The Malware Mafia and Associates, Phisher and Scammer.  Its a jungle out there……

 

 

Every day it seems like there’s a new announcement of a hacker attack on some prominent web site or another.  It’s certainly enough to make you feel nervous, and so you should.  I think this sort of stuff is one of the scariest aspects of the Web community, but, if you want to broaden your horizons, you have to travel.

 

There are some simple things you can do to help protect yourself from the onslaught.  Never open e-mails from an unknown source, never open emails purporting to be from someone you know and inviting you to click on a link. These can be the scammers disguising themselves as people they have stolen the identity from. Never open or respond to emails saying they are from your bank, the banks never send you emails, but the phishers certainly do. Delete immediately, and then delete from the “delete” file, too.  Black listing these emails also seems to work into the future.  There are lots more tips from various sources, and I hope someone will post some.  We need all the help we can get!! 

 

And just who are these body snatchers of the 21^st Century?  What do they want your identity for?  They could be anyone, from a government sticky-beaking into your private computing, a foreign country sponsored techno-terror group, or just the ordinary run-of-the mill thieves. 

 

“Lions and tigers and bears, oh my” cried Dorothy (from the movie The Wizard of Oz).  And how right she was..  As she walked along the Yellow Brick Road to Oz, there certainly were lions and tigers and bears in the forest, but this a walk in the park compared with  the hackers, phishers and scammers waiting for you  along today’s virtual Yellow Brick Road.  I wish there were just lions, tigers and bears out there, hiding and watching, and not the Malware Mafia waiting to get their claws into you.

 

I get most of my up-to-date techno-info from the BBC programme “Click”.  Just go to the BBC News.