passwords somewhere, which is not advisable.
• A password must be difficult to guess.
• Change the password once in two weeks or when you suspect someone knows the password.
• Do not use a password that was used earlier.
• Be careful while entering a password when someone is sitting beside you.
• Do not use the name of things located around you as passwords for your account

100RABH DWIVEDI

Secure your Web Browser

The Web browser is used to gain  access to  information and also resources on the World Wide Web. It is a software application used to trace and display the web pages .The main purpose of a web browser is to bring the information resources to the user. The process begins with uniform resource identifier (URI) or uniform resource locator.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

• Consider an example of the URL :
• Each URL is divided into different sections as shown below
• http:// -  In short, http means the hypertext transfer protocol and the file is a web page and every time you don’t need to type the http, it is automatically inserted by the browser.
• www –World Wide Web
• infosecawareness – site name
• .in –It is one of the domains name, which is basically a country name.
• Other domain names are .com (commercial organization), .net (network domain) etc.
• (The organization address and location of the organization address are known as the domain name).
• co.in –suffix or global domain name shows the type of organization address and the origin of the country like the suffix co.in indicates a company in India.
• Generally a web browser connects to the web server and retrieves the information.Each web server contains the IP address, and once you are connected to the web server by using http, it reads the hyper text mark-up language (HTML) which is a language used to create document on World Wide Web in which the same document is displayed in the web browser .
• In short, a browser is an application that provides a way to look at and interact with all the information on the World Wide Web. 

Understanding usage of Web Browsers

A Web browser is a software application that runs on the internet and allows viewing the web pages, as well as content, technologies, videos, music, graphics, animations and many more. In other words, a browser is an application that offers a method to look at and interact with the entire information on the World Wide Web.

How to secure your web browser?

• Anti-Phishing
  Shop and do business safely on the Internet. Firefox gets a fresh update of web forgery sites 48 times in a day, so if you try to visit a fraudulent site that’s pretending to be a site you trust (like your bank), a browser message—big as life—will stop you.
• Anti-Malware
  Firefox protects you from viruses, worms, trojan horses and spyware delivered over the Web. If you accidentally access an attack site, it will warn you away from the site and tell you why it isn’t safe to use.
• Anti-Virus Software
  Firefox integrates elegantly with your Windows antivirus software. When you download a file, your computer’s antivirus program automatically checks it to protect you against viruses and other malware, which could otherwise attack your computer.
• Instant Web Site ID
  Want to be extra sure about a site’s legitimacy before you make a purchase? Click on a site favicon for an instant identity overview. Another click digs deeper: how many times have you visited? Are your passwords saved? Check up on suspicious sites, avoid Web forgeries and make sure a site is what it claims to be.
• Private Browsing
  Sometimes it’s nice to go undercover, so turn this feature on and protect your browsing history. You can slip in and out of private browsing mode quickly, so it’s easy to go back to what you were doing before as if nothing ever happened. It’s great if you’re doing your online banking on a shared computer or checking email from an Internet café.
• customized Security Settings
  Control the level of scrutiny you’d like Firefox to give a site and enter exceptions—sites that don’t need the third degree. Customize settings for passwords, cookies, loading images and installing add-ons for a fully empowered Web experience.

 

• Enable the option use a suggestion service to help complete searches and URLS typed in the address bar.
• Enable DNS pre-fetching to improve page load performance.
• Enable the phishing and malware protection.
• Under minor tweaks enable  the never save passwords.
• Under computer wide SSL settings enable the option use SSL 2.0.
• From the page menu select the create application shortcuts, this is used if you want some websites to be viewed regularly, and you may want to create application shortcuts for the desired websites that can be placed on your desktop, Start menu or quick launch menu so you can choose any one of these options .After creating, if you double-click on the shortcut icon on the desktop or start menu, the websites open in a special window that don’t display tabs, buttons, address bar or menus.
• Many of the browser functions are available instead in the drop-down menu that appears when you click the page logo in the upper-right corner of the window. If you click a link that takes you to a different website, the link opens in a standard Google Chrome window so you won't lose track of your website.