What are the issues?

Connecting to the Internet and sending and receiving e-mail is how hundreds of millions of people keep track of the world around them. But clicking on the links in a Web page or opening an attachment in an e-mail can also unlock a back door in an attempt to try and access personal information and the contents of a person's computer without their knowledge or consent.

Overall, the computing security and Internet safety issues that confront the everyday computer user can be divided into three categories:

Protect your family

Online predators take advantage of the anonymity of the Internet to build online relationships with inexperienced young people, oftentimes making contact with children through conversations in chat rooms, instant messaging, e-mail, or discussion boards. These predators can harass or stalk children or even attempt to trick children into meeting them in person.

Some children may use the Internet to harass or intimidate other children. Cyber-bullying is any online activity that is designed to intimidate, threaten, tease or harm another person. Cyber-bullies often employ e-mail and instant messaging and are often from the child's own school, but can also be someone who lives in the child's community or is part of the child's extended network of friends and family.

Another concern is that children, and especially young people in their teen years, tend to share personal information online. Blogs, or "spaces," chat rooms, and instant messaging have become popular ways for children to relate and connect to the world around them, and they often share personally identifiable information-such as their name, school name or details about their location-that a parent would consider to be inappropriate.

There are also risks associated with the technology itself. Children who explore the Internet unsupervised or uneducated often participate in activities that leave their computers very vulnerable to spyware or Trojan-horse software that can cause computers to be taken over by malicious hackers. They can also stumble upon images or content that their parents or guardians may not want them exposed to.

Parents can help stop these trends, but they need to be informed about effective steps that they can take today to protect their families and teach their children about safe online behavior. For more information, visit www.staysafe.org.

Protect yourself

Many of the experiences that make the Internet so valuable and enjoyable also require us to share information about ourselves. The Internet makes it easy to shop, bank, and communicate online, but it also puts people at risk for threats like spam, phishing, and identity theft.

Spam is any unwanted e-mail, instant message, e-card, or other online communication. Perpetrators of such spam often obtain the addresses of prospective recipients from online postings, Web pages, and databases.

Phishing is a type of deception designed to steal valuable personal data-such as credit-card numbers, passwords, account data, or other information-directly from the user.

Another prevalent tactic used by online criminals is the hoax or scam, a scenario in which the online criminal sends an e-mail that tries to trick the user into giving them money. For example, a scam would inform people that they have inherited money from a distant relative they do not actually recognize, or that the person has won a lottery they do not remember entering.

It is important for people to be cautious about giving out personal information. If they do give it out to be sure they know the web site they are giving it out. Read their privacy statements to know how their information is being used.

Protect your computer

Viruses, worms, and Trojans are malicious software programs that can cause damage to a person's computer and the information inside it. They slow down the Internet and can spread themselves to the computers of friends, family, and co-workers, as well as to the rest of the Web.

Computer viruses are deliberately designed to interfere with computer operation; record, corrupt, or delete data; and spread themselves to other computers and throughout the Internet. Viruses that are more sophisticated, such as worms, can replicate and send themselves automatically to additional computers by controlling other software programs, such as an e-mail sharing application. Other viruses, called Trojans (named after the fabled Trojan horse), can falsely appear as a beneficial program to coax users into downloading them and then result in quiet damage to a person's system or other networked computers.

Spyware is a general term used for software that performs certain behaviors such as advertising, collecting personal information, or changing the configuration of a user's computer, generally without appropriately obtaining the user's consent. It is often associated with software that displays advertisements (called adware) or software that tracks personal or sensitive information.

Conclusion

The breadth of computing security and Internet safety issues that exist today necessitate that we educate people about online risks and safe Internet use, arming them with the information they need to know to help protect their PCs, themselves, and their families. By exercising some basic precautions, people can reduce their odds of being a victim. What we need to do is work together to give them the information they need to exercise those precautions.