Three kinds of Internet security issues that are the topic of conversation; Unauthorized access, back doors and loopholes and, the potential threat of confidential information sent over the internet can be viewed (Scott, 1998). There are several ways you can become a victim of these issues. Email, browsing, shopping or banking and chat rooms are a potential threat for your security.

Email can be a type of security issue. America Online, Inc. was forced to admit that

Attachments and links in an email can cause potential problems. They can be used to deliver mail-borne viruses. You should check with the person who sent you the attachment to see if it is from a valid source. If you can’t be careful! Attachments and links also come in SPAM. SPAM in all that junk mail you receive from mass mailings. In most reputable email software and services they provide helpful SPAM filtering. Some of these services include America Online, MSN, Hotmail and Microsoft Outlook 2000. But be careful because not all mail filters that can be used by the proceeding companies can ward off a new mail worm attack.

Chat rooms or the use of an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and instant messages can be threatening. This puts you in the position to be in direct contact with the hacker or virus sender. Not only that, you are instantly giving everyone your email address and you are invisible like the rest of the people in them. It is very difficult for a person engaged in a chat room discussion to tell if there are other people lurking in the chat room listening to the conversation in hopes to pick up some extra information. Your vulnerability to this is extremely high because of the ability to send and receive direct messages.

Goods should be purchased over a secure site with SSL technology or secure sockets layer. This is a layer of encrypted connections so the information you put in can only be accessed by the merchant’s electronic commerce system. This insures that your information is being shielded from prying eyes. An icon of a padlock or a key will appear in the border of your browser, indicating you connection is secure (Microsoft, 2001). The same information is true for online banking and brokers. If it is not secure, it’s not safe. Finally, be sure that you use strong passwords or passwords containing letters and numbers. Most passwords must be six to nine characters long to be able to be saved in the service you are using. If your online banker or broker doesn’t use this consider changing services to a more secure one.

Browsing can cause a major catastrophe in your life. Browsing can lead you into potential harmful sites. A public Web server and its clients may exist within and many different domains on the Internet. You can be lead to giving away information about your self and not even realize it or hackers can obtain the information. Many Web sites use tiny computer programs called cookies. Cookies are passive data structures that can’t be larger than 4K. They are delivered to the client, stored on the client’s hard drive, and can be read only by the Web site that sent them. Once a Web site has sent a cookie to a system, it can track the recipient’s movements through the site. When one returns to the site later, it knows that the client has been there before (Dyck, 2000). Cookies also allow Web site owners to create user p

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