MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Have you heard? Bill Gates discovered that Big Foot exists, he found him mating with the Loch Ness Monster and he was so excited about it that now he’s giving away money. You’ll receive $10 for every person you forward this e-mail to, just fill out the form and hit send, than you should receive your check in two to three weeks.
All right, maybe all scams, spyware and viruses on the Internet aren’t this easy to expose, but being properly informed and practicing proper computer usage, Iwakuni computer users can avoid the dangers of the cyber world.
According to Gunnery Sgt. Anaiz Stinson, Station information assurance manager, the three biggest threats to the Station Internet infrastructure are spoofing, spamming and spyware.
Spoofing is the act of faking the origin of e-mail. Sometimes companies will sell their e-mail list and hackers will spoof from the list. The spoofed mail is usually malicious.
“The whole point of spoofing an e-mail is that hackers are trying to get something from you,” said Stinson. “Whether it be information or if they’re just conducting a reconnaissance of security.”
Hackers can use also use spoofing to hide names on the address list of the e-mail, so if a user replies to the mail or forwards it, they will unknowingly be sending it to thousands of other mailboxes, which can result in a denial of service.
A denial of service occurs when there are so many e-mails jamming up the network that e-mail is no longer usable.
Spamming is the onslaught of millions of e-mails. They are mass distributed and used to try and gain valuable information. Spam can come in the form of an e-mail from a bank letting the recipient know there is a problem with their system and they need the recipients social security number, or credit card number or whatever the hacker is trying to gain access to.
The e-mail will usually consist of a hyperlink for the recipient to click on to fix the problem. The hyperlink will take the recipient to a legitimate looking site that is actually phony. There the recipient will fill out what he thinks is a form to fix the problem but is really giving away valuable information.
“No financial institution in their right mind will send an e-mail advisory requesting that type of information,” said Stinson. “Those type of request will come on paper.”
One of the sneakier ways that hackers can gain access to information about you is through the use of spyware. Spyware loads into your computer automatically while you are on a Web site. The spyware then monitors your computer usage; it can capture passwords, document your activity or contain malicious code.
“Anything that’s involved with your computer is electronic and there are countless ways to manipulate it,” said Stinson.
With all the spoofing, spamming and spyware speeding around, users have to be careful when taking a ride on the information super highway.