1. Physical Safety
Similar to what happens when meeting people on the street, it is possible to have your personal safety put at risk by someone you met on the Internet. Although the risk is not greater online than in real life, how to prevent this on the Internet may not be as obvious as how to prevent it on the street.
As is the case when you are on the street, the key is to be sensible and alert; do not be caught off guard. Do not give your home address, for example, to someone who you just met and have no reason to trust as yet. You may not even wish to give out your real name until you know persons well enough to be confident that their motives are sincere and you would like to give them access to your real identity. Even when people
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2. Monetary and Data Safety Far more common than the person who is physically harmed by someone they met on the Internet is the story of someone who was hacked, which may lead to money being drained from one’s bank account, false purchases being made under one’s name, or even embarrassing information being leaked to the public. Hackers play an ever-evolving game with businesses who want to conduct transactions online; businesses work to keep their customers safe, and hackers work to find a way around these safety systems. To protect yourself from hacking, I suggest you follow these four basic rules:
1. NEVER give your password to any account to someone via email. Even if the email claims to be from, say, your bank. Your bank will never ask you for your password via
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Psychological Safety
By our age, not much shocks us anymore. Yet human nature never fails to turn up surprises, and the Internet is full of them. This generation’s biggest Internet surprise is probably the rise of trolling, people who intentionally say horrible things for the sole purpose of upsetting other people.
It is difficult to say what drives these trolls (yes, they are named after the fairy tale monsters that hid under bridges and attacked unsuspecting travelers). Perhaps it is a similar psychology to that of the schoolyard bully. A common Internet adage is “don’t feed the trolls,” – which means don’t give attention to people who are behaving in a very upsetting manner. Don’t respond or argue with them. Remember that with trolls, disengaging and ceasing to respond is the ultimate victory for you. BestPlaceForSeniors.com – A home for the Young at Heart Now that I have taken you through the many benefits - and possible risks - of the Internet, I want to close with a reminder of the Internet’s purpose for retirees and introduce you to the website I created,
Our generation is the first to travel within cyberspace, a virtual world that exists with all the computers that form the global network. For most people today, cyberspace is still a bewildering and alien place. How computers work and how they affect our lives is still a mystery to all but the experts, but expertise doesn't necessarily guarantee morality. Originally the word hacker meant computer enthusiasts but now that the internet has revealed its potential for destruction and profit the hacker has become the outlaw of cyberspace. Not only do hackers commit crimes that cost millions of dollars, they also publicize their illegal techniques on the net where innocent minds can find them and be seduced by the allure of power and money.
About 15 million United States residents have their identities and information used fraudulently each year. Along the use of their identities, they also had a combined financial loss totaling up to almost $50 billion. Major companies such as Apple, Verizon, Target, Sony, and many more have been victims of consumer information hacking. In each of the cases, millions of consumers’ personal information has been breached. In the article “Home Depot 's 56 Million Card Breach Bigger Than Target 's” on September 18, 2014, 56 million cards were breached due to cyber attackers. Before the Home Depot attack, Target had 40 million cards breached. Company’s information is constantly being breached and the consumers’ are the ones who end up having to pay the price. If a company cannot protect the information it takes, then it should not collect the information.
Everyone online is just as human as they are offline. This means, they are still capable of using the web as a way to harm and trick others just as they would to be kind and help. “The number of identity theft incidents has reached 9.9 million a year”, according to the Federal Trade Commission. People are able to hack into your computer or information in order to use your credit card, take money out of your accounts, gain, use, or even sell all of your information, and much more. People also can pretend to be someone they are not. It is dangerous because you could think it was your friend but really they want to hurt you.
“Internet Trolls” by Lisa Selin Davis explains that Internet Trolls are online commentators who write inflammatory or derisive things in public forums, hoping to provoke emotional responses from others. These people spend time and energy engaging in virtual hate. Even outside of internet trolling, discussions sometimes turn into arguments, that often turn personal. A troll can disrupt discussions on social media by broadcasting bad advice, and damaging the feeling of trust within the community. Trolls feed off the reactions of their victims because their agenda is to take pleasure in causing trouble.
Stopbullying.gov (n.d.) explains cyberbullying further: “Examples of cyberbullying include mean text messages or emails, rumors sent by email or posted on social networking sites, and embarrassing pictures, videos, websites, or fake profiles”. The occurrence of cyberbullying is at an all-time high because of the increased use of new media. The constant connected nature of technology allows cyberbullying acts to happen at any time. These new medias make it easy to take on the cyberbullying role. The convenience itself enables any curious individual to participate because of the effortless ability. “What makes cyberbullying so dangerous…is that anyone can practice it without having to confront the victim. You don’t have to be strong or fast, simply equipped with a cell phone or computer and a willingness to terrorize” (Kowalski, Limber & Agatston, 2006). An additional element to defining a...
A few years ago, renowned computer programmer Bill Gates once said, “The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.” And similar to any village, the Internet is becoming a host for the humanitarians, politicians, and citizens of the world, yet unfortunately, it has also begun to house the idiots and jackasses as well. Online, these latter two personas manifest as conspiracists and trolls respectively, and they threaten everything the Internet was designed for. By comparing conspiracy theories to trolling, it becomes clear that the Internet is failing its goal of being an open forum to promote progress through meaningful dialogue. With connectivity and technology growing at unprecedented
Making friends on the Internet is not safe. "You do not always know if people are who
Just because an individual owns a computer and has an Internet account do not assume that person is considerate or respectful. There are just as many stalkers in cyberspace as anywhere else. It’s just that their methods have changed. Some stalkers might harass you by following you through live channels not being able to take no for an answer and bothering you with email messages. In some cases this harassment may become a systematic campaign against you; where your harasser bombards you with threatening messages of hate and obscenities. (1996, p.3) The stalker may even trace your home address and telephone number, causing not only emotional distress but possibly physical danger. It should come as no surprise to you that the stalkers are making use of this technology to harass people and prey on the innocent.
In today’s society technology is used for everything. With the invention of computers and the internet this open doors to the cyber world. Today you can do almost anything without having to leave your home. The internet gives us the opportunity of shopping online, ordering food online, working from home and video chatting with friends and family across the world. Everyone has a computer and internet access in their homes. While the internet is really convenient it also opens doors for cybercrimes, loss of privacy and the need for computer security.
Every day millions in some cases billions of dollars are made by businesses from income brought in by online sale of products and services. As businesses continually develop and expand their client base with online products and services so does the desire by criminals to exploit vulnerabilities in their e-commerce setup. The mass worldwide internet usage growth within the last 20 years has been “an approximate 16 million users in 1995 to an estimated 2,937 million in March of 2014” As the importance of e-commerce increases so does the need to protect the technological infrastructure that will carry out online transactions for each business regardless of its size. I will attempt to highlight and review the history of a few cyber crimes to show the progression of the crimes within the last 30-40 years. I also plan to review how the economy and consumers are impacted by cyber crimes. Finally I will make an effort to contribute with information gathering on how to lower the risk of a cyber attack from and individual user to a large scale business.
In conducting this project, we find out that although online dating is more convenient to broaden their social groups than the traditional methods, the safeness is still under a concern and it will have more negative outcomes in the society. The users should be more careful on using online dating to have safety precautions and protect their personal privacy.
Every day, citizens are constantly losing money and being victimized due to these fraudulent activities. Cyber crime, including fraud, identity theft, stalking, and hacking, is a growing problem that can be prevented by taking the proper precautions. The biggest cases of cyber crimes are cases of fraud. Online fraud comes in many forms. It ranges from viruses that attack computers with the goal of retrieving personal information, to email schemes that lure victims into wiring money to fraudulent sources” (What is “online fraud”).
The Internet is a connection of computers across the world through a network. Its origin dates back to the 1960s when the U.S Military used it for research, but it became more available to the public from the late 1980s. The World Wide Web was created in 1989 and browsers began appearing in the early 1990s. Over the last 24 years, the Internet has enabled people to shop, play, do research, communicate and conduct business online. It has also become cheaper and faster in performing different tasks. As much as the Internet has done immeasurable good to society, it has also dominated people’s lives and brought with it an array of cybercrimes. According to Nicholas Carr in his book The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the Way we Think, Read and Remember (Carr, 2010). He debates on whether the Internet has done more harm than good. People use the Internet daily to exchange accurate information and constantly personal data such as credit cards, passwords and Social Security numbers are travelling through the network from one computer to another. With security measures put in place on the Internet, personal information remains confidential. But unfortunately, criminals have adapted to innovations in technology, and today, more people are increasingly becoming victims of cybercrime. The Internet has had profound effects on the public, both positive and negative. In this paper we will examine how access to personal information has led to an increase in online and offline crimes. The essay will particularly focus on ecommerce and hacking.
Public opinion is often emotional rather than rational, so it is extremely easy to be incited and would possibly cause cyber bullying, which means to attack one person or a small group of persons by using offensive language. The damage caused by cyber bullying to a person is not virtual but real. An article from PR Newswire called “Cyber Hunting and Cyber Bullying” tells a st...
Millions of people around the world use computers and the internet every day. We all use it in school, work even at home, computers have made us life easier, it has brought so many benefits to the society but it has also brought some problems and cybercrimes is one of them. “The times have really changed,” said Greg Garcia, the department’s assistant secretary for cyber security and communications. “We’re seeing now phishing, farming, botnets … war dialing and domain server spoofing. And we’re seeing coordinated cyber-attacks against nation states.” (Fowler 5) Cybercrime is one of the most prevalent and most popular rising crimes being committed today. This is criminal activity done using computers and the Internet. There are millions victims around the world everyday who face these problems. Most people become victims of these at one time or another, but there are ways to avoid or deal with cybercrime by protecting yourself appropriately. I also was one of those victims who faced a similar problem. This unfortunate truth forces me to understand that computers and the Internet have made our lives easier in many ways. However, it is unfortunate that people also use these technologies to take advantage of others through identity theft, hacking attempts, and malicious use of software.