John Locke said that no one ought to harm another in his life, health,
liberty, or possessions, Yet as I sit here at my computer this morning, I get
the feeling that the attempts being made to keep the Internets safe will not
come to fruition soon.
Yes, I can hear you saying, dont be such a
downer, Doug
Well, hear me out.
Lets explore John Lockes quote shall we?
Life. Yours, mine, your loved
ones. Its yours, to do with what you will. Well, sometimes your will is to use
the Internets. But how secure are you? Is your AntiVirus, AntiSpyware and
Firewall working and up to date? Do you know what is a Spam email is and not to
click on the URL they provide? These decisions can affect your life if you are
online.
Next, Liberty or as I prefer to think of, Freedom. To have
access to particular resources without constraint. If online threats are making
your life hectic, would you consider your rights violated? I would if I found
out that some drive by download had installed a keylogger on my computer and
then cleaned out my bank account. Or how about while youre trying to conduct
business online and you keep getting these awful pop=ups telling you about the
sale at Harveys Fish Emporium.
Are your Liberties/ Freedoms being
constrained yet?
Now we come to the best part, the pursuit of
Spyware. Ok, so John Locke didnt say anything about Spyware, Write your own
article, this ones mine!
Threats to our online safety are growing in
leaps and bounds by the day. I learned long ago, there is always someone out
there who is better than anyone previously. The attacks on servers, the Bot
networks, the phishing, the URL re-directs, Keyloggers, Image Spam, it just goes
on and on. Your personal information is at risk every minute you are
online.
I know, you have the best AntiVirus, AntiSpyware, and
Firewall there is. But is it really? How do you know? When was the last time you
ran Hijack This and uploaded the results to a help Forum like MajorGeeks,
Bleeping Computer or DaniWeb? Its the only way to make sure your computer is
clean. And theres no guarantee it wont become re-infected two minutes after you
leave the Forum.I know it happens because I frequent these Forums and I see
hundreds of freaked users pleading for help. Many are repeat
submitters.
Which brings me to the whole purpose of this article.
To bring into the spotlight those out there who fight everyday to help keep us
safe. They sit at their computers for hours at a time, examining postings in
Forums to help others they dont even know stay out of the clutches of those who
would benefit from the misfortune of others.
Ever get that feeling
of helplessness that comes when your computer wont work right.
Remember? Not fun huh? These people read your postings and know your pain.
Its hard to do this also, they have to help you fix your computer thru posting
instructions for you to do. Miscommunication and frustrations can cause it to
take longer and compound the repairs.
Then there are the
organizations that go after the meanies that cause your pain.
They put
out alerts and issue fixes. These include The Alliance of Security Analysis
Professionals, The Anti-Spyware Coalition, The Council of Advocates for Relief
from Malware Assimilation, The Spamhaus Project, just to name a few. There are
plenty more out there that are fighting the good fight every day. The goal is a
communication arena where all can participate without concern of malicious
intent.
Kind of like the old days when the Internet first
existed.
Back then there were Hackers. They were mostly driven by
ego and competition to see who was the best. Now its mostly about money. Legions
of Bot captured computers sending out Spam and ads going to millions and
millions of unprotected servers, computers and of course, into your email.
Theres also the Pharming of websites, waiting like a spider in its lair for you
to show up and give you a lil driveby download of something special. You name
the evil that people do and you can find it online. Thank goodness the goodness
of the Internets is on the other side of the scale.
So, the
solution? Make another one and try again? I dont have the answer, I do know
that there are good people out there who want safety for all and are making a
good show of it. They deserve our thanks.
I believe there is alway
bad that comes with the good. A balance or whatever. And like the other saying
goes, Retaining Freedom for all requires constant vigilance.
So be
vigilant.
