Three Things To Look Out For On The Internet

We are living in an age in which information, good or bad is literally at our fingertips and with this readiness of information comes a set of responsibilities that many, if not all of us were not prepared for.

We were not prepared for others stealing our personal information, for the ease in which we could keep in touch with our loved ones, for the ability to walk down our neighbor hood with our fingers, as with Google Maps and the list goes on.

However, as with many other things, there are certain things that we should protect our loved ones and ourselves from, as we use this ever changing technology and three of these things are:

Strangers

Strangers have been using the World Wide Web to lure many, but especially children into danger and while the authorities have been playing a part in trying to stop it, we also need to do our part.

We could and should use software to help us, but this could only help us to a certain extent. We also need to use our common sense whenever we are in chat rooms and are generally interacting with others.

Some strangers may seek to befriend us, with the main intention of causing us physical harm or stealing our finances. Therefore, we need to be very cautious when corresponding with strangers.

Cyberbullying

Perhaps by now, we would have all heard of this and that is cyberbullying. If on the other hand, we have not heard of it, it is a form of bullying, or intimidation, if you will, that takes place online.

Perhaps we were victims of this behavior at school, or, we were the ones, who were taking advantage of other, well, it is the same thing that is taking place in the cyber world. Indeed, children have committed suicide after becoming victims of this vicious behavior.

However, while children are more venerable to this, adults are also targets of this terrible form of attack.

Personal Site

If we have a blog or any other site in which we contribute our thought to, we need to check it at least twice a week, to make sure that the information that is there, is approved by us. Sometimes others may make comments about what we had posted and in some cases, such as on a social website, someone may have posted a not so flattering photo about us, therefore, we need to keep on top of the things that are in our control.

Why Hide Your IP Address? An Online Security TipWhy Hide Your IP Address? An Online Security Tip

Have you ever questioned the idea of why hide your IP address when online? Here is an easy online security tip for using the internet in an anonymous mode. Hide your IP address! This is the unique identifier address of your computer on the Internet. This address consists of a grouping of four numbers divided by periods. Each number grouping is an identifier of your domain, sub-network and the host computer.

Hiding your IP address online basically ensures that your personal information is not leaked out to the outsiders. Hiding your tracks for the sake of online security? You can hide your address for free and there is nothing illegal about it. If you have legal doubts get some legal advice and they will advise you about the matter.

One way of protecting against spyware is to hide your IP address. The spyware softwares were made to monitor the activities of the user of a computer. When using free downloads, you will find there are those out there offering free downloads that very possibly are embedded with a spyware. Once these downloads are installed, the embedded spyware infect your computer, ultimately compromising your security as your activities can be monitored.

The conclusive benefit resulting from hiding your address is protecting you website from those that want to monitor your personal habits and activities. Are you anonymous?

Hiding the IP address also substantially reduces junk or bulk emails in your in-box. Don't like being bombarding by pop up ads on your computer? Hiding your IP address will protect you from such situations and increase the efficiency of the computer.

In this day and age, the internet tells our life stories. What ever we write, post, print or share can spread like wildfire into the depths of cyberspace. It happens that there are things we're proud of, and not so proud of, and well you know the rest of the story... Posting something that could potentially embarrass or harm you in the future is not a wise move.

Using this online security tip is your starting guide to online security. It's all about keeping yourself, your family and your personal internet information safe. Once you learn how to do this, you will feel much more secure in using the internet for a variety of different purposes. How anonymous you are starts with hiding your IP address.

Ready to discover more about why hide your IP address online? Have family and personal security online? For A Limited Time Only - get this ultimate guide to online security http://www.thednaofcybersecurity.com eBook That Reveals The REAL Secrets To online security.

The Pirate Bay appeal wraps up, various websites go down

The Pirate Bay appeal reached its conclusion in Sweden on Friday with a lawyer for one of the rogue file-sharing site's founders claiming this case was not about content owners protecting their intellectual property rights, but old school monoliths prosecuting the internet. Or words to that effect.

According to the Agence France-Presse, attorney Peter Althin, defending former Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde, told the court while summing up: "Whenever new technology emerges, large corporations always say the new technology is life-threatening. And it is the technology the prosecutor is after in this case".

Meanwhile Jonas Nilsson, speaking for another Bay co-founder, Fredrik Neij, said a guilty verdict for his client would open up any other web services with a search component to copyright infringement claims, telling the court: "A guilty verdict for Fredrik would imply a threat to other search services on the internet, like Facebook and Twitter".

Of course, neither Facebook or Twitter chose to put 'Pirate' in their name, nor did they deliberately go around pissing off content owners for fun times, but who knows, it might work as a legal argument, even if it does sound a little bit like a lawyer clutching at straws.

Sunde, Neij and their financer Carl Lundstroem are all trying to overturn their convictions from last year when they were handed one year jail sentences for enabling widespread copyright infringement via the Bay. With both sides presenting pretty much the same arguments at appeal as during the original case, it now remains to be seen what way this set of judges rule. They aren't expected to announce their decision until 26 Nov.

As previously reported, the third co-founder, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, did not attend the appeal hearing due to ill health. It's been decided he will now have his appeal heard separately later in the year.

Even if the appeals court rules against the Bay Four, they are unlikely to go straight to jail, as the sentences are likely to be held off pending any further appeals, and all four have vowed to take this case to Sweden's Supreme Court if necessary.

In related news, online groups who support file-sharing continue to attack the websites of those pursuing an anti-piracy agenda. As expected, two websites associated with Kiss man Gene Simmons went down last week after they were targeted with a so called Distributed Denial Of Service attack after his rambling to the effect that the US record industry should have sued every single "fresh-faced, freckle-faced college kid" who file-shared.

A similar attack was made on the UK Intellectual Property Office's website this weekend, while an alterative method was used to embarrass the Motion Picture Association Of America and a Portuguese rights organisation which has recently taken action against The Pirate Bay. Websites run by both (the copyprotected.com website in the case of the MPAA) were replaced by a page promoting the Operation Payback campaign, which advocates a radical reform of copyright rules, and then an auto-link to The Pirate Bay.

Confirming that its site had been attacked, the UK IP Office said yesterday: "The Intellectual Property Office chose to disconnect its website from the internet following a coordinated Distributed Denial of Service attack. The attack was orchestrated by 'Operation: Payback' which is an ongoing campaign against major anti-piracy groups. The organisers say that they have targeted us as we are 'perpetuating the system which is allowing the exploitative usage of copyrights and intellectual property'. Our website is currently unreachable as we worked with our internet service provider in order to move our web services out of harm's way. DDoS attacks on websites of this kind obstruct access by ordinary citizens to government services".

Are You Providing a Secure Environment For Your Online Banking Customers?

Online banking is one of the most innovative trends that facilitate convenience to its users. Due to its advantages, more are getting hooked onto it. The convenience of transferring funds across borders, checking balances at any given point of time, requesting for check books and statements with just a few clicks on the internet has prompted customers to reduce wasting their invaluable time in long queues. Banks have also realized the potential of providing this facility to its customers which makes their revenues grow.

Security leakages

However this same advantage has been misused by some with malicious intentions. The banks are exposed to numerous attacks through the easy access of the internet such as phishing where the frauds create replicas of the original websites to collect personal information of customers. Unsecured computer systems without a stringent security framework can be easily accessed by hackers through the use of malware and other harmful software. Minor errors like weak logins and passwords without any authentication verification have been found to cause unforgivable incidents.

There have been instances of large scale security breaches which have made customers reluctant to use online banking, and this could cost the banks their prospective business and reputation. This has created the need for a vigilant online monitoring system that can maneuver the activities of customers and be prepared for any abnormal activities that threaten the security system.

Tightening the security harness

To promote online fraud detection, banks have introduced several screening features such as unique passwords and personal identification numbers, multi question authentication, stringent privacy policies and encryption software that help in better functioning. The authentication and fraud detection software provides all the necessary tools to ensure secure online banking facilities to its customers.

Software meant for providing online banking security provides banks the advantage of preventing any online frauds before the accidents actually occur through a system of collecting data on online frauds, monitoring their activities for any contemplative threats, studying the trends and distributing information amongst the members present in the network.

A unique system of identifying computers, mobile phones, and PDAs and other technological device individually helps to create fingerprints and provide ID tags to monitor any suspicious activity on any particular device with accurate precision.

The fraud detection software is an extremely alert tool that helps the banks in assessing the potential of any online risks in real-time by detecting abnormal online transactions or accessing of accounts. The authentication software has been built to help banks choose the authentication method that is most suited to fulfill its security requirements. It further helps to calculate the risks and also reduce costs.

The availability of strong authentication measures provides immense benefits to the banks. The tools are extremely flexible, user-friendly and easy to manage. Costs are reduced due to their scalability which can accommodate any size group without affecting the applications or its performance.

Customer validation

Customers may be forgiving but not forgetful. They will think twice before deciding to use the online system of a bank that has already been victimized. Instating competent authentication software for detecting online frauds assures the customer that his security is in capable hands. Preventive measures create a reassuring atmosphere for online customers resulting in booming business for the banks.

To know more about - strong authentication

Find Out Who Owns the Email Address That Your Child Or Spouse Consistently Receive

If you are doubtful on the email activities of your spouse or children then one of the best options for you is to perform the email reverse search; this kind of lookup allows you find out who owns the email address the your spouse or child always receive. The results shall give you important personal details like the full name of the person, address, and contact numbers just name a few.

This kind of search is now very important; especially that there are too many unsolicited emails that usually floods your inbox. This is also imperative when monitoring the online activities of your children; as well as your partner.

Hence, if you want to find out who owns the email address of someone then the best email reverse lookup method is to use one of the numerous online offers that allow you to simply lookup the personal information of people who owns a particular email address. Aside from the basic information that you need, you can also gain access to other more personal data such as criminal records, sex offender check, civil records, and so much more.

Access to such useful database requires payment of certain fees; but the amount is generally minimal compared to what you shall be getting as benefits for your subscription; such as total privacy on your search, very convenient, good quality data, and instant results among many others.

Therefore, if you want find out who owns the email address that your child or spouse is constantly sending or receiving emails then take note and observe the aforesaid tips.

Start running your own email search now at Email Lookup Online and instantly get the email addresses of people; after just few minutes of search within the very comforts in your own home.

Or please visit: http://reverseemailaddresslookup.blogspot.com/

Email Phishing Still is a Major Concern - Some Different Types of Email Phishing

Email phishing is a very dangerous and potentially financially fatal trap that is sent via email from what appears to be a financial institution to an individual. Most of the email phishing that one will receive is very easy to notice as a fraud email. This is real easy to determine when you don't even bank at the financial institution in question which is one advantage of dealing with lesser known banks. But there are some phishing emails that are very sophisticated and can take time to identify.

Most email phishing is seen as the attempt of an individual to gain someone's account numbers or other personal information. This is collected in order to complete a transaction which includes them removing money from your banking accounts or stealing your identity.

Such emails include the ones in which a foreign individual wishes to transfer money into a state side account usually as his method of getting the money safely out of his country. He does this so that he may remove such money at a later date. It was so prevalent at one time for such to be coming from a "Nigerian prince" that it became known as a Nigerian scam.

This type of email phishing includes the giving of account information, having a small amount of money placed into the account, and then a suddenly finding a large amount of your money is withdrawn. It is unfortunate that many people do fall for this simple email phishing technique. It is even more unfortunate and sad that such people were trying to help a fellow human out as well as trying to get something for the very little effort of allowing the use of their banking account.

Other phishing techniques include sending an official looking email from what one is led to believe is the bank of that individual. This email is requesting that one update the personal information of the individual on the website that they have provided a link to. When one hits the link, the website that they have listed is not the website that one goes to, although it often has the same appearance of a bank website. This type of email phishing is of a much higher level of sophistication than other types and can be harder to identify. One should be aware that many, if not all, financial institutions will never request that one updates their personal information via a website.

In addition other email phishing attempts will seem to come from some service provider such as AOL with a link to update your account or notifying you of some problem with your account that needs you to add your credit card information again. Once more this is something where you must be careful. Know that most such companies will not send you a link in an email to do this. There are other ways as well to know if this is a fraudulent email.

One of the most important things that one can do to help prevent email phishing is to report each and every email that one gets that appears suspicious. It is far better to be too safe with one's identity and finances than not safe enough.

To learn more ways to spot email phishing please visit http://www.antiphishingscams.com.

On Securing Your Wireless Network

I was alarmed when I recently read that most people do not secure their wireless network at home. The entire process of securing your wireless network can actually take you twenty minutes max and yet, people are not doing it. I wonder why that is so. It's not a very complicated process, you know.

One of the many reasons why you should secure your wireless network is because you want to prevent unauthorized access to your network, and ultimately, into your computer. Anyone who decides to tap on your wireless network can spread malicious programs over your network and worse, they can get access inside your computer, thus making your personal information prone to identity theft. Not securing your wireless network is a very bad practice.

Enough about the sermon, now let's get on to securing your wireless network. Remember that it is imperative to secure your wireless network even if you are only using your wireless connection at home, or even if you rarely use it.

The first thing that you can do is to change the default administrator user name and password on your router. By default, the user name would be "admin" and the password would be either "password" or "admin." If a computer hacker will get inside your network, they will have the ability to access this configuration page and change the user name and password. By then, you will not be able to make any changes in your router unless you have it reset.

After changing the user name and password for your configuration page, you also need to change your default SSID. Your router's SSID is like its name. When you open your wireless enabled laptop, it will detect any wireless network in range. The SSID of the networks that it detected will be reflected on that list. If you use the default name and your router is the same brand as your neighbor's, then there will always be a possibility that your neighbor will connect to your network instead of theirs. You also have to disable your wireless broadcasting so that if any sniffer (hacker who "sniffs" wireless networks) is around, they will not be able to detect and tap to your network.

Enable WEP/WPA Encryption so that only authorized computers will be able to connect to your wireless network. WEP passwords typically contain 10 characters. You can only use the letters a-f and the numbers 0-9. Whenever possible, stay away from using your birth date and telephone number as your passwords because they are very easy to guess. Remember, identity theft criminals are now closely working together with computer hackers so they should not be able to crack your password so you can protect yourself against these criminals.

If you haven't updated the firmware for your router, this is probably the best time to do so. Do not disable your router's firewall because this adds an additional security feature to protect yourself against intruder attacks. Lastly, turn off your router when you are not using them. They need to rest as well, just like you do.

Tina L. Douglas is a skilled writer from California. With numerous experiences in the field of writing for several financial institutions, she is greatly qualified across a variety of economic issues. Her notable pieces of writing involve identity theft.

Internal Threats to Your Network

Internal Threat Landscape

In today's world, more and more customer data is being found on servers, desktops and laptops which contain critical information that can promote a company's growth or destroy the company in an instant. Furthermore, the risk extends beyond the private sector to the public sector and anyone in their homes receiving services from one of these infrastructure entities.

A study performed by Promisec, Inc., a company that regularly conducts comprehensive security audits across a number of industries - including finance, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, etc., found that:

Use of unauthorized removable storage continues to rise in organizations.

The number of endpoints that do not apply threat management agents or are not updated with the latest build or signatures continues to rise.
Instances of unauthorized instant messaging continue to increase in all organizations.

The study also discovered that -

12% of infected computers had a missing or disabled anti-virus program.
10.7% had unauthorized personal storage like USB sticks or external hard drives.
9.1% had unauthorized peer-to-peer (P2P) applications installed.
8.5% had a missing 3rd party desktop agent.
2.6% had unprotected shared folders.
2.2% had unauthorized remote control software.
2% had missing Microsoft service packs.

Without application awareness, both perimeter and defensive island systems were easily defeated. For example, SQL Slammer was able to enter organizations quickly because:

Firewalls and anti-virus solutions that rely on signatures didn't view the traffic as a threat.

Often, SQL Slammer bypassed perimeter defenses and entered at the network edge through laptops and mobile devices whose traffic never traversed the firewall.

Like firewalls, without a signature to identify it, anti-virus software and most HIDS did not recognize it as a threat.

SQL Slammer was memory resident. Most anti-virus software completely missed it because their scanning engines are often focused on detecting exploits written to disk drives.

Within minutes of an initial SQL Slammer infection, nearly all vulnerable computers on the inside of the network were compromised. Depending on the number of infected devices, this often resulted in massive denial of service on the internal LAN. Furthermore, newer types of attacks are designed not to make "noise" in order to stay undetected.

Product Substitute Availability

Firewalls are a necessary security control for policy enforcement at any network trust boundary, but changing business and threat conditions are putting pressure on growth in the firewall market. Enterprises are redesigning their demilitarized zones (DMZs) to react to the business realities of how staff and customers connect, which drives firewall demand up. However, the increasing requirement for network defense against more-complex threats has increased the deployment of network intrusion prevention, and driven vendors to provide products that support complex deployments and rule sets that mix traditional port/protocol firewall defense with deep-packet inspection intrusion prevention.

At one point in time, Cisco had the best firewall on the market. As the years passed, competitors of all sizes were vying for Cisco's market share. Vendors, such as Juniper, Checkpoint, McAfee and others, have challenged and even taken market share from Cisco. In the Gartner's 2008 magic quadrant, only two vendors are residing in the upper right hand "leaders" quadrant - Juniper and Checkpoint.

In the latest Gartner report, dated 12 October 2009, large enterprises will be replacing stateful firewalls with the Next Generation firewalls during the natural lifecycle replacement. And there are very few vendors that have upgraded their respective product lines to reflect the new attack vectors. Gartner believes that the changing threat conditions and changing business and IT processes will drive network security managers to look for NGFW capabilities at their next firewall/IPS refresh cycle. The key to successful market penetration by NGFW vendors will be to demonstrate first-generation firewall and IPS features that match current first-generation capabilities while including NGFW capabilities at the same or only slightly higher price points.

More coming later - but until then, look at our website for open source software @ http://www.oss4win.com

Mike Millslagel
Security System Consultant
B.S. Information Systems, MBA, MCSE, CNE, CCNP Security Specialist
http://www.oss4win.com

What is a Denial-Of-Service Attack?

A denial-of-service (DoS) attack attempts to prevent legitimate users from accessing information or services. By targeting your computer and its network connection, or the computers and network of the sites you are trying to use, an attacker may be able to prevent you from accessing email, websites, online accounts, banking, root name servers, or other services that rely on the affected computer.

One common method of attack involves saturating the target machine with communications requests, so that it cannot respond to legitimate traffic, or responds so slowly that it is effectively unavailable.

During normal network communications using TCP/IP, a user contacts a server with a request to display a web page, download a file, or run an application. The user request uses a greeting message called a SYN. The server responds with its own SYN along with an acknowledgment (ACK), that it received from the user in initial request, called a SYN+ACK. The server then waits from a reply or ACK from the user acknowledging that it received the server's SYN. Once the user replies, the communication connection is established and data transfer can begin.

In a DoS attack against a server, the attacker sends a SYN request to the server. The server then responds with a SYN+ACK and waits for a reply. However, the attacker never responds with the final prerequisite ACK needed to complete the connection.

The server continues to "hold the line open" and wait for a response (which is not coming) while at the same time receiving more false requests and keeping more lines open for responses. After a short period, the server runs out of resources and can no longer accept legitimate requests.

A variation of the DoS attack is the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. Instead of using one computer, a DDoS may use thousands of remote controlled zombie computers in a botnet to flood the victim with requests. The large number of attackers makes it almost impossible to locate and block the source of the attack. Most DoS attacks are of the distributed type.

An older type of DoS attack is a smurf attack. During a smurf attack, the attacker sends a request to a large number of computers and makes it appear as if the request came from the target server. Each computer responds to the target server, overwhelming it and causes it to crash or become unavailable. Smurf attack can be prevented with a properly configured operating system or router, so such attacks are no longer common.

DoS attacks are not limited to wired networks but can also be used against wireless networks. An attacker can flood the radio frequency (RF) spectrum with enough radiomagnetic interference to prevent a device from communicating effectively with other wireless devices. This attack is rarely seen due to the cost and complexity of the equipment required to flood the RF spectrum.

Some symptoms of a DoS attack include:

• Unusually slow performance when opening files or accessing web sites
• Unavailability of a particular web site
• Inability to access any web site
• Dramatic increase in the number of spam emails received

To prevent DoS attacks administrators can utilize firewalls to deny protocols, ports, or IP addresses. Some switches and routers can be configured to detect and respond to DoS using automatic data traffic rate filtering and balancing. Additionally, application front-end hardware and intrusion prevention systems can analyze data packets as they enter the system, and identify if they are regular or dangerous.

The author is a computer security professional with experience protecting small business and home networks. He also teaches the basics of computer network security at 365 Computer Security Training where he blogs regularly and creates video training and educational materials related to information security. Learn more at http://www.365ComputerSecurityTraining.com

Top 4 Threats to Your Wireless Network

If you are like most online business owners that are using a wireless network, you are likely unaware of the potential dangers to both your business and the safety of you and your customers data. In this article, I'm going to discuss 4 different threats that you must be aware of when it comes to operating a business over a wireless network.

Many think that if they have the latest router, combined with the latest in security software, they are all set and having nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Any type of equipment or security measures you take only act as deterrents. If someone really wants to break into your network, they'll come up with a way to do so. The good news is that most hackers will go after sites that have lax security procedures.

The top 4 threats to your wireless network that you need to be aware of include:

1. Sniffing

This type of threat involves hackers that use software programs called sniffers that are able to scan the traffic on a network. All the hacker that has this software has to do is use it in areas with many networks until they lock onto an unsecured wireless network.

2. War Driving

With this threat, the hacker only needs a wireless device - such as a laptop or PDA. They simply drive around until they pick up an unprotected wireless signal from homes our businesses. These people will record your wireless id information, along with your physical address and post it in online databases so that others will know where there is an unsecured network, ripe for the taking.

3. Evil Twin

In this threat, your access to a legitimate wireless access point is blocked. Then, without your knowing it, you're redirected to a second access point that is managed by a hacker. Any information you transmit is accessible to the hacker. Keystrokes are also able to be captured, which means any passwords you type in are now in the hands of the hackers. This type of threat is most common in public access points, such as restaurants and airports.

4. Wi-fishing

This is similar to the evil twin threat in that it takes you to what looks like a safe access point. By utilizing common SSIDs of public Wi-Fi spots, your computer will automatically connect to the hacker's network. Same situation with the evil twin set up - the hacker can grab all of your information that you type in while connected to their network.

Needless to say, the real threat with these and other wireless network threats is that the risk to your bottom line is in danger. While some hackers only do what they do to see if they can do it, or to be a simply annoyance, thieves that get involved in wireless threats are not of the harmless variety. They can cost you plenty.

Warren has been writing articles and producing how to courses online since 2005. He specializes in online business issues and currently operates a number of websites in a number of different niches. You can check out his latest website here: Youth Motorcycle Helmet featuring the Full Face Helmet.

Internet Filter Programs and IP Changer

Do you think that just because you have installed Internet filter programs you can now freely and safely browse the internet and disregard other security measures such as the use of an IP Changer? Well, you are thinking wrong. While Internet filters surely have their advantages, they still have that one disadvantage that can be your computer system's downfall in the future or loss of privacy on the internet. That is that Internet filters are far from providing complete protection or being hundred percent reliable. By incorporating other internet security features and by browsing anonymously with the help of IP Changer a software program, that also encrypts your data sent over the internet you will be able to browse the internet more securely and privately.

Internet filters, or web filters, are also known as content-control programs or software, which control the kinds of content that can be accessed by a user. The software or program is especially designed to restrict specific websites or content that the user sets to block beforehand.

Internet filtering programs are now being used at various levels of the community. The government, for example, uses more sophisticated programs to restrict access to the confidential records. Companies use it to control the sites that their employees can have access to or not. Schools also use it to block sites that may influence their students dangerously, as do parents with their children. Even individual users can use it for their own purpose, to block off sites that are deemed dangerous for the computer system.

The main purpose of the content-control software is to prevent people from viewing sites and content that can be harmful or just plain objectionable for the owner. Companies, for example, may want to restrict their employees from venturing to websites not related to their work. These websites may not be harmful, but as they distract the employees from their work at hand the company may deem it necessary to block these websites.

Another purpose of the Web filters is to protect the users from dangerous and corrupting sites. Students and children are especially being protected from these sites, which is why Internet filters are growing in usage at homes and schools. But as stated above, these Internet filters are not entirely reliable. It is especially not going to be of any help if the sites not included in the filter can be accessed by malicious users to the children.

We can also look at it in the same way we look at spam email filters. Spam filters help in sending useless spam emails to the spam section but we still see a spam email in our inbox from time to time. As it was said, it really is not a hundred percent spam filtered or protected system. Internet site and content filters are the same? They are not fool proof.

Furthermore, you need the protection of a complete internet security software that includes, firewall, anti virus, anti spyware anti phishing and anti malware features. After these security features are in place you have to realize that you still can't browse the internet totally securely. You are still vulnerable to sophisticated hackers and cyber criminals that can find your IP address and hack into your computer to steal your personal and financial information. You are very vulnerable to identity theft. If you are using wireless networks to access the internet you have to take a whole range of security measures including data encryption to be safe on the net.

This is why in order to achieve a higher level of protection, changing your IP addresses will provide that extra and most important level of security. IP Changer is software that directs your internet connection through different anonymous web servers that have their own IP addresses. IP changer thus can frequently change that IP address as well. This way your real IP address is hidden and allows you to surf the internet anonymously. Some IP Changers come with high level encryption capabilities further protecting you and your sensitive data over the internet.

Thus by browsing anonymously, you are able to protect yourself and your kids from sites and content and malicious users who can get through the filters and other security features you had before. Your privacy and sensitive financial and personal information is much safer now than ever before if you use IP Changer.

Having learnt some important information about a new technology that uses and IP Changer to make wired and wireless networks safer and more secure go to http://www.change-ip-proxy.com to get an in depth information about the technology and systems that will best help you to enhance the security of your networks.

Five Things You Need to Know to Spot a Con Game

Internet scams. They are becoming more and more advanced and plaguing everyone's email. My mom, an epic sucker, likes to send me email after email about African princesses who need our help and new instant money surveys constantly. So now not only am I blocking the daily spam that fills my email account everyday, I'm screening my own mother's emails. The incredible stories and lies are never ending. How are we supposed to know what is real or fake anymore.

Any email, even from someone we may trust like our bank, PayPal, or even our own parents who don't understand what SPAM is, could potentially be a computer bomb. Even worse, how are legitimate companies supposed to communicate with their clientele. The internet was made to be a free and easy form of communication. However, free and easy includes communication from both the honest and the dishonest.

Here are a few red flags to always be weary of when looking for a legitimate company online.

1) Never give away any information via email that you are not comfortable with. For example, your social security number, banking number, credit card, mother's maiden name, or any information that would compromise your identity or your money.

2) If an email says it is from a certain website like MySpace, Facebook, PayPal, etc. don't follow the link directly on your email. Enter the original site address into your search bar and go from there. Have you ever been phished? It is not a fun experience.

3) If anything about a website seems off or different don't enter your personal information or any passwords until you're sure you are on a secure site.

4) When ordering anything online, always look for little key phrases and avoid checking boxes to contracts that entail sharing your information with other companies. This is a way for companies to make money simply off of your email address, and why your inbox is full of things you've never even heard of and have absolutely no interest in. If you order online frequently do what I do and get more than one email address - one for legitimate sites and friends and one for SPAM. If something seems fishy send it to the SPAM address

5) IF IT SEEMS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT IS! No one gives away free money unless you've been picked for a game show, and guess what? They won't send you an email about it. Avoid making any large investment into anything until you have researched it and you know what you are doing. Always look for more than one site about whatever you are considering, and most importantly, have some common sense.

Everyone is looking for a way to make themselves rapid cash. The problem is they turn to these scams to find it. If one really wants to make themselves rapid cash then they have to find a good company and work it hard and smart. Then they will find that not only does the rapid cash come but its stays forever.

There are great opportunities online. The Internet is an amazing tool for businesses. If you keep a clear head and follow your intuition it is easy to spot the scams and the real opportunities.

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Recommended and Credible E-Signature Services

An E-Signature is a highly sought and recommended way of not only saving on paperwork shipping and handling costs, but it is also a safe and secure way that one can assent to contracts and documents in record time as one does not have to wait one's documents to be posted. One can also store all documents in an archive in a variety of readable formats and make quick and easy copies of parties involved. An E-Signature is a scanned handwritten signature, Morse code, symbol or even sound that only the use has access to that can be recognized as a sound consent to a given agreement.

One of the top services includes Echo Sign that has over 14,000 clients and a million users. It has been given a 'thumbs up' form firms like the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, British Telecom and Red Herring as the way to go when it comes to generating an E-Signature with a competent company. All one has to do is sign up on their website by sending ones documents with the recipients address to Echo Sign and then they, you and any other involved party will receive a PDF format copy of the document. They offer and archive that one can view all contracts and set reminders for events and important work. One can visit their site, which is http://www.echosign.com.

Arx Cosign is an E-Signature service that allows one to either receive the signature software for large organizations or for small companies one can get a desktop interface that does not need any installation. Both are offered on trial basis and can be used on documents of any format, be it Word or Excel spreadsheets. Its high security features are able to detect if the software has been tampered with and this means that one can be assured of a forgery-proof signature service. Visit their website at http://www.arx.com for more details.

Looking for more information on obtaining an Electronic Signature? Be sure to check out our link below as TurboSignature is the quickest, most efficient way to get a document signed.

Digital Signature

Want to Change Your IP Address and Surf Anonymously? Your Best Option - Free Proxy Or Paid Software

Changing your IP address is important these days to protect yourself from identity theft and scammers online. But what is the best option online for protection against identity theft and hackers?

In this article I will be comparing free proxy sites with paid IP address software based on my own personal experience.

Free Proxy

Free proxies are a very fast way for you to surf anonymously without restrictions. But one thing is worthy of note, never try using them for anything that requires you to give up your personal data.

Not too long ago I lost some money to hackers because I used a free proxy site to access my online digital currency account- Liberty reserve account to be specific.

After that experience I conducted a research to find out other people experiences with some proxy changing sites and I discovered I was not alone, so many people were falling victims to the same ploy used by hackers to lure unsuspecting victims to their traps.

Paid IP Address Software

Ever since my bad experience with free proxies, I have started using paid software to "hide my IP address" and I've never had any problem whatsoever.

What I discovered is that the sites that offer paid software to hide your IP address are professional and go out of their way to make good impressions. They value repeat business and referrals so they don't do shady stuff like free proxies do.

Now I am not saying all proxies are bad but some of them are run by hackers and scammers out to rob unsuspecting victims of their identity and ultimately their hard earned cash.

So don't make the same mistake I did, go for a reliable paid software that will give you peace of mind!

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Is Your Choice of Browser Putting You at Risk?

France and Germany have warned web users against using ALL versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer in the wake of the recent attacks against Google and other sites where vulnerabilities in the browser have been implicated. One of the attacks allowed hackers in China to gain access to email accounts of human rights activists. Although Microsoft admitted that its browser was the weak link in the attacks, it rejected the warning as too strong saying that the security threat was low. It has since urged users to upgrade their browser to Internet Explorer version 8. Microsoft also recommends users set their browser security zone to "high".

In order to change settings for Internet Explorer, select Tools then Internet Options...

Select the Security tab. On this tab you will find a section at the top that lists the various security zones that Internet Explorer uses. For each of these zones, you can select a Custom Level of protection. By clicking the Custom Level button, you will see a second window open that permits you to select various security settings for that zone. The Internet zone is where all sites initially start out. The security settings for this zone apply to all the web sites that are not listed in the other security zones. I recommend the High security setting be applied for this zone. By selecting the High security setting, several features including ActiveX, Active scripting, and Java will be disabled. With these features disabled, the browser will be more secure. Click the Default Level button and then drag the slider control up to High.

It is also imperative to be very diligent in keeping your browsers fully patched. Most internet attacks via the browser are preventable as these attacks target vulnerabilities for which patches are already available. The victims simply have not installed them. If you use Internet Explorer, Microsoft puts out patches once a month. Your system should be set up to automatically download these patches and notify you or install them.

As to abandoning Internet Explorer, will this call be echoed my other countries ( including the US), I doubt it. Most non-technical users aren't following this story. Those on whom this may have a effect have most likely grown to prefer Mozilla's Firefox or Apple's Safari browser anyway. Maybe this will increase their market share, but for now Microsoft is still King of the Hill.

William McBorrough is an Information Security Practitioner, Researcher, Consultant and Educator with over 10 years of Experience Managing, Designing, and Implementing Physical and Information Technology Security Solutions. He currently works as an IT and Security Consultant with SecurNetworks Consulting, LLC focusing on IT integration and Security Architecture and Implementation. He is also a Network Security Engineer responsible for design, implementation, improvement, and maintenance network security solutions in a fast paced, multi-campus environment with over 30,000 users. He is also an IT/Security Consultant and an Adjunct College Professor teaching System Architecture, Networking, Network Attacks and Defense, and Security Program Development courses. He is a Certified Information System Security Professional, Certified Information Systems Auditor, and Certified Ethical Hacker. He blogs about information security at InfoSec Tools, Tips & Thoughts. http://www.securnetworks.com/blog

Safety on the Internet

Safety on internet is a major concern to people nowadays. As it has become a very important aspect of our lives. When considering safety on internet we have take issues from protecting your child from pornography to protecting your computer from viruses and from hackers. To cover this broad issue in a short article is not possible. I will point out the most important and easy to implement tasks to ensure your safety on internet.

There is a simple trick to save your child from pornography. Windows operating system allows you to filter the websites that has pornographic content quite easily. Follow these simple steps:

1. Go to "Control panel"
2. Then go to "Internet Options"
3. Click on "Content" tab. Then enable the content adviser. Put a strong password that your child cannot guess.

Doing this will ensure your the safety of your child on the internet. You can also restrict websites with which your child is obsessed. You can play around for while to make more restrictions.

To protect your computer form viruses and hackers you will have to take many precautions. There are new viruses being continually developed and hackers are continually finding new ways to hack into unauthorized computers. But taking the precautions will keep your computer safer and will make it harder for hacker to hack your computer. Check out the list below.

7 tips for safety on internet

1. Use Anti-virus software. Although there are many types of malicious software you can keep your computer safe from them using anti-virus software. I recommend using a internet security suite from a reputable organization.
2. Turn on the firewall of your computer. Firewalls are like guards, they blocks or open data flow into your computer. Unblock only those software that you trust.
3. Use a proxy while connecting to the internet. This will make sure you are autonomous on the internet. Nobody will get your IP address (only way to track a computer on the internet) because you connect only to proxy and the proxy will do all other jobs of connection to the internet.
4. Do not use same user name and password on multiple accounts and change your password form time to time.
5. Beware of malicious cloned websites. Always check the domain name before you give away your personal information like credit card information.
6. Keep your system updated. Update your anti-virus program daily, install new service packs for your operating system and use latest version of browser.
7. Do not type your user name and password in all the websites. Instead use a password memory software. This will ensure that even if your computer will key logger viruses your user name and passwords will never be logged.

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