What if: The Internet is not a safe place

Using the internet has become an integral part of our everyday life but did you know that your personal information can be sold!

Updated: November 22, 2014 11:09 AM IST

By Rishabh Chakravorty

What if: The Internet is not a safe place

Using the internet has become an integral part of our everyday life but did you know that your personal information can be sold! When I first heard this I was like, why would anybody want to buy information anyway? Until my Facebook account got hacked though I got it back with the help of Mark Zuckerberg’s minions at Facebook eight months later.

There is nothing hidden in my Facebook profile, contact information to photographs so why would anybody want to hack my profile or anybody’s profile for that matter? I guess there’s no single logical answer for this question. It’s like asking why people create computer viruses when they can use the time to make software for making life easier. My favourite answer is so that Anti-Virus Software companies are still in business but that’s just my opinion, supported by logic and quite a few people.

Thinking like that doesn’t help even if, God forbid it’s true because then you start questioning everybody’s intentions like, what do Doctors pray for and the answer would the illness of people otherwise they would have no work or a crime reporter praying for some crime to report or his editor will use his extensive diction to praise him/her but thinking like that just makes life difficult for you.

I may have gone off topic there a little bit there but coming back to Internet security, which has been quite a challenge for quite some time but the threats have grown as the firewalls become more complex. Internet identity theft differs from the common form several ways. In the physical form, someone may be victimized by having a wallet stolen that contains their identifying cards from credit cards to their driving license.
Once the money in the bank controlled via card is gone or if you can cancel the card, the possibilities for theft end.

Identify theft online can never really be erased because for once the victim may not even be aware of the crime and even if they were, who knows where the information has been stored, how many times it has been copied, who has accessed it and for what intention or if it has been transferred to a portable drive. In the case of the latter, as you might have seen in movies like The Net starring Sandra Bullock and more recent movies like Die Hard 4.0 starring Bruce Willis that if the once sworn and meant to protect us feel wronged for any reason and snap, nobody might truly be safe in the world.

A novice internet user may not be aware of this, but a computer collects and stores tons of personal information right on the hard drive. This information may be stored in your browser cache, search history, or temporary internet files. Though the purpose is to make for a better experience on the web, these files also contain information such as usernames, passwords, addresses, and credit card numbers. The information stored on a user’s computer can be stolen in two ways: first, a thief can gain access by intercepting the data as it is being transmitted over an unsecured client, or they can install a malicious program that is designed to collect the information and deliver it back to them. A perfect example would be a computer infection such as spyware.

To avoid Internet ID Theft you can cautious for starters, disable the automatic cookie function in your web browser, personal details such as login and credit card information will not be stored on your hard drive. If you happen to create cookie files, be sure to delete them frequently. Operating systems, such as newer versions of Mac OS, come equipped with Firewall applications. Unfortunately, these default programs are not always strong enough to fend off intruders. Quality Firewall applications are available through reputable companies, such as McAfee and Norton. The last tip is very simple – if you are not using the internet, there is no need to be connected. Without an internet connection, a hacker will not be able to gain remote access or control to your computer so don’t leave the modem on or the net still connected just because you have an unlimited plan. Enjoy the internet but not at the cost of your ‘LIFE’.

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