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!

Want want to safely surf anonymously, protecting your identity while browsing the net without limitations? CLICK HERE!.

For more useful tips and reliable IP changing options that protects you from identity theft, visit http://anonymousinternetbrowsing.com/.

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.

For more information visit: change mac address.com
Here is a free to use Proxy

Protecting Online Businesses From Fraud Events

Online card fraud has rocketed in recent years as more people head online to shop. Businesses which don't protect themselves from these scam events could result in heavy losses and even put a business under in certain cases.

The good news is that there are ways to protect your online business

Implementing these will have the effect of deterring fraudsters from carrying out a scam event as well as allowing you to identify and prevent some fraud.

New credit card security features

Credit card companies introduced what is known as 3-D Secure to attempt to combat online fraud. In order for a transaction to be completed, the cardholder must enter a password, that they created after entering personal information in order to validate a transaction.

The user must register for this service which is often prompted by attempting to complete a transaction. The customer is taken automatically to the bank issuer website to register.

This system is highly recommended to be adopted by online businesses since it clearly reduces the chance of fraud since it shifts the responsibility back to the cardholder and the credit card company as it acts like an online PIN eliminating the risk of unauthorised cardholder charge back to a business.

The downside is 3-D Secure adds another action for the customer to complete which will affect your businesses conversion rate; hopefully the risk will be offset by the fraud it is preventing. As the systems become more widely known and people get used to them then conversion rates should be impacted as much. The security enhancements should also boost customer confidence as they are dealing with a legitimate website and therefore may lead to increased and repeat business.

I think this is a must for any online retailers however do consider the downsides including the risk of program variations across regions. Customer registrations, card issuer registrations and legislation all differ around the globe.

In conclusion I believe the card password protection technology outweighs the downside however that is up to you to decide. scam event seminars are definitely worth taking the time to attend as the information you will learn is invaluable.

Tom Swayer writes articles covering a broad range of subjects. His main area of expertise is fraud awareness and scam prevention. Tom has written articles on these subjects including a recent article covering the scam event conferences.

How Not to Fall Prey to Cyber Criminals

Imagine checking your e-mail to find out if your friends, colleagues, business associates or any other person or organization that communicates with you, has gotten in touch. Your eyes ritualistically scan the name/subject in each box, and hey! a message in one of the subject lines gets your attention. Curiosity gets the better part of you and naturally you click on the subject matter and the contents are revealed. Well what do you know? someone is presenting a whooping sum of money to you, in exchange for a "seemingly harmless favour". It's an unbelievable offer, probably a once in a life time opportunity and you decide to play ball, and end up parting with some money. Congrats! you've just been duped of your hard earned money by some cyber criminals in sheep clothing.

A person who falls as a victim in the net of these day light robbers is referred to as a "Mugu" or "Maga", which simply means "a dummy, a fool" and in our National colloquial (vernacular) in Nigeria is called "Mumu". The reason why people constantly swallow the bait is ironically based on "Greed ". These lazy bones will always present you with a whooping sum that would make you whistle or cause your eyes to pop out of its sockets. Of course, since you want the money, you agree to play ball. They use the weapon of greed against you, tell you to bring a small amount of money, a little now, and a little again based on a thousand and one excuses. It's like leaving trails of bread crumbs for the bird to eat, which it does eat, hoping excitedly from one to the other, and since its guard has been let down...bam!, it finds itself trapped in a cage.

I have received e-mails telling me of a next of kin issue with millions that I could conveniently inherit, or that I'd won a whooping sum,(in pounds) organized by some Blue chip companies, lottery bodies. I was asked to send my personal details ( name, address, phone number, bank account number,) to claim my prize money. I didn't need any one to tell me that they were scammed mails, I sniffed it out instantly.

Those who perpetuate these crimes are referred to as "Yahoo Yahoo boys" in Nigeria (they illegally used the top notch site for criminal activities when the internet began to blossom in the country), and also "Advanced fee fraudsters".

HOW TO SNIFF THEM OUT
Always bear in mind that the potential scammer might and might not know you. He might know you by reason of being your friend, relative, colleague who knows a lot about you such as your likes and dislikes, where you shop, your habits, what you do, they know a lot. Where they don't know you, they generate e-mails through the e-mail look up process on popular search engines and type in a person's name. Thousands of e- mails with the name pops up, then the search is narrowed down to city, town, address of the people. They then decide on whom to pick, and after carefully writing the letter to avoid suspicion, it's sent to your box, and then the game begins.

Death and Inheritance messages: Next of kin
The scammer introduces himself in the e-mail as "Mr X", (a false name) and probably tells you he'd tried mailing a letter (surface mail) to you, sent it but didn't get any response and so it must have been lost. He correctly states your name, address, and can even tell you some details about yourself (but not in all cases, he can go straight to the point after introducing himself). There are various versions of the next of kin story. One version is to inform you of how a rich man died (with his family) and left an incredible sum with no one to inherit the money. Then he began to conduct an investigation and suddenly finds out that you're his lost long next of kin. Of course he knows you'll doubt it and asks you in the letter to send an e-mail to his Attorney to verify. You're curious (on one hand you feel something's not right and on the other you begin to think of the possibility of being a made for life and even allow yourself to day dream in Fantasy Island). You send the e-mail, after all an Attorney (an officer of the law in the Temple of Justice) can't be engaged in nefarious activities.

The Attorney who unknown to you is still 'Mr X' replies and confirms its true, and with that assurance you eagerly write back to 'Mr X' telling him you've confirmed and your ready to claim the inheritance. He's happy, showers praises on you and tells you he'll get right to working on it. He waits a couple of more days (to heighten the suspense) and sends another e- mail to you stating that he'll need, say $500, to get the legal documents out based on "xyz reasons". What's $500 compared to hundreds of thousands/millions of dollars, so you send it. Then one excuse after the other comes rolling in and you're parting with more and more money, and before you know it "you're the Mugu"

Another version of the Next of Kin evil scheme, would be to receive an e-mail by 'Mr X' who is based in another country. He informs you about how a certain rich man ( a foreign business partner ) deposited a staggering amount in their bank for the expansion of some business deals in Africa, while he was and still is, say, the foreign operations manager. Unfortunately, the man, and his wife, died in an air crash and since they had no children, and no one had come forward to claim same, he was offering you the opportunity of doing that. He tells you to open a new bank account and forward the details to him, and to also include your name, address, phone number, age, occupation and other personal details that would be useful in withdrawing the amount. He tells you not to worry, he's got everything worked out and after the money transfer has been made, he'll resign, meet with you, and split the money 50/50. You decide to play ball, and he begins to bring up one excuse or the other to extort money from you, and hey he's got you "You're the Maga".

THE WIDOWER ANTICS
The trick is always aimed at those who want to 'date/marry' someone 'over the net' (that is not to say that all dating sites are illegal or don't give the desired results some crave for) but it's a strategy they effectively use. I particularly do not encourage people to date over the net or to be swept off their feet by love declarations and marriage proposals (my opinion) for the following reasons:

1) People are not really who they seem to be over the net
2) The net is a facade that hides their true identify/character
3) How do you know the picture of the person is his true self, you'd be surprised at how these idle minds put up fake pictures and impersonate people
4) Anybody can write any thing on the net to impress you, you can't tell if he truly likes/loves you, and you can't attest to his character
5) You could be chatting/dating an ex-con, a criminal, pervert, rapist, wife beater, murderer, psychotic, who just wants to play on your emotions
6) Most dating/love relationships, oftentimes than not, takes place in different geographical axis, the man in one country and the woman in another. It's safer for them that way, after all, you can't hop in to a plane just to go to his country and when you finally do, he's made all the necessary arrangements for you to believe in his tell tales.

Now the widower "Mr X" doesn't reveal his true identity through the picture, so he becomes an impostor, and takes the identity of someone else (having hacked into the person's profile over the net) from another country. He pastes the picture on a dating site he has created, and since he's good looking, "lonely Miss Y" from another country sees the picture and sends him a flattery e-mail, but the letter conveys a tone of disbelief. 'Mr X' quickly responds by sending pictures of himself to her box, his profile, and other vital information he senses would be of paramount interest to her. She's satisfied and begins a relationship with supposedly 'Mr X'. One day he cooks up a story about how he's stranded at the airport in "N country" and needs her to send $500 to help him out. He designs and sends her counterfeit flight tickets, hotel bills etc and instructs her to send it in the name of "Mr Z" (his accomplice). She'll do anything for the love of her life and sends same. It's one excuse or the other after that, and she keeps on sending money and never gets to meet him, until she realises she'd been tricked, but it's too late "She's the Mugu"

Credit/ATM Cards, Bank Accounts
"Mr X" through software generators, gets access to people's IDs and with their credit card information has access to their bank details. He logs on to the bank's website, types in the information, and transfers the money into his account. It was used mainly when internet facilities began to thrive in Nigeria. Currently, e-mails and even text messages via mobile phones, are sent by these lazy drones to people, especially bank and Telecoms customers, requesting them to send their ATM details, bank account details, PIN numbers, to redeem prizes or for some other unrealistic reasons. In a swift reaction, the Banks and Telecoms companies have alerted the public to disregard such e-mails and text messages, and not to divulge such vital information, as they would never tell customers to do that.

Lottery winnings
Imagine being sent an e- mail that you'd won "K million dollars/pounds", because your name popped up as the winner. They tell you to visit the lottery site (bear in mind that some don't ). You do and it looks authentic, and you're thrilled about being a Millionaire, imagine all the stuff you'd buy with the money... but hold on a second "It might not be real". There are authentic lottery sites no doubt, but you've got to be careful that you're not on the wrong track as 'Mr X" also uses lottery sites to perpetuate his illegal activities.

"Mr X" is aware of the ongoing lottery in "P country" he visits the site and designs a similar one, generates e-mail addresses, gets their information and sends it to various people, (not in his country, except to those he knows) and tells them they've won and should visit the site. You do and he has even placed the team's photos (fake) and the country it's being carried out in. You reply the message and you're informed of series of things that would be done in order for you to get the money. Again out of excitement you send "M dollars", and the excuses keep coming in, while you keep paying and then you soon realize "you're the Mugu"

Non-existent Business deals
Most oftentimes than not "Mr X" sends an e-mail to "H company" in another country filled with all sorts of business ideas, information, opportunities, projected financial yields 'H company' would have if they did business together (became partners). Of course, opportunity to expand the business and make tons of profit causes 'H company' to jump at the sweet package. One thing leads to another and 'H company' unaware of the legal processes to take in establishing a business/joint venture in 'X's country or unable to confirm the authenticity of the deal and about his company readily agrees to and gives into the various demands of 'Mr X'. He later finds out its all been a lie and oh! well the "contact man of H company was the Mugu".

Foreigners and indigenes alike should not be in the habit of jumping into partnership/business deals of any kind without verifying the legality of such proposed businesses initiated by an individual/company. One of the steps to take is to engage the services of a lawyer who will help in the verification process amongst other things.

Winning streak

Blue chip companies do not conduct promos without advertising same through the Media (electronic and print). They'll never tell you to send details of your bank account, address, or tell you to call them so that they can inform you of where to pick up your prize. Winners are always contacted or told to go to the Redemption centres to get them.

It's no longer news that some unpatriotic Nigerians are involved in internet scams and have tarnished the country's image abroad. Nigerians generally are viewed with suspicion and are seen as unreliable, untrustworthy, fraudulent people. This notion is however wrong as a few bad apples doesn't necessarily mean the others are rotten, but the country without blemish should first cast a stone!.

Nigeria's Minister of Information Prof. Dora Akunyili spurring on the Re -branding campaign, with the slogan, "Nigeria good people, great Nation" is ready to correct the wrong impression most foreigners have about Nigerians. The Economic and financial crimes commission (EFCC) has been haunting down Cyber criminals with the cyber raid approach and the latest electronic mechanism in partnership with Microsoft to monitor, detect, scam mails over the net which is generating a 100% success result. Illegal sites are being shut down, reducing by the day the number of millions of people who fall as victims. Mails perceived as scams based on reasons expounded herein or otherwise should be reported to the EFCC.

Nigerians are good, warm, hospitable, friendly people and the fertile soil gives investors (foreign and local) the opportunity of ploughing their financial/technical resources into it with mouth watering financial returns. It's a great place to be in and without mincing words "I'm proudly Nigerian".

So long... auggiepo@yahoo.com

Encryption For Internet Security

These days when no information seems safe online, people have been considering file and disk encryption. Sometimes, they don't even understand what it is. They just know it's a security measure they must take to ensure that they need not face the worst from being thieved of their data.

So what is encryption? Encryption is basically the process of presenting a piece on information in coded form. This means that human being will not be able to understand such information unless it is decoded or decrypted. Encryption is an effective way of protecting data traveling over the web and it is, in fact, one of the most used and reliable techniques in cryptography which is a body of scientific principles that promote safe communications.

Cryptogrpahy has a lot of ways but on the Internet, it it makes use of long series of numbers which can be decoded using certain algorithms. Some of these algorithms make use of only one key for encryption and decryption which means a key used for encrypting is the same key that will be used for decoding the data. In other cases, encryption uses one key and decryption will require another. The safer one to use is obviously the latter.

Generally, these keys are responsible for protecting the data that is contained in a piece of encrypted information. Internet browsers are currently using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to ensure that information entered by online customers are adequately protected as this travels from the customer's computer to the businessman's server. SSL encryption also relies on keys and this is the reason why before buying anything online, it is important that the site has an SSL certificate which means data entered into it will be traveling encrypted.

The rule is, the longer the key or the greater number of bits there are, the safer the encryption is. This is because it is generally easier to come up with different bit combinations and try them out. For example, if you have a 2-bit encryption, you can easily come up with four different combinations, try each one and eventually decrypt the information. However, with a 128-bit encryption, there are at least 309,485,009,821,345,068,724,781,056 combinations possible. According to experts, 128-bit encryption can be good enough for a period of ten years which is probably the amount of time it would take for all such combinations to be tried.

Internet security is mostly a matter of having a good understanding of the risks involved as well as knowing what must be done to reduce the risks. In terms of general Internet safety, one can rely on an IP changing software which is a program designed to allow a user to surf the Internet with his IP address hidden.

Remember that an IP address is a computer's unique identifier when it connects with any other computer on the Internet. This means that whatever a hacker can do, he can do it because he knows his victim's IP address. Naturally, when you hide your IP, you're safe from hackers. Thus, with an IP changer alone, you can be assured of significant Internet threat protection.

Why Online Backup is Important - Safeguard Your Data on the Internet

Information is what makes the world go round. In the business world, any organization stores thousands or millions of data everyday for the use in their venture. Sales receipts, pricelist, manifests, and portfolios -- every single data is stored in a database for various uses. What do you think would happen if your precious data is suddenly wiped out from your storage? Let me introduce to you the concept of online backup.

Online Storage

The Internet is not only for the function of disseminating information to every individual in the planet. Today, those who have access to the Internet is capable of utilizing online storage sites to safeguard their files and having access to it wherever they go. The concept of online backup is simple -- store data that can be accessed from any computer console at your disposal.

Safeguard Data

Database backup offsite has its own advantages and disadvantages, but the benefits tend to outweigh the possible drawbacks that come with it. For starters, you can easily upload any form of data to your online servers with ease. You can backup your files through FTP, or Web-based environment for data upload and download.

Benefits

Online backup offers every individual the convenience of having access to important data from any computer console available. Let's take your Webmail for example, you can access your mails from any computer -- all you need to do is to login to your account and your done. Same is with the case of file backup online. You just need to login to your account, utilize built-in applications for uploading files, that's it!

Also, online backup is your last resort in case of emergencies -- like someone accidentally wiped out your entire database on your company's computer. You need not worry sine you have all the information from your latest backup and you can immediately download it to your computer to restore organization functions without having to worry too much about it.

Keep in mind, however, that human initiative is essential for a successful utilization of file backup online. Set a date or time for a routine backup to ensure that restoration of these relevant data is up-to-date. It might also be best to limit people who have access to your backup to avoid tampering.

Online backup is a necessity in today's business. Trusting too much on your private servers might lead to unrecoverable loss later on when you don't have a backup online to restore company operations.