TRACKING AND HACKING INTERNET INVASIONS
Learn what Internet issues are most important actions and technology that help you safeguard your computer.
The Internet has revolutionized our world in so many ways. For starters, the Internet has made finding information significantly easier. It has also made taking information from you easier, too.
Different programs that you inadvertently allow into your computer track where you surf or what you enter when you type your email address, your passwords, or maybe even your credit card number. Hackers try to take over your computer. Despite the hype, however, most personal computing security issues are fairly easily dealt with. By the end of the chapter you'll know what you need to get this under control.
The real danger-and the one that's harder to affect-comes from the computers owned by governments and the companies we trust our information to. These systems are the key targets. Even though you can't install better security on these computers yourself, you can still play a big role in controlling attacks against them. You may think a virus on your computer is simply a nuisance. But when that virus causes your computer, and millions of others, to overload a Pentagon server with a-mails, you've become a part of the problem.
One of the most destructive viruses to date has been the Sobig virus released in August 2003, which caused almost $30 billion of damage-an order of magnitude more than ones released before it. Given that the virus was timed to expire on September 10, 2003, some have speculated that Sobig was, in part, an experiment to determine how far and how fast the virus could spread-in preparation for a similar attack with a more destructive payload in future.
It's up to you to protect your own computer to keep it from being recruited for this kind of cyber attack. Osama bin Laden-and other less-well-known terrorists and criminals-are thinking about it. So should you.
SHOULD I ASSUME THAT MY WEB SURFING IS TRACKED?
Yes, tracking what you do online, what sites you visit, and what you do when you get there is surprisingly common. Some tracking is done by individual sites trying to learn more about their visitors to make the sites better. Some tracking is done by online ad networks hoping to figure out more about you so they can show you ads for things that will interest you. Some tracking is done by software I companies who use what you do to help find bugs and other problems with their products.
Things that are tracked typically include what browser software you use, what kind of computer you have, when you visit a site, how long you stay there, what you click on while you're there, and where you go next. Anything you enter in forms on Web pages, including something you want to search for in a search engine, can also be tracked. More intrusive tracking includes logging everything you type, and scanning what software you have on your computer. Although tracking sounds very intrusive and scary most of the time it isn't.
