Security
Home Blog Coaching Kofutu Reiki

  Spam, Phishing and Basic Security

Computers have taken such an important role in our lives that we have come to depend on them. Unfortunately, in order to make them easier to use, security has taken a back seat in some operating systems. One of the results is spam which now accounts up to 80% of email traffic worldwide. There are some steps you can take to prevent if not at least curve down Spam and Phishing.


Please, keep in mind that all the information herein was taken from government websites and are constantly evolving. I have also added some commen sense precautions.

 

Spam:

Spam is any unsolicited emails you receive. It's a simple definition. Some spammers argue they don't send you unsolicited emails because your information was public information. However, unsolicited emails are just that, unsolicited and no matter how public my information is, I pay for my email box, don't waste my time with sizes and shapes of my body.

Most spammers offer ways to unsubscribe as per the CAN-SPAM act requires but that flags your email account as active and it usually is sold to other spammers. Do not respond to spam.

Unfortunately the law is not very helpful either because it is very difficult to go after all spammers. The FTC, after years of complaints have finally taken some measures and voted an act called the CAN-SPAM Act. Yes, don't laugh that is the name. Needless to say, many people call it the can spam act.

Here is the FTC website, please go and visit it. Click here.

There are ways to combat spam. Spammer forge their address and the servers the email goes through. It is usually not easy to retrace where they came from but with a little curiosity and setting your email reader to display all headers, you can trace it back. After this you can either report it to your ISP or theirs and forward the entire email with the long headers to: spam@uce.gov

 

Do Not Call List:

Here is a site where you can register you telephone numbers on the National Do Not Call List. It is observed by most mass mailing institutions and I am very happy to report I have cut down 75 to 90% of the junk mail I used to receive. Still, most companies think it OK to spam you after you have given them your credit card to buy some product of theirs.

Here is the link. Please read it here.

Here is my compiled list:

spam@uce.gov
Credit cards: optoutprescreen.com
Catalogs: www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailing
banks: www.ftc.gov/bcp/conlne/pubs/credit/privchoices.shtm#yourright
Data brokers: www.privacy.org/ar/infobrokers-optouts.html#optout
Lexis Nexis: www.lexisnexis.com/terms/privacy/data/remove.asp
ISP's: http://consumer.state.ca.us/

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/privtipsalrt.htmalbertsonscustomercare@albertsons.com

The famous Do Not Call List, which by the way, works very welll.
1 (888) 382-1222
www.donotcall.gov
https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx

 

phishing:

phishing is another scam trend where someone tries to get you to send out your personal information. You might have already seen it in those bank emails asking you to verify your account information. Please note that banks will inform you differently than through emails of such crucial changes. The same thing applies for the PayPal accounts informations, E-Bay and the famous Nigerian scams that now include a wide array of solicitation usually saying you will receive a few million dollars from someone looking for help placing some money abroad, conveniently through your account. Don't laugh, two month ago a man lost his personal $3 million to a scam like this. What was that saying: "A fool is soon departed from his money". If it sounds too good, think again.

 

BASIC COMPUTER SECURITY

The Four Golden Rules:

Keeping your computer safe is essential and will help you have a positive user experience in the long run.

There are four basic steps you can take to protect you.

1) Use an antivirus program that is less than a year old and daily updated. Viruses are created and morphed on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. This is the very first basic step in protecting yourself. An antivirus program from 2003 or 2004 and 2005 might not detect the latest viruses and trojan horses written this year, 2006.

2) Back up. We can never say it enough, backup, backup, backup. Writable CDs and DVDs are cheap. Back up your pesonal information and keep the backups as far away from your computer as possible. If you can, keep a copy of the backups in a different city. There is nothing better than an off-site back system.

3) Use a firewall that filters not only the incoming traffic but also outgoing. ZoneAlarm has a free personal use only firewall. Dig around their site to find it. It works well. Click here to go their site. If you can, buy a hardware firewall.

4) Encrypt your personal data and emails. This step will encrypt you folders so that anyone without your username and password will not be able to read your personal folders. Windows XP has an encryption system. Mac OSX has their Vault system that works very well. PGP and GPG have free for non-commercial use email encryptions. It works well and will save your data from prying eyes. Remember that emails travel in plain text from servers to servers. It was never intended for private information.

Other things to take into account is to use strong passwords. Forget your pet's name, your wife's maiden name or anything a hacker can find quickly. Use capital and low capital letters, and throw numbers in the password. There are password generator programs for free. Don't write your passwords next to your computer, under your keyboard or chair, table, etc. Hackers know about that.

Tom's Hardware is a great site where you can find a lot of information as well as good articles on security.

 

Browser; Your first line of defense:

I do not use Internet Explorer on either Macs or Windows as much as possible. Firefox, www.mozilla.com has better security and opera, www.opera.com is even better. Both work like I.E., will import all your bookmarks and keep you safer. Firefox even has an extension that let's you view a particular page "optimized" for I.E. through I.E. but only that page.

Check out www.secunia.com for the latest on security breaches.

 

Boy and you thought computers were fun and easy to use? They have been marketed that way but one the trade offs for ease of use is security. If we are all a little more responsible and treat our computers with care, using them can be fun.

Don't learn the hard way. Take time to set up your computer well once and for all. It is all about your security if you store personal information. I have seen too many people, me included lose all information because of a system crash or stolen identity. It is traumatizing and avoidable.

Finally, let's remember that if no one ever answered spam there would be so very little of it. Let's be cautious out there.

Ultimately I work on a Mac for two very simple reasons, it works very well and the security is the best at this present moment. It's a great choice for anyone, even those who need to run Microsoft software. Mac Office is better than its PC counterpart. You can now run Windows with at least three program, Parallels, Fusion (VMWare) and Crossover. There is also a way to boot up directly into Windows with something called BootCamp. I heard that Macs even outperform pcs playing games under BootCamp. One thing is for sure, they make a heck of a lot of sense as far as security, design and ease of use and integration out of the box.

   News

Enacted legislation:

CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Pub. L. 108-187, S. 877)
The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act requires unsolicited commercial e-mail messages to be labeled (though not by a standard method) and to include opt-out instructions and the sender's physical address. It prohibits the use of deceptive subject lines and false headers in such messages. The FTC is authorized (but not required) to establish a "do-not-email" registry. State laws that require labels on unsolicited commercial e-mail or prohibit such messages entirely are pre-empted, although provisions merely addressing falsity and deception would remain in place. The CAN-SPAM Act took effect on January 1, 2004.
The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 was introduced by Senators Conrad R. Burns (R-MT) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) in April 2003, with minor changes from the previous year's version, S. 630 (2002). Two other bills (S. 1231 and S. 1293) were subsequently merged into it. The final version was approved by the Senate in November 2003 and by the House of Representatives in December 2003, and was signed into law by President Bush on December 16, 2003.

Not yet enacted bills:
Anti-Phishing Act of 2004 (S. 2636)
The Anti-Phishing Act of 2004 was introduced on July 9, 2004, by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT); it would prohibit, among other activities, sending e-mail that directs recipients to a website that falsely purports to belong to a legitimate online business and solicits recipients to provide personal information.
Anti-Spam Act of 2003 (H.R. 2515)
The Anti-Spam Act of 2003 was introduced on June 18, 2003, by Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM); co-sponsors include Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA). The bill would require all commercial e-mail messages to be identified as such (but not with a standard label, except for sexually explicit messages), and to include the sender's physical street address and an opt-out mechanism; messages relating to a specific transaction and consented to by the recipient would be exempt from those requirements. The bill would prohibit commercial e-mail messages with false or misleading message headers or misleading subject lines, and it would be illegal to send commercial e-mail messages to addresses generated by an automated dictionary attack. State laws that restrict the sending of commercial e-mail, regulate opt-out procedures, or require subject-line labels would be pre-empted; laws that merely regulate falsification of message headers would remain in effect.
Ban on Deceptive Unsolicited Bulk Electronic Mail Act of 2003 (S. 1052)
The Ban on Deceptive Unsolicited Bulk Electronic Mail Act of 2003 was introduced by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) in May 2003. It would prohibit the inclusion of false information in message headers in unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail. It also would require senders of unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail to include opt-out instructions and honor opt-out requests, and would prohibit them from harvesting e-mail addresses of potential recipients from web pages and other sources. Violations of the law could be prosecuted under RICO.
Computer Owners' Bill of Rights (S. 563)
The Computer Owners' Bill of Rights, introduced by Sen. Mark Dayton (D-MN) in March 2003, would require the Federal Trade Commission to establish a "do-not-email" registry of addresses of persons and entities who do not wish to receive unsolicited commercial e-mail messages. The FTC would be empowered to impose civil penalties upon those who send unsolicited commercial e-mail to addresses listed on the registry.
Criminal Spam Act of 2003 (S. 1293)
The Criminal Spam Act of 2003 was introduced on June 19, 2003, by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT); among the co-sponsors are several senators who have sponsored other bills listed here. The bill would prohibit unauthorized or deceptive use of a third party's computer for relaying bulk commercial e-mail messages. It also prohibits the use of false header information in bulk commercial messages, and regulates the use of multiple e-mail accounts or domain names for purposes of sending such messages. The law would apply only to quantities of more than 100 messages within 24 hours, or 1000 within 30 days, or 10,000 within one year.
REDUCE Spam Act of 2003 (H.R. 1933)
The Restrict and Eliminate the Delivery of Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail or Spam Act of 2003 was introduced by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) in May 2003. Under the REDUCE Spam Act, unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail messages would be required to include a valid reply address and opt-out instructions, and a label ("ADV:" or "ADV:ADLT", or other recognized standard identification). These requirements would apply to messages sent in the same or similar form to 1,000 or more e-mail addresses within a two-day period. In addition, false or misleading headers and deceptive subject lines would be prohibited in all unsolicited commercial e-mail messages, whether or not sent in bulk.
Reduction in Distribution of Spam Act of 2003 (H.R. 2214)
The Reduction in Distribution of Spam Act of 2003 was introduced in May 2003 by Rep. Richard Burr, R-NC; cosponsors include Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-LA, and Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-WI. The bill would require all commercial e-mail messages to be identified as such (but not with a standard label, except for unsolicited sexually explicit messages), and to include the sender's physical address and an opt-out mechanism. It would prohibit the use of false or misleading headers in commercial messages. State laws that prohibit unsolicited commercial e-mail, regulate opt-out procedures, or require subject-line labels would be pre-empted; laws that merely regulate falsification of message headers would remain in effect.
Stop Pornography and Abusive Marketing Act (S. 1231)
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) introduced the Stop Pornography and Abusive Marketing Act, or "SPAM Act," in June 2003. The bill would establish a national "no-spam" registry, and make it unlawful to send unsolicited commercial messages to addresses on that list. The list would be administered by the FTC, using fees paid by marketers for access to the list. The FTC would be empowered to prohibit explicit commercial messages to minors even if they were not on the list. All unsolicited commercial messages would be required to use a label ("ADV:") at the beginning of the subject line, except those sent in compliance with an FTC-approved self-regulatory program. It would be illegal to send any commercial e-mail in violation of an Internet service provider's policies, or with a false or misleading subject line or message header, or to harvested addresses; all commercial messages would be required to include the sender's physical address.
Wireless Telephone Spam Protection Act (H.R. 122)
H.R. 122, introduced by Rep Rush D. Holt (D-NJ) in January 2003, would prohibit the use of wireless messaging systems to send unsolicited advertisements.