Identity Theft Check

As the mobile phone market expands and the technology becomes more sophisticated, so will the potential of identity theft and other security issues.

As you may be aware, the iPhone is now a very popular phone throughout the world taking a large market share away from other brands.

This one along with others including Blackberrys and Googles own phone have the ability to surf the internet using modern browsers much like anyones laptop or PC.

This in turn opens up a number of security issues and flaws much like the battle Internet Explorer goes through with hackers and scammers trying to part with your money.

Unfortently, virus software and other techniques aren’t available for these phones and the reliance on the companys own software for safety become paramount.

The best advice to stay safe whilst online using these is to remember, much like the previous article that public wifi networks aren’t to be trusted and to keep your phones software upto date.

With Wireless networks being increasingly popular, it is important you are aware of potential security risks whilst using your computer at airports, coffee shops etc.

The security on wireless connections ranges from open, WEP, WPA and WPA2.

Open basically means public with no encryption / security to speak of. This means that any data sent from your computer can be read by anyone inbetween your laptop and the airports / coffee shops wireless box.

Intercepting this data is very simple to do making stealing usernames and passwords incredibly easy.

This is the main reason online banks require you to enter your password partially so that its a lot harder to use once stolen.

If you need to use a public network I advise not typing sensitive information and staying off banks / paypal accounts just incase.

To most regular internet users including gamers, bloggers, photographers staying safe online comes easily. For those of you that haven’t spent their life on the internet I can offer some words of advice to keep you from any mishaps.

1. Always keep Anti Virus software and Anti Spyware software updated - I tend to use brands of software that win well known virus competitions / awards.
2. Make sure the above software is set up correctly to actively monitor your computer in real time and to make sure it’s scanning all incoming emails.
3. COMMON SENSE - I’m pretty sure that link you read saying naked Avril Lavigne pictures is going to be dodgy / fake / malicious.

If you stick to the above 3 links then you should be pretty safe.

I’ve come accross a lot of dodgy emails and a lot of dodgy websites in my time, working in this industry. One can usually spot a dodgy email or website a mile off, but do you think you could spot a sophisticated website?

Looks real? Well it’s not, infact if you click on any of those news links, it is going to try and download a few tricks to comprimise your computer.

Things to look out for

The websites url - This fake website will not have the correct URL / Domain name. It will have a URL as close as possible to the real thing in the hope that you won’t study it long enough to browse away from the website.

Spelling Mistakes - Sometimes even sophisticated hackers typo their work.

Too good to be true - Or even too bad to be real.

In summary, common sense prevails and anything else should be caught by any decent virus scanner.

Phishing is the process of trying to steal your identity via fishing your username and passwords usually from a medium like Email.

The most common forms of phising come from emails like “HSBC requires you to reset your password as a safety check, please enter your Username and password here”

The scammer will then have your username and password to your bank and will mostly likely try and part with as much of your money as possible.

Most legitamate emails will normally state that the company will never ask for your password. This is usually 100% true as operators working at banks can look up your account without having to supply your password.

Summary: Don’t give out passwords to anyone and always keep your virus scanner upto date.