Online Predators - How to Protect Your Children on the Internet

Online communication is an important aspect of the Internet.

Online communication can be established on the web by various tools, all falling under the generic name - social software.

Social software covers a range of software and technologies used by Internet users to interact with each other. It covers different means of online communication techniques such as text messaging, voice communication and video in diverse Internet environments. Social software includes: email, IM (=Instant Message), P2P (=Peer-to-Peer networks), newsgroups, chatrooms, forums, blogs, social network services, virtual worlds etc.

When you use online communication you have the ability to choose how you want to present yourself in a specific situation. Online communication allows you to be open about who you are, be anonymous or make up a new persona. This aspect has a major affect on the authenticity of online relationships.

Anonymous online communication holds serious risk factors for children. They can easily become victims of abuse by individuals communicating with them due to lack of mature judgment skills. Sometimes they are not able to interpret the nature of the relationship correctly and can be misled, bullied, abused or fall victim to scams and ploys.

Child predators take advantage of the anonymity in online communication and target unsuspecting children usually for sexual or other abusive purposes.

In order for parents to protect their children from such predators, they should become involved in their children's web activities and learn how to recognize a problematic online relationship.

How Do Child Predators Work?

Child predators use the anonymous nature of online communication in order to contact children and gradually seduce them into an online relationship. This relationship might end in sexual abuse.

They use various forms of online communication, such as, IM, chatrooms, forums, newsgroups, and virtual worlds to target potential victims.

Child predators invest a lot of effort in targeting and seducing children into a relationship. They often pose as children. They are knowledgeable in children's popular hobbies and interests. They seduce children by giving them attention, affection, understanding, kindness and sometimes gifts. They try to target vulnerable kids who crave for attention and affection.

Who Is Vulnerable?

All children that use the Internet are at risk. It is more likely that children will be exposed to unsuitable material than encounter an online predator, but the outcome of such encounters is so severe that parents can not be indifferent to this issue. Although all children are at risk, young adolescents are the most vulnerable age group due to the specific characteristics of this age group. Children in this age group usually have good technological and language abilities that allow them to surf freely without adult help. They are frequent users of social software such as, IM (=Instant Message) , P2P (=Peer-to-Peer networks), social network services and newsgroups.

On the other hand, they lack the maturity and experience to help them understand the content that they encounter when surfing. They can easily misinterpret an online relationship, especially one which engages an adult with ulterior motives.

-They want to be free of their parents' control and to gain respect as grown-ups.
-They explore their sexuality and have the desire to socialize.
-They are in the rebellious phase of their lives and try to establish relationships outside the family. Child predators are well aware of these facts and exploit them.

Victims of child predators might be:

• Seeking attention and affection.
• New on the Internet scene and unaware of web ethics.
• Lacking in social skills in the real world.
• Unpopular in their social circle.
• Rebellious.
• Confused regarding their sexual identity.
• Naïve and unsophisticated in comparison to their age group.

What Can Parents Do to Protect Their Children?

• Show an interest in your children's Internet activities. Nothing can be as effective as good communication when discussing means to protect them in the cyber world. Don't be judgmental. Try to understand their experiences and understand their frustration expressed against your efforts to manage their Internet use.
• Be a role model. Direct your children to appropriate websites that could be of interest to them. Teach your children web ethics and explain to them about the threats exist on the Internet.
• Become Internet savvy. If you have knowledge about services and applications that are available on the Internet, you will be more effective when guiding your children.
• Supervise your children when they use the Internet. If you have young children, make sure that the PC they are using is in a family space.
• Define clear guidelines for your children for Internet use. You can define an Internet use policy. Place the use policy near the PC that they use to keep the rules visible at all times.
• Much in the same way you educate your children not to talk to strangers in the real world, educate them not to communicate with strangers online. Instruct your children not to answer IM or emails from people they don't know.
• Young children should not use social software such as: chatrooms, IM, newsgroups, forums and so on. The risks far outweigh the benefits. As for young adolescents and adolescents, make sure that they only use monitored children's chatrooms, newsgroups or forums. Instruct your children never to leave the public chatroom area. (Chatrooms usually offer the option of a private chat were the conversation is not monitored and can not be seen by others).
• Don't allow your children to meet with Internet friends in person without your approval and supervision.
• Don't allow your children to use a private email account. Let them use the family account or an alias you have created for them in order for you to monitor the incoming and outgoing emails.
• Help your children to create a safe username or nickname in the social software tools that they use. A safe username/nickname should not reveal personal information, gender or age.
• If your children use the Internet in unsupervised places such as, libraries, school or friends' houses, check the security measures that are enforced at these places.
• Instruct your children never to give away personal information online without your approval.
• Instruct your children not to upload personal photos to the web without your approval.
• Instruct your children not to accept photos or files from strangers without your approval.
• Encourage your children to let you know if they encounter any strange behavior or behavior that caused them an uncomfortable feeling. Instruct them on what to do if they encounter such behavior. For example, turning off the PC and notifying a parent.

How Can You Recognize If Your Child Was Targeted By an Online Predator?

Your child may:

• Withdraw from family and friends.
• Seem depressed and moody.
• Be aggressive towards members of the family. Child predators try to emphasize problems that the child has at home which can cause an aggressive behavior.
• Spend a lot of time online, especially in chatrooms.
• Have pornography on the computer. Child predators often send pornography to children.
• Try to hide his/her Internet activities from you. For example, Opens a private email account, hides the computer screen or shuts down the PC when adult approaches.
• Spend a lot of time on the Internet at friends' houses in order to avoid your supervision.
• Receive presents from people you don't know.
• Receive emails from people you don't know.
• Receive phone calls from people you don't know. Child predators sometimes try to seduce children to engage in phone sex.

If you have suspicions, don't hesitate to confront your child about it.

Emphasize again the guidelines for safe web surfing to your child.

You can also monitor your child Internet activities by using Internet Parental Control software.

If you choose to do so without the child's knowledge, be aware that it can result in a loss of trust between you and your child.

If all the safety measures you have tried don't work and you find out that your child is a victim of a child predator or in initial contact with one, the most important thing is not to blame the child. Always remember that the blame is on the offender.

Immediately contact -

• Your local law-enforcement agency.
• CyberTipline 1-800-843-5678 - This tipline is managed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which has representatives from the FBI, the U.S. Customs Service (USCS), and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at its headquarters. You can report incidents of child sexual exploitation, including child pornography, online enticement of children for sexual acts, child prostitution, child-sex tourism, and child sexual molestation.

For more information on how to protect your children in the cyber world see - http://www.in3go.com - Internet Security Information

Getting a Secure Grip on Handheld Devices

Companies today do not have a firm grasp of the security vulnerabilities associated with their handheld devices. Personal Electronic Devices (PEDs), Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), email and paging devices (such as the Blackberry), and other hybrid handheld communication devices are found in the hands of most every business manager these days but their inherent vulnerabilities are largely overlooked.

Perhaps this is because of their size, mobility or relatively inexpensive costs. Either way, these devices do not register on the radar of most systems administrators and are wrongly perceived as not as vulnerable as end user terminals connecting via hardwire to a LAN, WAN or the Internet. The popularity, proliferation and rapidly evolving technology associated with the devices make them extremely susceptible to security vulnerabilities.

There are several general classes of hand held device operating systems: the Palm Operating System (OS) (Palm Pilots, Handspring Visor, etc.); Apple IPhone OS; Symbian; and those running Windows CE and Pocket PC (Compaq, HP Jornada, Casio, etc.). Hand held devices are equipped with a wide variety of accessories from cameras, modems and synchronization cables to Bluetooth and wireless connections and flash memory storage. All of the operating systems have software libraries with applications, widgets and plugins developed and distributed throughout both the commercial and freeware shareware channels and as with any software developed by non-trusted sources, freeware programs may possibly contain hidden code - be it adware or malware.

Given their size and portability, the primary security concern associated with hand held devices is their ability to store large amounts of information. Add to this the breadth of communication options available and you have a device that introduces formidable risks. Since the devices are relatively inexpensive, users buy their own or receive them as gifts and they tend to come into use in an organization regardless of whether they are approved or not. As such, companies have little or no control over data leaving the organization.

A wide variety of vulnerabilities exist when these devices are attached to PCs or other network-connected automated information systems (AIS): Trojan horse and malware programs can easily be installed thus creating a backdoor on host networks to permit exploitation since antivirus products for hand held devices are not as evolved as PC antivirus software and operating systems currently do not limit malicious codes from modifying system files. Wireless device connections can be intercepted and data captured without the knowledge or permission of the user as recently demonstrated in well-publicised incidents of drive-by hacking, blue snarfing and blue jacking. Hand held devices using infrared data transport technology might also be intercepted as well. Finally, hand held devices by their very nature are small and therefore easily stolen or lost resulting in sensitive information being disclosed to unauthorized individuals.

The first and best step to getting a grip on hand held devices, is to ensure that your company includes them in their written security policies. Companies must issue clear and concise guideline on what devices may and MAY NOT be used and for what specific purposes.

How the devices are used and the type of information that is allowed to be stored on the devices will directly impact the overall risk to the organization. Good policies will specify the approved configuration of the devices and modes of operation including whether wireless radio frequency and/or infrared transmission is permitted and whether the user is allowed System Administrator rights to the base PC with which the device synchronizes. Clearly define the purpose and acceptable use conditions of the devices. Corporate provided devices should be used only for work related activities. Users should sign an agreement to abide by the acceptable use policy. Devices should not be used to enter or store passwords, safe/door combinations, personal identification numbers, or classified, sensitive or proprietary information.

Effective policies should delineate approved connectivity requirements, prohibiting up and downloads via wireless or infrared while connected to desktop PCs and stating approved methods for infrared data transfers. Users should be given precise instructions regarding requirements to sync their devices to receive patches, fixes and updates. It's imperative that your policies spell out device-specific build and configuration requirements to include: firewall, VPN, encryption, biometric, authentication and anti-virus software needs.

Physical security requirements should be simple and achievable but at a minimum should state that devices shall not be left unattended when attached to a computer, secured with password protection when not in use and reported immediately if lost or stolen and insured against theft, loss or breakage.

Your organization should have a mechanism to manage the policies for hand held devices from a central location and establish a registry of all devices in use. This registry should include: serial number, configuration, make and model and to whom the device has been issued. Each device owned by the organization should be marked as such with an asset tag or other permanent marking.

While handheld devices may currently be a lesser target than networks, end user terminals or laptops for virus and hacker attacks, that won't always be the case. The applications and functionality we see on PDAs today is what we saw on a laptops five years ago. What we'll find on PDAs five years from now is what we find on laptops today. The increased power and flexibility in the operating systems will bring greater security risk. The sooner you get a grip on this risk the better.

Last but not least: don't forget that handheld devices are subject to PCI requirements too!

Richard Hollis is Chief Executive Officer of Orthus limited (http://www.orthus.com). Orthus is a leading provider of information risk professional services, helping orgnisations globally to measure, minimise and manage the information risks they face.

Orthus provide end to end services for clients to comprehensivly address risk in their environments including Insider Threats addressing issues including data leakage, sabotage and fraud; External Threats (http://www.orthus.com/dr_overview.htm) including penetration testing, virtualisation security, vulnerability management and Secure Software Development Life-Cycle; Supply Chain Threats including securing cloud services and data processed by third parties; and Legal and Regulatory challenges including Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS).

Website Privacy Seals - Do They Work?

It is already been proven, time and time again, that website privacy seals work effectively and always produce concrete results. As opposed to a website with no displayed seal on their website, companies who do use website seals generally do get a dramatic increase in their email signups or sales (unless there is something very wrong with their website) simply because a third party has "approved" their website and allowed them to display certified seal.

How and why do website privacy seals work to improve your general conversions? It really is quite simple. It offers a solution to the undying problem that crops up for businesses that sell goods or services online - cautious customers. A useful purpose for privacy seals is adding them to a page where you want users to sign up to your newsletter, or hand over private information. A Privacy seal immediately tells them you aren't out to scam them and do not intend on ever handing over their information to anyone. In other words - instant credibility.

In the online world, customers find it harder to spend their money on a transaction than when in a physical shop. Why? They don't see the business proprietor, or even just a smiling and assuring cashier manning the store. What they see is a very impersonal and unresponsive webpage chockfull of sales pitches. It can even be oppressive and discouraging for some to read. Whenever you try and direct visitors to an order page or a page where they need to enter in private details, there's always that fear that their money or information is going somewhere where they can't see and might be spread around the Internet or lost forever. They fear that the website they are dealing with might be nothing more than a fraudulent website that won't keep their end of the deal. And with loads of scammers out and about online, buyer cannot really be too sure about their own online buying security.

Statistically, many businesses lose their customers right before they are about to sell something. It's that blank email field or order button that invites them to hand over their information which strikes a bad chord. Customers are inputting very sensitive information after all, and on an order page for example, that key "I want to buy" decision can change even at the last minute. This problem of security and privacy is certainly a big cause of concern for online shoppers.

The solution to get these buyers on your team is to build up buyer confidence in your website. If they believe that you will keep your end of your deal and that you will not give their personal information to other corporations or agencies, then there will be a bigger chance that they will do business with you or hand over their information. That is the simple solution offered by companies that award web privacy and security seals.

But how do you go about it getting one?

Firstly, you have to apply for certification. Now caution is required here. There are only a few good certified seal providers - the rest are ignored by knowledgeable customers and can even have a detrimental affect on your sales or signups because it can look like you using a cheap knock off that does no certification but is "good enough" for your customers. Once you find a good certified seal provider (one provided below), they'll test your site for any kinks or holes in security if you are applying for security seal, or for any indiscretions in how you handle user data, if applying for a privacy seal. A good, reputable web seal company will do a thorough scan of your website and award you with the seal you applied for generally within two days.

People generally want feedback from others who have tried a product they themselves are considering to buy in order to know if it's worth their money. Testimonials exist for this reason, but web certification seals are a step above from commonly faked testimonials - which buyers have caught onto. Website seals come from neutral third-party companies that have the sole goal of providing web users assurances of which web site they should trust and buy from. Your business, in turn, benefits from their credibility boosting endorsement as they don't offer it to anyone, hence it builds trust and will help make your website become a success!

Want the best website seal on the Market for your website? Proven to boost sales? Start your 14 day FREE Website Seal trial today!

Spyware Removal Made Easy - Use an Online Spyware Scanner to Clean Your PC

If you think that you currently have spyware on your PC, this article can help...

These days there is a lot of talk about different kinds of spyware that can attack your computer. And it is just the unwanted attack that defines a virus. It does things to your computer without you knowing that its there until it is too late. A virus can be devastating for your files and programs if it is not removed or blocked fast. spyware in a malicious software that installs it self on your computer without your permission. It sneaks in to it in the form of for example worms, spy ware or viruses. Another example of that is Trojans, that breaks down your computers security. spyware can also delete important system files that can be hard to restore. But it is possible to get rid of it and to get back what the spyware stole from you!

You do that in the form of a spyware removal tool, a kind of superman for your computer! The program searches your computer thoroughly through every file, checks it against its own database and makes a list of all the spyware applications that it finds. When the process is done the list allows you to delete the infected files and decide what to do with the rest of them. It separates your healthy files from your infected files so that you can see exactly what is going on and what you have to do about it.

New spyware threats will try to attack your computer ever day, so you need to scan your computer daily, weakly or as often as you think is necessary, to make sure that you have the chance to stop it or get rid of it before it makes to much damage. With this removal tool you don't have to worry about your computer crashing as long as you keep doing scheduled scans. Just install it, let the removal tool do the work, and you can check, remove and relax!

The best software I have found for removing spyware manually is:

NoSpyware-NoAdware!

Cyber Criminals Or Friends

Criminals are using the internet more and more. The statistics tell us that one in four will become a victim of internet criminals. This article speaks of one type of internet criminal in particular. It is the one who wants to steal your identity.

Business and banking records have account numbers and social security numbers. These must be guarded. When you receive your bank statement in the mail, check it carefully. Change the PIN number often. This is the personal identification number your debit card requires. If you find an error, close out that account or change the pin number.

Hackers are persons who can obtain your passwords and private information from another computer. These computers are sometimes stolen or the old ones thrown in the trash. The hard drive is a disk that tells what ever information has been on that computer. Go to a reputable computer dealer to get your cleared or destroyed. Some criminals sell your personal information. Shared and wireless computers are most vulnerable to criminal attack. Home computers are safer.

Do not give out passwords to anyone. If some one asks you to call them, go to a public telephone and verify the number.They own scanners that copy your credit card information. Some will use it to take out a small amount of money to see how much you have in your account, then wipe it out later. These criminals are in chat rooms and social networking sites. Do not give out your drivers license number or social security number to them ever. Even the social security administration will not let you post your number on their site.

E-mail is electronic mail that comes to your computer mail. Get another e-mail account name for using the internet. Google, MSN and Yahoo offer e-mail accounts and your internet service provider gives you your main one. You may have to close out your account with your ISP if this e-mail is stolen. False web addresses and e-mails are all over the internet. They may tell you they are your place of employment and direct you to another site.

Do not open any e-mail if you are not sure who it is from. It may contain a virus that will ruin your computer, called crashing it, or slow it down. Hackers are criminals that can watch what you are doing on line. They follow your activity and hack into personal information. Firewalls protect you from hackers. Software purchased can block spam and viruses. Web addresses may be typed wrongly to look like a real site but they are not. Google, yahoo and MSN hotmail have excellent spam blocking filters. Use them.

They are not 100 per cent accurate though. So report spam which is an unwanted e-mail or one that asks for money to spam@uce.gov. Turn off your computer when not in use. It helps stop hackers and saves electricity. If you have become a victim of internet crime or suspect it, report it to http://www.ic3.gov

Laziness Can Cost You - Save Yourself the Heartache by Creating an Online Backup

What are online backups?

Online backup is one of the smartest things you can do. You're in trouble if you're not backing up. If you've worked so hard to build so much, you'll feel like a family member has died the day your computer crashes and you have lost everything. Nothing screams stress more than when you've lost everything you've worked on.

You might think that online backup isn't necessary. You may think that if you have something wrong with your computer and lose any files, you can always go to an information technology professional and have them try and retrieve what's been lost. But that's the thing ... all they can do is try. And if you're computer is stolen and completely damaged, they can't even begin to try.

So start backing up your computer online now.

Wonder where you can get a good deal on online backup? For less than $10 a month, you can get 10 gigabytes of storage at ibackup.com. Shop around all you want, it is the best out there.

The site offers many other resources you can utilize for backup. You can even do a local backup where you can swap discs and hard drives.

You don't want to roll your eyes...

You might be rolling your eyes right now. But say your computer crashes (and it will crash), you'll be thankful that you were responsible and backed up everything on your computer online. Check out ibackup.com or another online backup resource; it'll keep you from crying, kicking and screaming later.

And we'd like to invite you watch and listen to FREE additional online marketing tips and powerful strategies by going to http://www.SpectacularOnlineSecrets.com

To find out more about Pat and Lorna Shanks (The Coolest Couple) please visit our blog at http://www.ToPatAndLorna.com

Shared Web Hosting - What to Go For

There's a colossal flood of data out there on the Internet concerning how to choose the best web hosting. The nice thing is that there's really only a small number of completely vital elements that you will really have to fully grasp. In this piece I'm going to promptly outline some of the critical elements that you will need to contend with.

Please don't pay to much attention to the dramatic headlines. A lot of the adverts you are going to see about web hosting will contain attractive headline numbers. What you're hunting for is a realistic and well rounded web-host. These striking headlines are really not going to show you a thorough overview of what's on offer. You're going to need to dig a little bit deeper to uncover the dependable info you're going to need before committing to anything.

Confirming the good reputation of the web hosting company is a vitally important topic to attempt to consider. Trading on the Net is pretty simple. Almost anybody could have a go. In the context of these realities it is quite easy to realize why there are a few shady operations out there on the Net. A really first class technique for verifying the dependability of the hosting service provider is to see how long their company has been doing business.

Please be clear that the thing you're really in need of is excellent value. The cheapest price will probably not provide you with the best value. The thing you're really in need of from a web hosting firm is a first-rate blend of a variety of components that will give proper value.

As I mentioned in the opening section of this piece, this has only been a basic outline of a few of the key items with regard to the topic of how to choose the best web hosting. There are just a tiny number of other absolutely crucial factors that you will have to be aware of.

To learn about those other things right now please go to web hosting advice now. For the best tips http://info.answertrain.com/WebHostingAdvice.html