A new twist into the old email scam books, the fraudulent scam that asks for money from unsuspecting friends and acquaintances listed in your address books. True, many have been victimized by the said ploy wherein people gain access to your address book and sending out email that solicits cash funds to be wired to a location somewhere around the world. The scam began in Africa when a journalist began receiving unexpected calls and email regarding his misfortune in the African continent where he was supposedly on vacation and stuck in a hotel without any cash funds or other form of identification.
The incident used Yahoo which the perpetrator has broken into and taken the liberty of obtaining all the names and email addresses contained in the popular email facility service’s files. These addresses were then sent fake email messages telling the unfortunate story of you getting into misfortune somewhere and that you are in dire need of cash which you are supposed to pay back as soon as you return from the said trip ending the ordeal. It is a fake emergency message though and there have been many reports of similar cases happening using all the email services around. How the thieves got into the address book getting the necessary information is still a mystery and the guy who reported it first (who happens to be in the journalism business) had to go through a long process of getting all the account information from yahoo through phone after a lengthy conversation to prove that he was actually who he claimed to be. So, people be alert for the said scam and be sure to verify all incidents with the senders as well as alert all members of the family and your friends of such crazy behavior.
Tags: Email-Scams, Fraudulent-email, Scams
Categories: General, IM, Instant Messaging, IT Security Basics, News, Privacy & Anonymity, Real-World Issues
Employee’s love them, Network Administrators hate them, the advent of more function packed handheld devices have sparked a re-evaluation of the threat these small devices pose. Traditionally, networks were quite safe for to gain access to it you needed to be hooked up to the network, physically with a LAN cable. Now that the shift to wireless has become the network engineer’s best friend the network has surely been simplified and companies are switching to the new technology. Thy no longer needed wires and all existing computers are either replaced with ones that support Wi-Fi or bought individual dongles that allowed connection within the office. That was still an easy security agenda for they usually had a range of a couple of hundred feet.
Then came wireless internet hotspots which commercial developers started to put up to get more workers out of the office into their shops allowing them to work while, say having coffee. That’s where the problems began for the more office correspondence left the walls of the office, the more harder was it to secure. VPN’s were implemented that allowed a secure channel within existing networks making it a bit better. But that was still quite vulnerable to attack and security experts needed a better way of securing corporate data where-ever the user might be. Projections by business and security analysts estimate volume to increase to 100 million email transactions to and from outside the office locations that is still causing nightmares as the next step is found in the drive to secure this network without physical bounds.
[tags]Handheld Computing, Mobile Computing[/tags]
Tags: hackers, internet, security, Vulnerabilities, Wireless
Categories: Cryptography, General, IM, Instant Messaging, IT Security Basics, Network Security, News, Real-World Issues, Security Policies, Wireless Security
It would only be normal to find shared folders in the default setup of Windows operating systems. This can be easily seen once a person would go to the explorer option of his computer where shared folders are waiting to be accessed. This is automatically made for access if people connect to a network and would not set the security policies and accessibility on a restricted basis which only allows administrators to access them.
The importance of setting security levels to avoid such access to folders is important. Not al people are aware of the harmful things an unauthorized user may do once he gets the chance to intrude in another person’s workstation. Aside from probable back-ups, a person may lose the files contained in such folders if he is not careful. Hence it is best to do the precautionary measures before hand to avoid unwanted avoidable circumstances would ensue.
[tags]shared folders, security policy, network security[/tags]
Tags: Network Security, security-policy, shared-folders
Categories: Backups, Cryptography, IM, Instant Messaging, IT Security Basics, Network Security, Physical Security, Privacy & Anonymity, Security Policies, Storage, Tips
Anyone will receive different kinds of offline and online messages from friends and acquaintances. Some would be links to other websites they have done, pictures or news feeds. But while these would be helpful in most cases, it would be best to first query the person and ask what the site is all about.
Cases of rapidly increasing links that creep into the instant messaging service create havoc and spread to the entire contact list of people endorsing the various instant messaging services available over the web today. The most popular of which is perhaps Yahoo Messenger and Instant Messaging. These are the widely used modes of communication today since aside from saving on cost, they hold a wider coverage, thanks to the Internet which is available all throughout the world today.
Hence, such coverage offers a tempting way of making lives miserable and the computers a living hell. The discomforts that it would have would drive a person crazy since the need to remedy the situation may take some time. However, for some people there is always the option to format the whole system, something that is not needed by people who need to access their files regularly and have no backup copies.
[tags]yahoo messenger virus, spyware, instant messaging, hyperlinks, bad links[/tags]
Tags: bad-links, hyperlinks, Instant Messaging, Spyware, yahoo-messenger-virus
Categories: Backups, IM, Instant Messaging, IT Security Basics, Malware, Spyware, Tips
Slowly but surely, communication has grown entirely advanced. At first, it was mainly done through keystrokes called chatting conversations with some emoticons in tow to spice up the supposed conversation. Next came the web cam era wherein a person can now see the person he is talking to, being more relieved that the person they are communicating to is really existent.
Today, voice messaging has been added to the fray, making it all the more enticing for people who put premium on the web with regards to communicating with friends and associates anywhere in the world. One can just imagine the savings that such voice calls can provide compared to the old practice of making calls by phone. Indeed the latter was very expensive to the point that people would have problems settling their accounts payable to such providers.
Voice messaging today over the Internet is free as long as it is a PC to PC call. However, leaning on the trends and developments, it is not far fetched to see that one day that such offered voice calls would charge minimal amounts which would gradually increase as demand does too.
[tags]im, instant messaging, video conference, voice messaging[/tags]
Tags: IM, Instant Messaging, video-conference, voice-messaging
Categories: IM, Instant Messaging, Privacy & Anonymity, Wireless Security
The different instant messenger services that sites such as MSN and Yahoo offer are no longer limited towards the need of having to subscribe towards each network individually. Thanks to the efforts by all the networks today, regardless if you are a member of Yahoo or MSN only, you can communicate with other people as well. This makes it more convenient for people to message other people from one network to another, taking away the need to create separate accounts.
It was only a matter of time before such possibilities could be made. Take into consideration the cross communication that cellular networks were able to do, only thing is that messaging does not really need spending issues. Messaging over the Internet is entirely free and all that was solved was really more of convenience and creation of dummy accounts just to avail of such service.
Such not only becomes an inconvenience for the networks but for the subscribers as well since they have to go between services just to see their buddies online.
[tags]yahoo messenger, msn messenger, instant messaging[/tags]
Tags: Instant Messaging, msn-messenger, yahoo-messenger
Categories: IM, Instant Messaging, Real-World Issues
Instant messaging has become the next generation means of being able to talk with people anywhere in the world. A lot of IM software has been offered and made available to all people exposed over the Internet. The list includes the following:
1. Yahoo Messenger
2. MSN Messenger
3. ICQ
4. Chikka
5. Skype
6. America Online
The technology invested in these messaging programs has included that of providing features that enable people to use web cameras to actually see who they are talking with, voice chat, and being able to send text messages to mobile phones anywhere in the world as long as they are affiliated with them.
Such innovations and advancement in technology has truly changed the face of communicating prowess in the world. Aside from the available resources over the web, cost has been trimmed down and made economical for anyone. Besides, the early practices of making long distance calls have become a thing of last resort for people. Ask the telecommunication companies, they can attest to this fact.
[tags]instant messaging, yahoo messenger, msn messenger, chikka, skype[/tags]
Tags: chikka, Instant Messaging, msn-messenger, skype, yahoo-messenger
Categories: IM, Instant Messaging, Real-World Issues, Wireless Security
File transfers through instant messaging (IM) is one of the causes of vulnerabilities in a network. It is so easy to send files to each other via IM — it is just a couple of clicks away. Before you know it, your pictures are transferred to your online buddy’s computer and vice versa. What network administrators do sometimes is tighten the security by setting up a firewall that restricts it.
There is a product called Aladdin eSafe which blocks file transfers through IM. What happens is that the messages still get through but no file transfers happen. The following IM protocols are assessed by the software: ICQ/AOL Messenger, MSN Messenger, Windows Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. It could also block Skype.
eSafe is targeted to help the organizations that will use it in terms of increasing the productivity of the people. By limiting or blocking file transfers, the people will have less distractions and so they could focus on working. They could keep on using IM in order to communicate with each other.
First and foremost, you could try to make sure that you are clear about your company’s policy on the use of IM software. The way you deal with the people involved would be critical because they are the ones who will be directly affected. As such, you might try recommending other ways of sending files like maybe through email or maybe you could have a file server of sorts but to determine how to limit access might be the difficult part.
Tags: Instant Messaging, IT Security Basics, News
Categories: Instant Messaging, IT Security Basics, News
