Internet crime is up again—and substantially, at that—for 2009. This, of course, should come as no surprise; it is no secret that this plague is spreading farther and deeper by the hour.

And here’s another unsurprising piece of news: at the head of the pack, same as the last many years: Internet Commerce Fraud.

The FBI Numbers

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NWC3), recently released its 2009 figures on cybercrime complaints received and referred to law enforcement.

From January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009, the (IC3) Web site received 336,655 complaint submissions. This was a 22.3% increase over 2008 when 275,284 complaints were received. Of the 336,655 complaints submitted to IC3, 146,663 were referred to local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies around the country for further consideration.

The vast majority of referred cases contained elements of fraud and involved a financial loss by the complainant. The total dollar loss from all referred cases was $559.7 million with a median dollar loss of $575. This is up from $264.6 million in total reported losses in 2008, and is a 111.2% increase over the 2008 figures, a sad indication that Internet crime seems to pay.

Again, the numbers showed that crimes related to Internet commerce—which include Non-Delivery of Merchandise/Payments, Advance Fee Fraud, Overpayment Fraud, as well as Auction Fraud—were by far the most reported offense in 2009, comprising at they did 34.7% of all complaints (see Chart below).

The Top 10 Complaint Types—Definitions

FBI Scams—Scams in which it appears that the FBI is trying to get something from the complainant (e.g., money, identity information, etc.).
Advance Fee Fraud—An incident involving communications that would have people believe that to receive something, they must first pay money to cover some sort of incidental cost or expense.
ID Theft—An incident in which someone stole or tried to steal an identity (or identity information), but only when there is no other discernible crime involved (e.g., credit card theft).
Non-Delivery of Merchandise (non-auction)—An incident in which the complainant bought something, but it never arrived.
Overpayment Fraud—An incident in which the complainant receives an invalid monetary instrument, with instructions to deposit it in a bank account and to send excess funds or a percentage of the deposited money back to the sender
Miscellaneous Fraud—Incidents involving a fraudulent attempt to get the complainant to send money and where nothing is bought or sold.
SPAM—Unsolicited and unwelcome email, usually mass distributed.
Credit Card Fraud—An incident in which someone is attempting to charge goods and services to the complainant’s credit card or account.
Auction Fraud—A fraudulent transaction or exchange that occurs in the context of an online auction site.
Computer Damage—(Destruction/Damage/Vandalism of Property)– This category is used to classify complaints involving crimes that target and cause damage.

Buying and Selling Online

You can view the Internet as the largest garage sale ever, and still growing.

However, the problem with this garage sale is that you don’t know the seller (or the buyer). In a world of universal honesty and mutual trust, this would not be a problem, but, alas, this is not the world we live in (as evidenced by the new Internet crime figures above).

As a seller—whether you purchase on an online auction, or via an online classified such as Craigslist—your worry is whether the buyer will in fact pay, and that his or her check will not bounce.

As a buyer, your worry is whether the seller will indeed send you the item once the payment is received.

These problems are all too familiar in the area of high-ticket items such as real estate—whether online or not—and that is where (bona fide) escrow companies shine.

Internet Auctions

What far too many users fail to realize is that when something is purchased via an Internet auction, it is not bought from the auction house (say eBay, or Yahoo) but from an individual or company. The auction site—acting as a go-between—merely provides a forum where individuals can trade with one another, and it usually adopts—and prominently displays—a firm policy of washing their hands of legal responsibility for any loss suffered from using their service.

Once the bidding has concluded the payment for and delivery of the goods bought and sold is negotiated between the purchaser and seller. If the item is not delivered after it is paid for or is not what was represented on the auction site, the auction house will not refund any money. It is up to the buyer to approach the seller to negotiate a fair and proper settlement.

The statutory warranties that normally cover trade do not cover goods bought at on-line auction. The seller’s only obligation is to give clear title.

Therefore, keep the following in mind when dealing with on-line auctions, or whenever you buy anything online, especially from a private party:

Understand how the auction works, what your obligations are as a buyer, and what the seller’s obligations are before you bid;
Find out what actions the auction house will take if a problem occurs, and consider insuring the transaction and shipment;
Be aware that if a problem does occur with an auction transaction, it will be more difficult to resolve if the seller is located outside the United States—laws can differ widely country to country;
Learn as much as possible about the seller, especially if the only information you have is an e-mail address;
Before you make a payment for an auction purchase, you should verify the seller’s identity and contact details in case there is a problem with the delivery of the item;
Ask the seller when delivery can be expected and whether the merchandise is covered by warranty if you need to exchange it;
Use registered or certified mail to enable tracing; this will eliminate claims that the parcel was sent but must have been “lost in the mail;”
Check that the auction account information matches email, phone number and any bank account and location information;
Use auction house feedback forums to check out the seller’s history before agreeing to pay any money. Please note however, that sellers sometimes post positive feedback on themselves or organize other people to do so on their behalf.

And here is the most important advice of all:

If you have any doubts about the integrity of an on-line auction seller—and even if you’re not: use an escrow agent. An escrow agent or company is an independent third party, which holds payment in trust until the buyer receives and accepts the item from the seller. While this service does incur a fee, it protects the buyer because the third party will hold the money until the goods have been received in good condition, inspected, and accepted; and only then released to the seller.

Internet Escrow

The principle and process of Internet escrow is the same as with buying and selling real estate—where, of course, the escrow company is deemed indispensible due to the amounts involved.

The buyer or seller opens an account with the online escrow company;
The prospective buyer of an item sends payment by wire transfer, check or credit card to the escrow company;
The escrow company verifies that the funds indeed do exist, or that the buyer is who he represents himself to be and is in possession of the credit card used;
Once this checks out, the escrow company asks the seller to ship the merchandise;
Merchandise is shipped, and seller submits tracking information;
Once the shipping site shows the merchandise as delivered the escrow company double checks to ensure the buyer has the goods in hand;
The buyer now has an agreed-upon amount of time to either accept the goods or return it to the seller;
Once accepted by the buyer, the escrow company releases the funds to the seller, less any processing fees and commissions.

Straightforward enough. If, that is, you are dealing with a legitimate online escrow company.

Internet Escrow Fraud

But the world, as we know, likes to throw us curves; and in this instance in the curve comes in the guise of escrow fraud.

Handling, as it does, substantial amounts of money, the escrow company is often itself a target of fraud—where look-alike phishing sites try to con you into using them rather than the bona fide site; and the escrow company concept itself is also flagrantly abused by criminals who set up fraudulent escrow sites where money will only travel one-way: you guessed it, away from you.

In fact, the problem of fake on-line escrow sites is so substantial that some reputable and legitimate escrow sites have simply thrown in the towel.

Buyer Guardian, for example, some time ago shut its doors due to Internet fraud stealing their business, and posted the following note on their site: “We are sad to report that after careful and lengthy consideration we have made the decision to cease operations at BuyerGuardian.com. This is a very difficult decision, and one that is made primarily due to the rapid growth of online escrow fraud.”

Many of these apparently bona fide escrow companies, established for the sole purpose of enriching the criminal, are set up off-shore—predominantly in Russia or China—where lax cyber crime laws (and sometimes questionable cooperation with U.S. Authorities) makes it more difficult to shut the sites down and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Enter: Escrow.com

Actually, Escrow.com entered this fray nearly ten years ago during the dot-com boom and has over the years shown itself to be the online escrow company to turn to for secure and fraud-less auction and other online sales/purchase transactions—with the credentials and staying power to prove it.

Licensed by the state of California—as well as by the States of Idaho and Arizona, who require separate licenses—Escrow.com is the only on-line escrow company credentialed to serve every state of the Union, and who indeed does so 24/7.

While Escrow.com will handle transactions of any size, it may not make financial sense to turn to them for low cost items since their transaction fee is $25, and their commission is $63 per $1,000 value of the transaction if payment is by credit card and $32.50 per $1,000 for wire transfers.

But, if you value your sleep, Escrow.com would be indispensible for any transaction of $250 on up.

Peace of Mind

Michigan-based telecomclassifiedads.com, which buys and sells expensive telecommunication switching equipment concurs, would not, according to Mickey Fivenson, complete any online transactions without Escrow.com.

“I use Escrow.com for all my equipment transactions, and without them I would not be in business. It’s as simple as that.

“I deal with buyers and sellers on a daily basis who do not know each other and who live in different parts of the world. Escrow.com is the only way I can complete a transaction between them.

“As a result, after five years of doing business through Escrow.com I have never had anything but satisfied customers.”

Dave Kurko of RPM Auto Wholesale in Pleasant Hill, CA could not agree more:

“Escrow.com provides a safety net for both seller and buyer, delivering certainty in an uncertain world.

“Most people understand the concept of escrow, particularly if they have bought and sold real estate in a jurisdiction that uses an escrow company rather than an attorney to settle a real estate transaction; in fact, we have modeled our transaction on the real estate transaction. Escrow.com has made this approach not only possible but also very effective.

“They are also very customer centric, and thanks to their tech support we have been able to integrate opening an escrow account with them into our own web-hosted application, allowing our CRM software to talk directly to their database over a secure link.

“Really, they’re the only game in town. We’ve searched other companies, and nobody else measures up.”

Escrow.com—The Detective

While Escrow.com is gaining increasing recognition as the Internet escrow company to turn to for peace of e-commerce mind, their staff, on a daily basis, also hunt and diligently work to shut down fraudulent impostors, which are encountered daily.

And they spring up like mushrooms, these impostors: there are days that Escrow.com staff discovers as many as ten new such sites.

A clever fraud specimen can be found (if they are still up at time of print) at guard-escrow.com, which uses a common fraudulent escrow template (to date, according to Escrow-Fraud.com, it has been used 336 times). You certainly cannot fault these criminals for lack of slick designs.

The good news is that as these sites are tracked down, authorities are alerted and the sites are soon off the air.

eBay Weighs In

To quote the biggest auction site of them all, eBay:

Pay safely – beware of fake escrow services when you consider using them to pay for your eBay item.

For eBay transactions, you should use eBay’s only approved Escrow Company: www.escrow.com.

To avoid being deceived by fraudulent email from a fake escrow service, you should visit the escrow service’s Web site to verify information you received via email.

Make sure you type the entire Web address (for example, www.escrow.com) into your Web browser. Don’t let your Web browser auto-complete the Web address for you. It could mistakenly auto-complete a fraudulent Web address.

Escrow.com—The Household Name

More importantly, however, as Escrow.com gains further and further recognition on its way to become a household name, it gets harder and harder for impostors to defraud the public for the excellent reason that they are not Escrow.com—the only name you know you can trust.

Here’s to peace of mind and a good night’s sleep.

Are you the parent of a child or a teen who uses the internet? If you are, there is a good chance that you use Internet Explorer for your browser, as it comes standard on most computers. The good news is that if you are using Internet Explorer, which has the blue colored e icon, it is easy for you to set parental controls. These parental controls can block your child from viewing dangerous content online.

As nice as it is to hear that you can limit the websites that your child or teenager gains access to online, you may be curious as to how you can go about doing so. As it was previously stated, the process is relatively easy. Outlined below are a few steps to help get you started.

1 – Open a new Internet Explorer window. You can do this by clicking on that blue e icon that was mentioned above.

2 – Click on “Tools,” from the drop down menu bar at the top of the page.

3 – Click on “Internet Options,” and a new smaller window will appear.

4 – Click on the “Content,” tab, as this is where you are able to set the controls.

5 – Under the heading of “Content Advisor,” you will see an enable button, click on it and a new window will appear.

By following the above mentioned steps, you should get the point where you are able to enter in your preferences. You may first want to start with the ratings. Click on the “Ratings,” tab.

When using the ratings feature that is provided through Internet Explorer, you will see at least four main headings, which include language, sex, nudity, and violence. You are able to determine what can be viewed on your computer based on levels. For example, Level 1 for violence is fighting, Level 2 is killing, Level 3 is blood and gore, and so forth. Remember that you can readjust these ratings at any point in time.

If you use the internet safety rating features that are provided by Internet Explorer, it is important to know that some sites can innocently be blocked. For example, a site that simply mentions the words “violence,” or “kill,” may be blocked, even if they are not violent websites. For that reason, you may need to make some adjustments. This can easily be done by clicking on the “Approved Sites,” tab.

When you click on the “Approved Sites,” tab you are able to enter in the websites that you would like to have viewable. This feature is nice to have if your child or teenager is using a family computer, like one that you and your spouse may also use. It addition to listing approved sites, you can also list the websites that you want to never make viewable. This is ideal if you are prohibiting your child from using a social networking website, like MySpace.

Aside from adding the websites that you and other adults in your household view to the approved sites list, you can also use a password. You can create a password for your computer and the parental controls by click on the “General,” tab. Create a password that is easy for you and the rest of the adults in your household to remember, but one that is hard enough that your child or teen can’t figure out themselves. In fact, do not give your child the password. An adult in your home can use it if they ask to have a safe site unblocked.

As you can see, it is relatively easy to protect your child online with the use of internet safety tools when using Internet Explorer. The many options that you have are also nice. Since the above mentioned tools and features are free for you to use, why not at least give them a try? If you are not using Internet Explorer, but rather another browser, like FireFox, you should be able to take similar steps to block potentially harmful or dangerous content from your internet using child.

Does Nigeria Need Re-branding?

By Gbenga Kayode

“If Nigeria dissolves into the ocean today, … what do you think the international world would miss?” Sounds puzzling and somewhat embarrassing to answer? Your response to this poser may be right or wrong, depending on how passionate you are about Nigeria and your honest perception of the country as an active yet currently less-respected member of the international community.

The seemingly confusing question was posed to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a leading Information and Communications Technology training firm based in Ikeja, Lagos, by one of his American friends during a business trip to the United States recently. 

According to the company’s Chief Executive, who is an alumnus of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife; University of Witwatersrand, South Africa; Lagos Business School; and IMD, a leading business school in Europe, during a media chat with this writer, he confessed that he simply drew a blank, as he felt embarrassed about what exactly he should tell his friend on what the world would miss if, Nigeria, the fondly called “most populous Black nation” and “Giant of Africa” should slide into the Atlantic ocean today.

Racking his brain about how to tackle the unexpected poser thrown at him, the company executive revealed that he was damn shamefacedly speechless on the spot. He disclosed that he actually, was torn between two extremes, whether to answer his American friend’s question, that the global community, peradventure, would miss Nigerian Oil, huge population, corruption in high places, youth-oriented cybercrime (Yahoo Yahoo syndrome), reputation for bad governance, 419, election rigging, money-laundering, illegal immigration, biting poverty, maternal mortality, decaying public infrastructure, or keeping mute without a word in response at all.

More so, one believes his was only an instance among several other cases involving which specific area(s) of life Nigeria effortlessly, earns the reputation and respect of other players in the international system. Many Nigerians who have travelled far and wide across the globe in recent years do relive tales of woe as regards shabby treatment and outright persecution in some cases by the immigration officials at certain points of entry into a number of countries.

Nonetheless, there is no individual or group that can dispute the world-class, impactful, and constructive contributions of Nigerians, young and old, male or female, in several areas of human endeavour to the advancement of humanity thus far. Mention outstanding human contributions to the fields of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), Sciences, Medicine, Entertainment, Arts and Culture, Finance, and Scholarship in the international system today, one cannot but feel delighted at hearing or reading about sterling feats being accomplished by such worthy Nigerian ambassadors both at home and abroad.

But then, do all these unique achievements overshadow the vile things few Nigerians have continued to do either deliberately or otherwise to soil the image of the country in the eyes of the world? No. Rather, most members of the international world prefer to dwell on the negative traits being exhibited by these few unpatriotic Nigerians, by labelling the nation with all sorts of misnomers. Whoever is still in doubt about the urgency of the need to put our house in order as a nation and do something about the way the world perceives Nigeria and Nigerians should endeavour to read or listen to the deliberate, slanted reportage of Nigerian socio-political life in the foreign media, including online news platforms and discussion fora.

There is, therefore, no doubt that Nigeria actually needs what is known as country branding, put differently as “Nigeria Rebranding Project”, a programme initiated by Prof. Dora Akunyili, OFR, Honourable Minister for Information and Communications. This becomes necessary, at least against the backdrop of the global distaste against Nigerians, as instigated by the highly embarrassing and controversial movie, District 9, released in 2009, which was later banned by the Nigerian authorities.

Cheerless to recall though, pundits have said the movie was simply a metaphor for the supposed crass ineptitude manifesting in a life of want, scarcity, inflation, corruption, mixed blessings, darkness, horrible financial lending terms for businesses, dodging kidnappers, among other warped thematic preoccupations of the film producers.

Even long before the unfortunate and utterly unprecedented incident, involving a young Nigerian, 23-year-old Faruq Abdulmutallab, son of the immediate past Chairman of the First Bank of Nigeria Plc, who attempted to blow up an American airline, Delta in Detroit, United States December 25, 2009, the country’s reputation, comparatively, was at its low ebb, despite that many Nigerians have helped, and still do to create a better world on different continents of the world.

The potentially destructive incident jolted certain Nigerians, who hitherto had probably thought there was no need for any rebranding efforts by the present Administration to the reality that the country had received yet, an impactful bash on its battered image in the eyes of the world. Since there purportedly, was no clear-cut official response on suicide bombing attempt from the Federal Government, largely induced by absence of late President Yar’Adua, who incidentally travelled to Saudi Arabia on a medical trip, moments after the incident was broached to the global community, before the country could actually comprehend the enormity of the crisis in its hands, the United States instantaneously, gave Nigeria a damned verdict by adding it to the unenviable list of terrorist nations to be closely monitored and placed under surveillance at all times.

It, therefore, would be an understatement to say that Nigeria currently needs to redeem its image and consequently boost its national profile in the comity of nations, particularly because of the many benefits attached to doing so.

On the imperative need to take the Nigeria Re-branding Project serious by a broad spectrum of the Nigerian society while highlighting its crucial importance in achieving Vision 20-2020, a concerned Nigerian, of recent, expressed his feeling this way: “If we remain the way we are today, we will not make it. Unfortunately, right now we don’t even believe in ourselves. And how can you become one of the 20 biggest economies when you don’t have that belief in your country?”

He further contented that Nigerians have not even been able to define themselves to the world, in that leading media platforms in the Western world tend to talk or write about the country with horrible descriptions “as if all Nigerians are mere brutes living in jungles.”

“Most of the time people define us to the world the way they want it. We have not strategically used any platform in the past to tell the world those positive things that Nigeria has been doing and is still doing,” he retorted.

Granted that Nigeria, in 2004, had attempted to launder its image, starting from foreign lands, but the effort resulted in marginal or no success, as it was supposed to have been disappointingly executed. Some had alleged that the project at the time was deployed as a conduit pipe for diverting public funds into private pockets.

However, bearing in mind the eternal truth inherent in the aphorism that “Charity begins at home”, the current endeavour kicked off by Dora Akunyili-led Ministry of Information and Communications seems to be different at least in a significant way. The chief anchor of the programme had pointedly declared thus: “We rather believe that we should tackle the problem from within rather than from outside.”

For instance, in “The Africa Report”, published by starafrica.com, in July 2009, it was contended that Nigeria has not strategically used any platform in the past to tell the world those positive things that Nigeria has been doing and is still doing. “Or are there not outstanding things happening here that we can showcase to the world?” the report queries. One believes there are! That is why the report emphatically, urges Nigeria “to tell the world what we have here in Nigeria, or generally positive stories about Nigeria that can command an international audience and responsibly manage our negatives.”

It’s instructive that Nigerians should not just relax and assume that if they try at all, things won’t work as expected; it only means silence, some say, is acquiescence to how the nation is perceived and addressed by outsiders. Realistically, based on previous similar experiences, any attempt at re-branding Nigeria, ordinarily, cannot but receive some measure of criticisms, but the fact still remains that if the citizenry continue to listen such people who have continued to say “Nigerians are criminals, fraudsters, 419ers, a country where nothing works, election riggers, and cybercriminals”, among other derogatory appellations, and do nothing to restore our national dignity, pride, and good, age-long value system, it means that we have accepted it all the same.

While recognising the fact that certain players in Corporate Nigeria are already indentifying with the Re-branding Nigeria Project, truth still be told, that all other stakeholders in the Nigerian enterprise ought to be involved in the crusade to re-orientate Nigerians in this regard.

Aside from the Ministry of Information and Communications as the initiator of the re-branding project and its major media organs, other key Government agencies, departments and parastatals which should take the lead in ensuring the needed re-branding awareness programmes are created, planned and executed accordingly include the National Orientation Agency and Ministry of Foreign Affairs among others.

And, if we deliberately, work together as a nation towards shoring up our national image and profile, what else do we stand to gain? Very many benefits, of course. Apart from gaining improved international goodwill, experts believe that for companies, the figures becomeeven higher, often running into hundreds of millions of Dollars or Pounds. Potential investors as well would be encouraged to invest in Nigeria. Just as they would be assured of the security of their investments, the rate of returns will soar, as against the frustrating factors compelling a number of foreign investors to relocate to neighbouring nations to continue in business in recent times.

It is an incontestable fact that investors’ decisions invariably, will continue to be influenced by a combination of the political, social and economic stability of a country in question. Nigeria is not an exception. Even in terms of achieving a marked boost in tourism investment in any country, Randall Frost (2004) supported this reality when he wrote that “there’s no arguing that the image we have of another country says a lot about how we view it as a tourist destination, a place to invest or a source of consumer goods.”

Comparing it with such concepts as products and services branding, country branding, according to Uche Nworah in his article, “Nigeria as a Brand”, is the “process whereby a country actively seeks to create a unique and competitive identity for itself, with the aim of positioning the country internally and internationally as a good destination for trade, tourism and investments.”

In this regard, countries such as South Africa on our continent among others, Nworah maintains, have already succeeded in attracting businesses and tourists to their countries as a result of carefully managed country branding programmes.

Similarly, for other Nigerians as individuals, groups, and professional associations, everyone is encouraged to do his or her best: if you are a teacher, teach well; as a commissioner, commission well; as an accountant, account well; as a governor, govern well; as a learner, learn well; and as a leader, lead well, and whatever it is that you do, just do it well to the best of your ability. Why? This is because we will all benefit when we do things right, but it begins with you. 

On the whole, according to Seo Ogbonmwan, in a piece published in Nigerian Tribune, he posited: “Saying the truth means sincerity or constancy of action, character and utterance and, such truth bearers deserve our respect…. They should stand firm, because a man’s life consists, not of the abundance of his earthly possessions, but by what he/she has positively contributed to society.”

 Gbenga Kayode, a media and communication professional, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

Children’s Web Safety

Kelly Staller

Copyright(c) 2007 StarReviews.com

The Web is a resource for endless information, but it is also home to lurking predators who may wish to prey on innocent children. Parents used to let their kids play outside after school without fear of kidnapping or sexual offenders. However, the on wrought of the Internet and MySpace have parents fearing the worst; where predators can mask as 17-year-old boys who just want to “talk.”

Luckily, there is parental control software available to ease parents’ fears of their children’s Internet encounters. Many software programs offer screen captures, chat and IM logs, foul-language filters and blocks on inappropriate Websites.

It is in every family’s best interests to compare parental internet control software to reduce the risk of Internet predation. Every parent’s worst nightmare is to let their child become part of the frightening statistics surfacing today:

ProtectKids.org has reported:

• 75% of children are willing to share personal information online about themselves and their family in exchange for goods and services.-eMarketer

• About 25% of the youth who encountered a sexual approach or solicitation told a parent.-Youth Internet Safety Survey

• 77% of the targets for online predators were age 14 or older. Another 22% were users ages 10 to 13.-Crimes Against Children Research Center

• Only 17 percent of youth and 11 percent of parents could name a specific authority, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)-Youth Internet Safety Survey

It is apparent that these statistics indicate the necessity of guarding one’s child from the dangers on the Net. While parents can educate their youngsters about some of them, even the most cautious can be fooled by an experienced predator’s tactics.

When allowing children to surf the Web, it is best to purchase parental control software, allowing kids to maintain a sense of independence while being monitored at the same time. Keep your children safe and keep in mind the pro’s and con’s of the global Web.

Today, many people rely on computers to do homework, work, and create or store useful information. Therefore, it is important for the information on the computer to be stored and kept properly. It is also extremely important for people on computers to protect their computer from data loss, misuse, and abuse. For example, it is crucial for businesses to keep information they have secure so that hackers can’t access the information. Home users also need to take means to make sure that their credit card numbers are secure when they are participating in online transactions. A computer security risk is any action that could cause lost of information, software, data, processing incompatibilities, or cause damage to computer hardware, a lot of these are planned to do damage. An intentional breach in computer security is known as a computer crime which is slightly different from a cypercrime. A cybercrime is known as illegal acts based on the internet and is one of the FBI’s top priorities. There are several distinct categories for people that cause cybercrimes, and they are refereed as hacker, cracker, cyberterrorist, cyberextortionist, unethical employee, script kiddie and corporate spy. The term hacker was actually known as a good word but now it has a very negative view. A hacker is defined as someone who accesses a computer or computer network unlawfully. They often claim that they do this to find leaks in the security of a network. The term cracker has never been associated with something positive this refers to someone how intentionally access a computer or computer network for evil reasons. It’s basically an evil hacker. They access it with the intent of destroying, or stealing information. Both crackers and hackers are very advanced with network skills. A cyberterrorist is someone who uses a computer network or the internet to destroy computers for political reasons. It’s just like a regular terrorist attack because it requires highly skilled individuals, millions of dollars to implement, and years of planning. The term cyperextortionist is someone who uses emails as an offensive force. They would usually send a company a very threatening email stating that they will release some confidential information, exploit a security leak, or launch an attack that will harm a company’s network. They will request a paid amount to not proceed sort of like black mailing in a since. An unethical employee is an employee that illegally accesses their company’s network for numerous reasons. One could be the money they can get from selling top secret information, or some may be bitter and want revenge. A script kiddie is someone who is like a cracker because they may have the intentions of doing harm, but they usually lack the technical skills. They are usually silly teenagers that use prewritten hacking and cracking programs. A corporate spy has extremely high computer and network skills and is hired to break into a specific computer or computer network to steal or delete data and information. Shady companies hire these type people in a practice known as corporate espionage. They do this to gain an advantage over their competition an illegal practice. Business and home users must do their best to protect or safeguard their computers from security risks. The next part of this article will give some pointers to help protect your computer. However, one must remember that there is no one hundred percent guarantee way to protect your computer so becoming more knowledgeable about them is a must during these days. When you transfer information over a network it has a high security risk compared to information transmitted in a business network because the administrators usually take some extreme measures to help protect against security risks. Over the internet there is no powerful administrator which makes the risk a lot higher. If your not sure if your computer is vulnerable to a computer risk than you can always use some-type of online security service which is a website that checks your computer for email and Internet vulnerabilities. The company will then give some pointers on how to correct these vulnerabilities. The Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center is a place that can do this. The typical network attacks that puts computers at risk includes viruses, worms, spoofing, Trojan horses, and denial of service attacks. Every unprotected computer is vulnerable to a computer virus which is a potentially harming computer program that infects a computer negatively and altering the way the computer operates without the user’s consent. Once the virus is in the computer it can spread throughout infecting other files and potentially damaging the operating system itself. It’s similar to a bacteria virus that infects humans because it gets into the body through small openings and can spread to other parts of the body and can cause some damage. The similarity is, the best way to avoid is preparation. A computer worm is a program that repeatedly copies itself and is very similar to a computer virus. However the difference is that a virus needs o attach itself to an executable file and become a part of it. A computer worm doesn’t need to do that I seems copies to itself and to other networks and eats up a lot of bandwidth. A Trojan Horse named after the famous Greek myth and is used to describe a program that secretly hides and actually looks like a legitimate program but is a fake. A certain action usually triggers the Trojan horse, and unlike viruses and worms they don’t replicate itself. Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses are all classifies as malicious-logic programs which are just programs that deliberately harms a computer. Although these are the common three there are many more variations and it would be almost impossible to list them. You know when a computer is infected by a virus, worm, or Trojan horse if one or more of these acts happen:

Screen shots of weird messages or pictures appear.

You have less available memory then you expected

Music or sounds plays randomly.

Files get corrupted

Programs are files don’t work properly

Unknown files or programs randomly appear

System properties fluctuate

Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses deliver their payload or instructions through four common ways. One, when an individual runs an infected program so if you download a lot of things you should always scan the files before executing, especially executable files. Second, is when an individual runs an infected program. Third, is when an individual bots a computer with an infected drive, so that’s why it’s important to not leave media files in your computer when you shut it down. Fourth is when it connects an unprotected computer to a network. Today, a very common way that people get a computer virus, worm, or Trojan horse is when they open up an infected file through an email attachment. There are literally thousands of computer malicious logic programs and new one comes out by the numbers so that’s why it’s important to keep up to date with new ones that come out each day. Many websites keep track of this. There is no known method for completely protecting a computer or computer network from computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses, but people can take several precautions to significantly reduce their chances of being infected by one of those malicious programs. Whenever you start a computer you should have no removable media in he drives. This goes for CD, DVD, and floppy disks. When the computer starts up it tries to execute a bot sector on the drives and even if it’s unsuccessful any given various on the bot sector can infect the computer’s hard disk. If you must start the computer for a particular reason, such as the hard disk fails and you are trying to reformat the drive make sure that the disk is not infected.