Sa state ng California sa United States of America, itinatag ang bagong eCrime Unit upang manghuli at maglitis ng mga internet crooks. Ang team na ito ay binuo ng isang state attorney general at kinabibilangan ng dalawampung abogado at imbestigador. Bihasa sila sa mga makabagong paraan upang matunton at matukoy ang mga maysala. Kabilang sa mga tinututukan ng team na ito ay mga email scams, piracy, child pornography, online fraud, at marami pang iba. Kawawa lamang ang mga taong nabiktima at patuloy na nabibiktima mapa-offline man o mapa-online.

Naipakulong na ng team ang isang lalaking nahatulan ng guilty sa kasong hacking ng mga email at Facebook accounts. Marami nang nabiktima ang lalaking ito na ang karaniwang modus ay pasukin ang account ng ibang user. Pagkatapos ay maghahanap siya ng mga kontrobersiyal na larawan ng may-ari ng account. Tatakutin niya ito na ikakalat sa internet ang mga larawan kapag hindi sinunod ang gusto niya.

Ang internet ay napakahalaga sa ekonomiya, sa mga tao, at sa mga negosyo. Dahil dito, hindi na kailangang maghanap ng biktima ang mga cyber criminals. Napakaraming maaaring maging biktima ng pagnanakaw ng mga impormasyon. Ang taong 2012 ay nakikinikinitang magiging taon ng matinding pakikipaglaban sa online crimes. Naranasan noong isang taon ang napakaraming mga scams at inaasahang marami pang darating ngayong taon.

Ito naman ang dahilan ng pagpapaigting ng kampanya laban sa ecrime. Ang bagong eCrime Unit ay naglalayong makagawa ng isang bagong trend ng pakikipaglaban sa online crimes. Sinabi ng attorney general mula California na gusto nilang manguna sa makabagong paraan sa paghahanap at paglilitis ng mga maysala. Gamit ang internet technology na siya ring gamit ng mga criminal, mapatutunayang ang batas ay mangingibabaw sa lahat ng oras.

Today, businesses and government agencies should prepare for all of these looming disasters. Each should have an individual plan for disaster recovery. In today’s information-driven world, further disasters can result from power outages and network failures. There should still be time for every business to adjust and respond to risks. In any possible event, there should be uninterrupted and continuous access to either personal or corporate data.

There should be a system for disaster preparedness. For any company, it is a well-known fact that its most important assets are its people. Unquestionably, for these people, their most important asset is their family. Is there a company or agency plan on how to move its people, including their families, if the need arises? Another consideration is to make a communication plan that is timely, clear and honest.

Every company and agency has a host of information that is vital to the uninterrupted course of activities. There should be a data back-up plan which should be verified and validated, and situated out of harm’s way. It should also be accessible to the recovery location. To ensure better data privacy, cloud service is now available for the storage of key data.

There is no certainty as to how long catastrophic events could last. Some may last for days, others for weeks, and still others for months. There have to be options if the facilities, network, technology and people could not be available. It is also very vital to think about those other businesses associated with “parent” companies. Their preparedness has a direct effect on any company or agency because jointly, they form a chain or network. There is more impact if not only one, everybody else involved is well-prepared.

In the United States, at least two regions have reported a large increase in identity crimes, most of which are data breaches. The cost of information that is stolen from companies costs more than $150 billion in the national picture. This was reported by LifeLock Consumer Education that spanned the years from 2005 to 2010. The theory is that this is a result of technology that criminals take advantage of, plus human error on the part of consumers.

Studying the number of data breaches, it can be said that in the U.S., there were more than 800 million records exposed from 2005 to 2010. Analysis of this data reveals that 15% of these were credit card fraud and 9% were bank fraud. One interesting fact to note is that credit card fraud takes the major percentage of the crime. The reason can be attributed to the story of one shopper who experienced identity theft two years ago. Since that distressing experience, she said that she uses her credit cards only occasionally. She added that she has not gotten over that incident. She did not know how her identity was stolen in such a short time. Even now, she still cannot be sure if clerks or waiters will really run her card through genuine credit card readers.

Even the status of identity-related crimes on state highways is also worsening. Police records show that identity crime arrests have increased by 53 percent in the past three years. These can be broken down into forgery, falsification, using a fake driver’s license, giving a fictitious name to an officer, or signing a false name on statements.

The emails sent bear the subject InDesign CS4 License Key, and looks very convincing. It is not easy for users to suspect that the emails are spam. It uses very subtle encouragement for them to explore what is new about InDesign and how its features were enhanced. The email bears an attachment that supposedly contains tips, tutorials, and eSeminars.

It was noted that there were different versions of emails; each one being slightly different from the other. The emails also used different reference numbers in the subject line. Some attachments bear the filename “AdobeSystems-Software_Critical Update Dec_2011-[random].zip”; others have the filename “License_key_ID[random number].zip”.

Hackers know that users are concerned about their security so they use subtle threats in their emails. To make sure that users open the attachment, they “promise” such things as advanced features. Furthermore, there is insinuation that work productivity would not be enhanced unless users open the file.

Users who do not have sufficient knowledge about how malwares are spammed out are likely to open the attachment. Not realizing that it contains malicious software, they will install it and so, their Windows computers are infected with it. Sophos said that its antivirus software detects the malware as the Troj/Bedo-MY Trojan horse. It also reminded users that Adobe would not send emails to people and attach its updates in them. Users have to always remember that Adobe only uses its own website where users can visit for legitimate updates.

Kung ikaw ay naghahanap ng trabaho gamit ang mga online ads, umiwas sa mga nanghihingi ng iyong mga personal na impormasyon. Marami sa mga cyber criminals ang nagtatago sa likod nga mga legal na job sites para lamang magmukhang tunay din sila. Ang iba sa kanila ay gumagamit pa ng mga sikat na logo o ng mga salitang nakapanghihikayat nang sa ganoo’y makuha ang iyong atensyon. Malalaman mo na lang na peke pala ang mga links na kanilang ginagamit. Kapag pinindot mo ang mga ito, dadalhin ka lamang sa website ng isang kompanyang animo’y totoo, subalit wala palang ganoon.

Kung hindi manghihingi ng iyong personal na impormasyon, meron namang pagbabayarin ka kapalit ng isang serbisyo. Marami nang naging biktima ng ganitong estilo at sa katunayan, dumarami pa ang naloloko. Pagkatapos magbayad, saka palang nila malalamang wala naman palang ganoong klaseng serbisyo. Mahirap pa naman silang mahuli dahil biglang “nagsasara” ang kanilang kompanya at hindi mo na sila mahahagilap.

Para sa mga online job hunters katulad mo, mainam kung maisasaulo ang mga simpleng tips upang makaiwas sa ganitong sitwasyon. Unang-una, huwang basta magbibigay ng iyong personal na impormasyon online, lalo na iyong hindi job related. Walang lehitimong employer na manghihingi ng social security number, date of birth, home address, at iba pa kaagad agad. Isa sa mga pinaka “no-no” ang pagbibigay ng impormasyong personal sa pamamagitan ng telepono, email, o fax.

Pagdating naman sa iyong resume, dapat mong isaisip na ito ang iyong pinakapuhunan. Napapaloob ditto ang mga sensitibong impormasyon na dapat manatiling “private”. Huwag na huwag mo itong ipamimigay nang walang mahalagang dahilan. Kung kailangan mo itong i-post online, pumili ng job site na may malinaw na privacy policy. Doon ka sa hindi basta-bastang binibigyan ng access ang mga recruiters sa iyong personal na impormasyon.

Kung kailangan mong ma-verify ang isang employer, hanapin ang contact number nito at tawagan. Kung magiging praktikal, mas mabuting bumisita ng personal sa kinaroroonan ng kompanya o opisina nito. Saka mo pa lamang masasabi kung ito nga ay lehitimo o hindi.

But why are these privacy advocates reacting negatively on the proposed law? The reason is that such legislation would turn each person who uses the internet into a victim. They argue that this law, if passed, would oblige all internet service providers, or ISPs, to track all on line activities of every user and save the information for 18 months. As an additional requirement, ISPs are supposed to store this data together with the user’s name, home address, bank account and credit card numbers, and their assigned IP address.

An argument raised says that tracking all of the user’s internet activities is not the solution to the problem on internet child pornography. Compared to the millions of internet users, there are only very few child pornographers who are hiding online. So why place everyone under “surveillance” where all internet users would become suspects of a crime that most of them would not even think about? Its final effect would be detrimental to freedom of speech and threatening to the online privacy of every American.

Even if someone is not yet under investigation, the law would allow the tracking of that person. The simple reason of doubt would be sufficient enough so that his or her internet history can be accessed by the police. One state representative said that the law would create several risks that far outweigh the benefits that it would give. He is not convinced that it would have a major positive effect in protecting children. But since these are only arguments, it is still possible that the law could be the real solution to the problem of online child pornography.

The earlier technology versions of online transactions were mostly done using desktop computers. Later, laptops and notebooks became more accessible and transactions were made even easier. Companies can easily keep track of their financial records from almost everywhere. Today, the use of smart phones is slowly becoming more popular among businessmen. In the past, these gadgets were largely used in social networking, more particularly Facebook and Twitter.

A new survey showed that more and more people are using their smart phones to transmit personal and financial information. The purposes of uploading these pieces of information are mostly for online banking, shopping or social networking. Among users, about 17% use their smart phones for money matters. This fact has attracted the interest of online criminals to take advantage of making money at the expense of companies.

Critics said that doing online transactions with the use of a mobile device is both fun and time saving. Clearly, criminals are also on their toes, ready for every chance to see how they can benefit out of the situation. That is why businessmen should not be overly confident, but should remain cautious. There is a new technique used by online criminals that is concealed under the guise of “the good stuff”.

The ongoing increase in the demand for smart phones and mobile and web applications has given online criminals the “go” signal. They have seen the benefits of using malicious software (or malware) in order to get into users’ accounts. Hiding behind online application stores, these criminals would lure smart phone users to download rouge apps. Without noticing it, the user also downloads a program that would allow the swindler to take control of his phone. With the rouge apps, criminals would eventually gain access to all personal and payment data of the phone owner.

Smart phone users have to take full control when deciding to use their device for accessing the web. Furthermore, they should be careful about applications they are going to download. They should learn lessons from those previous victims who suffered unauthorized charges against their accounts. Some were made to pay for premium calls that they did not make. As smart phone users, you are expected to be smarter than the online criminals, right?

The woman took the identity of her ex-boyfriend, who works as a police narcotics officer. The posts that were mostly self-destructive appeared to be made by him. There was one comment that talked about his being “high all the time”. Others mentioned his disreputable activities like frequenting prostitutes and escort services, and that he had herpes.

Impersonation, however it is done, is aimed at obtaining a benefit for one’s own self or to injure or defraud another. Way back in 2006, the issues of online impersonation and cyber bullying came out and quickly spread. It all started with the suicide of a 13-year-old girl who became a target online by a fictitious 13-year old boy. The case concluded with the “boy” being identified actually as the mother of another teenage girl.

The lawyer of the New Jersey woman nearly succeeded in his attempt to have the case dismissed. The attorney said that electronic communications is not mentioned in the New Jersey law. This prompted the New Jersey legislature to look into the law and to make such needed amendments. The lawyer continued by saying that the move to make revisions on the current law is an admission that his client’s action is not covered by it.

The case at hand may or may not amount to something, but what is clear at present is that identity theft can really be destructive. Just this simple case of faking a Facebook page can ruin one’s reputation and character. There seems to be no effective way of checking with 100% accuracy the identity of a user. There is a possibility that any user could just be pretending to be someone else.

A report said that cyber crime mafias, who are mostly foreigners, are gradually making the Philippines their base of operations. According to the top official, the PNP at present has no organizational and technical capability to fight cyber crimes. These syndicates use sophisticated technology, while law enforcers fall behind in terms of training and equipment. In fact, he said he has asked for support for immediate organizational and technical capability in order to build-up the concerned unit.

The arrest of a foreign national hacker in the country exposed the wide network of cyber crime. There are mafias working behind the operations of illegal online gambling and credit card fraud activities in the country. The operations of these groups seem unhampered as evidenced by the fast growth of their connections.

The Anti-Transnational and Cyber Crime Division of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) arrested a 38-year old Korean national hacker. He was on the list of those wanted by Interpol for large-scale internet fraud. Investigations revealed that the Korean group had hacked the servers of the country’s top telecommunication companies. Further investigations uncovered the group’s intrusion into the accounts of some private corporations.

Although the CIDG has been successful in raiding seven of the group’s illegal online casinos, the country’s capacity to counter cyber crime has not improved. There are also reports that Filipinos are being used as “e-mules” for their transnational money laundering and credit card fraud operations. It seems that these criminals can get around Philippine laws so easily that they prefer to build their refuge there than in other countries.

MyYearbook is a relatively new social networking site that is now gaining wide popularity among teens. This site was created for teens ages 13 and up who want to meet new friends online. Its creators were two high school students, brother and sister David and Catherine Cook, and started in 2005. The two asked the help of their older brother, Geoff to help them with their project. This site was finally launched at Montgomery High School, which was the school they attended.

But there is now an indication that the site is being abused by some users. A parent reported how his 12-year old daughter, who uses the site, was endangered. She was receiving messages from older men that contained vulgar language. This caused him to suspect that the site is being used by some older men who are looking for sex. According to the parent, older men can fake their ages the same way and just as easily as younger children can just so that they can register on the site.

This occurrence is not entirely different from what other social networking sites have experienced. More intense efforts have to be made so that the online safety of users is not compromised. A spokesperson for the company said that the online safety of its users is taken very seriously. A monitoring team is always working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week just to keep watch. The point that needs to be stressed is that parents should take an active role in defending their children against online predators.