Teens Motocross
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Teens Motocross
Are Your Personal Websites Making Your Family Unsafe?
Families across the U.S. create personal websites for various reasons: family & friends, community, vacations, hobbies, a small business or just because it's fun to do. But many do not understand a personal website can also be a dangerous and vulnerable undertaking; unsafe for you and very unsafe for your family and home life.
The internet is a great resource for sharing ideas, documents, pictures and hobbies, it's also great for education, research, shopping and paying bills; just to name few. But that doesn't stop it from being a very dangerous place. The best approach to the Internet, World Wide Web, Cyberspace, Information Highway or whatever you call it is to remember to always treat it exactly as you would the real world.
In the real world there are things we've learned throughout our life to never do:
- Don't talk to strangers,
- Don't give personal info to strangers, such as phone numbers, addresses, here we work, school, our finances, to include credit cards, social security numbers, Checking and Savings Accounts,
- Don't give personal information about your family: parents, siblings, relatives,
- Don't agree to meet people you don't know,
- Don't give people your family's schedules and day to day activities and locations,
Unfortunately, this is exactly what people are doing on personal websites without giving it a second thought. Most view it as non-critical information and are just plain wrong. Remember, what is dangerous in the real world is also dangerous on the internet. I have a friend who has a home business and of course a website. This day and age it is prudent and makes good business sense to have a website, business cards and even flyers. But, here's the problem; just because you work at home does not mean you need to provide your home address on your websites, business cards, or flyers. This makes it easier for the would be antagonist; with your home information, an antagonist has all they need to began a reign of terror, stalking, or harassment.
Instead of a home address, get a P.O. Box in a very public location. Only entertain customers from people you know and trust and people they know and trust. J.A. Hitchcock, renowned author of the book, "Net Crimes & Misdemeanors" states in her book, net crimes and misdemeanors are committed against more than 200,000 people every year." The number is growing everyday, according to statistics from the FBI and victim advocate organizations. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Bad people are thriving in cyberspace as well as the real world.
Let' consider the family website -- You may recognize the ones I'm talking about, they say: here is a picture of our house, our car, our kids and neighborhood. If that isn't enough, let's pay homage to our favorite activities, softball, bowling, bridge, motocross, bingo, PTA, whatever the activity and let us tell you how often we do them and when. Folks, these are dangerous pieces of information to give anyone you don't know very well. Once again the antagonist has enough information to carry out multiple types of crimes against you and your family: ID theft, burglary, assault, vandalism, or worst. Let your imagination be your guide. It's happening everyday in every state and city.
The solution here is to keep your personal/private information to a minimum and only allow access to your personal websites to family members and very close friends. This can be done by the use of password protected sites. Here the user must submit an ID and password to access your content: whether its just personal/private information, personal schedules, pictures of the new baby, graduations, family reunions or whatever. Mr. and Mrs. Joe public don't need to know. The basics of such an intro page need only have your web page title or family name and maybe some non-specific graphics if you wish, not personal/private information. Once logged in, this is where you put your family pictures and anecdotes and of course make it look very appealing. However, still remember, "nothing is foolproof because fools are so ingenious". I recommend you still keep personal/private information to a very minimum as needed. If your site or website host does become compromised (hacked), the possible would be hacker or antagonist will only have a very limited amount of information. Besides, your family and close friends already know you; you don't need to give them any more personal information. Keep it that way.
How many of you are teaching your children about the dangers of the internet and monitoring their children while they're online? Children and adults are susceptible to the dangers of being online and it happens all too often; we here about it on the news, in our schools and neighborhoods. Once is too much. A child is picked up from school by a stranger they met online, or agrees to meet a stranger at some public location and from there things have gone terribly wrong or have had the potential to go wrong, but wrong none the less. These predators, smooth talkers, and stalkers are not your friends and they are not your children's friends. They are the enemy and we need to make it as difficult as possible for them to hurt us or our love ones. Don't be afraid to talk to your children about online safety and awareness. Don't be afraid to monitor your children's online habits; it may just be the thing that prevents them from becoming a statsitic, snatched or worse. The purchase of internet monitoring software is worth its weight in gold to protect a child's life and innocence. Definitely make the time to teach your family about online security and appropriateness. If you don't teach your family about the internet, you can be sure there is someone out there ready to teach your family all the wrong ways and practices, just like in the real world.
Completely abstaining from the Internet is not the answer; the internet is a great tool and resource. The answer is we need to be as vigilant as ever and remember to treat the Internet exactly like the real world. Understand, the same great resources we use to make our lives easier, are the same great resources bad people can use against us and our families: Google Maps, online chat services, reverse address lookup, reverse phone number lookup, and various other resources, just to name a few. Most of these sites don't require a fee for usage.
Other such resources to be wary of are social networking sites; sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Reunion. The sites are great for friends conversing with personal friends, associates and co-workers. However, that is usually not the case. Often the sites are open to any and eveybody and the information displayed can result in any number of unforgettable nightmares. This writers professional opinion is that this is one of the most dangerous resources yet to appear on the internet. Not because of its pro-social pandering of bringing people together, but because of it's user's careless use of personal information and disregeard for personal safety. Remember both you and your family need to understand what kinds of information not give out. Make a list for all family members to review and maybe even keep a copy beside the computer. Be vigilant, be aware.
These are just a few of the things to be aware of while online. The more aware you are the more prepared you are to recognize danger and take the necessary steps to be safe. A little awareness and study can help prevent a lot of the wrong events from happening and reduce the likelyhood of someone in your family becoming a statistic. The goal is not to allow ourselves to become singled out as targets.
Remember, "There is only a one letter difference between talker and stalker!"
There are a number of great books and websites available; see below:
Net Crimes and Misdemeanors, by J.A. Hitchcock, ISBN: 0-910965-72-2
50 Ways to Protect Your Identity & Your Credit, by Steve Weisman, ISBN: 9780131467590
WEBSITE: WHO@ Working to Halt Online Abuse - http://www.haltabuse.org/
About the Author
Kevin L. Johnson has worked in the field of system security and information systems since 1982. He’s worked with radio teletype systems, mainframes, personal computers (PC) and networked information systems; Local Area Networks (LAN), Wide Area Networks (WANS), as well as the World Wide Web (WWW), creating some of the first web sites for the US Air Force. He has honorably served well over 26 years of military service, working in both the Army National Guard and the United States Air Force. He’s programmed, built personal computers and workstations, produced technical solutions, troubleshot and managed LANs and WANS, and worked with some of the best IT professionals in the field. He has been a member of the IEEE Computer Society, HTML Guild, Black Data Processing Association (BDPA), and the International Association of Managers of Technology (IAMOT). He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and currently the owner and founder of Virtual Resource Systems.
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