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.

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.

For a long time, consumers’ online activities have been tracked by the use of “cookies”. Websites send cookies to the consumer’s computer, and this makes it easy for data miners to easily discover their choices of online activities. With enough information gathered, companies can target specific products and services to online consumers. It is difficult for consumers to protect themselves because most of them do not know how to turn off cookies. They need to make an extra effort in finding out the browser’s privacy settings so that they can opt out of cookies. Now, this one is not easy even for the experienced user.

It is true that some consumers might benefit from data mining. This is especially true for those who make online purchases because discounts and other offers may be available if they wish to buy the same item again. However, most consumers find targeted advertisements annoying and threatening to their privacy. That is why authorities are continually finding ways to protect consumers from these kinds of unsolicited ads.

The FTC wanted to simplify the “opt out” issue through the proposal that it has issued. If approved, consumers can opt out of cookies more easily and, if they wish, turn it off permanently. In the past, users were presented with very lengthy privacy policies. Aside from this, the terms used are difficult to understand except for those who have some background in law. In the FTC’s proposal, consumers would be allowed to know who is tracking their online activities. More importantly, they will be given the power to permanently refuse cookies.

From this proposal, consumer watchdogs and companies that maintain websites can come together. They could then come up with guidelines for consumer protection without prejudice to innovation on the web.

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.

Reacting to the foregoing statement, one critic reacted by saying that this kind of argument is not only wrong, but also dangerous. He admitted that in many ways, anonymity protects different groups of the population. He added that anonymity is also prone to abuses by some, particularly those who are spreading “vitriolic bile” without limits. Granting that this is true, it is not enough reason to entirely ban online anonymity. Recent surveys reveal that many online newspapers have established policies regarding this issue, while others have entirely banned this freedom.

Those who propose its banning rationalize that everyone should maintain online civility. While all newspapers should try to work on this issue, there is more to being identified online than just by one’s name. Those who work against anonymity said that identification will minimize online problems. However, this will discourage a lot of people from speaking their minds for the fear of retribution. They also pointed out that history has a lot to tell of anonymous men and women whose writings made great contributions to society.

A speaker or writer whose right to remain anonymous has been taken away cannot participate well in a democratic discourse. Detested individuals will have no defense from reprisal in the present, narrow-minded society. Nameless small groups will not be able to condemn oppressive practices and policies, or a victim of domestic violence will not be able to find help.

What can reduce the problem of breeding online garbage due to anonymous comments is moderation. This simple method has remained useful since the early days of newspapers, and will still be effective these days. Online newspapers can still use this classic “tool” to preserve civility while not obstructing the person’s right to remain anonymous.

Over the past month or so there have been a series of articles in the Wall Street Journal, that frankly, scared the bejeezus out of us.  We knew that surfing the internet exposes us to identity theft and that third parties of all kinds can, do, and are probably in some cases legally required (like our ISP) to monitor all our online activities.  Now we believe our internet use is a private matter (doesn’t everyone?).  And we don’t feel that by tracking our internet preferences third parties can “better” market us through more targeted advertising to create a “better” internet experience for us.  Call us old fashioned but we would rather make those choices for ourselves – privately.  The WSJ articles made clear that ANY internet usage by an individual can both expose that user to invasions of privacy and outright dangerous – like going to a gun fight with only a knife.  All this got us thinking about ways to protect ourselves.

We were, and still are, doing a number of things already.  Each weekend we run a program on each computer called “Evidence Eliminator” which cleans our computers of traces of where we have been.  We run registry cleaners, disk de-fragmentation software and SpyBot.  We also surf with IE8′s “in Private” turned on, but that does nothing to protect our identities online.  Where we were not covered was with our IP address out “in the wild” on the internet.  And the WSJ articles made it clear to us that exposing your IP address to third parties on the internet is one of the prime ways to “be at risk” on the net.

That got us looking into anonymous IP address alternatives.  The first place I looked was my ISP provider – not surprisingly they did not offer such a service.  Next we looked at using those free services where you go to an anonymous IP provider’s website and from there plug in the place you want to surf to.  That was a non-starter out of the gate – just way to messy and time consuming and bothersome.  The next alternative was companies that provide a paid for service to give you anonymous IP web protection real time all the time.

So I fired up “The Google” and started researching these companies. A handful surfaced to the top and were each similarly priced.  I ended up going with Private Proxy even though it was slighter higher priced than its competitors: A) because it offered IP address changes every 30 minutes, versus every 24 hours by its nearest competitor, and B) it offered 128 bit encryption on my web traffic – this seemed to me to be very secure.

Having now used the Private Proxy service I am very satisfied.  Installation of their software was easy and simple – very intuitive.  My surfing experience has also been excellent.  Web surfing speeds did drop slightly but I could only tell if I run a YouTube video in 1080p mode around peak hours in the evening.  During the day I can’t tell any difference in online speed experience.

So on the three most important items, Private Proxy is a winner for us:

1)            Gives us peace of mind with 30 minute ip address changes and 128 bit encryption

2)            Easy seamless installation and behind the scenes operation

3)            A virtually zero effect on internet speed experience.

Lastly, to finish this review, customer support from this company has also been excellent.  I have had professional and quick responses by a real person each time I’ve had a question.

Rob, Boston

To try Private Proxy for yourself, please follow the link for the Proxy Free Trial Offer.

This type of criminal would have a starring role in an old gangster movie, the ones so overplayed they would be in a stark non-color and grainy version. As with their movie persona, these bad guys committed some atrocities. The film portrayals simply scared the viewers, but real street crooks are the ones to be held accountable for almost of the fright and damage to people. These bad people are the ones who make the cities unsafe at night, and are bait for most news reports adding to the hysteria.

These men and women were the most evil of the bad in their era. They were the outcasts of society, the ones that, when friends and families saw them in court, would avert their gaze, as if their gaze had some strange and hypnotic power. These were the reasons that the United States treads lightly with its prison system. It is a strange thing that such an accepting society conjures: you have these boundless rights and freedoms, yet it is just assumed that you will not abuse them. Unfortunately, while most of us take care of these rights, guys like these don’t and it tears at the very foundation of our country.

The criminals of the olden days, the kind that would stop you in a desolate corridor with their weapons and then steal all of your goods, although were at one time the worst of the worst, are child’s play to our bad guys of recent. The criminals of today have a huge advantage: they have assimilated today’s technology into their misdeeds. One might at first consider that this technology is with the boys in blue, making it simpler and more efficient to get these scum, but in fact it helps the crooks to hide themselves. The criminals have become one with the high-tech technology and have become very skilled in its use.

Think of any average crime scene.  A sly criminal who wanted to steal some money would see a rich-looking person, and decide their odds of winning. Weapons brandished and in a brazen attack they would confront their target, wave the gun around, and rob their victim. Once they get all of the money out of the wallet, they would tell the the poor slob not to call the police. They would then sprint all of the way to their hideout and lay low for a little while, until the police were off of them.

It didn’t matter though: with a well staffed and skilled police force, the thief was usually apprehended in a timely manner. There was not any tools of the trade they could use to hide themselves or clean up the scene of the crime. Once they were caught, there was no DNA markings to put them at the crime scene then, there was just a simple line-up and the victim, who tentatively singled out the criminal.

Technology is our hero then, right? Unfortunately, this is often not the case. While our rapid success in producing DNA tracking, fingerprints and other technological advances, these tools can also help in the suspect’s runaway from justice. A running car is the most high-tech equipment a criminal today needs to disappear; it doesn’t matter is they know exactly who did the act. If they can’t go out and get them, all of their information on them is quite useless.

A crime where there is no scene; the perfect crime. These online perpetration’s are quite difficult for law enforcement, as there is no real site of the deed, and a criminal can conceal while online. Another harrowing fact is that these identity thieves and hackers, as was stated before, are not usually caught and carried to justice. So not many reliable ways through to effectively thwart them, we can only hope to preemptively hide ourselves from their attacks. Always be very wary online, and protect yourself with a variety of online safety tools. Steer clear of darkened alleyways!

People’s lives around the globe|world] today, especially those of the United States citizens, are of a highly mobile type. We use our cars to go anywhere, work a whole bunch of separate shifts to augment our bank accounts, and have more entertainment in our house than does a whole circus. Consider going out to the movies in the present day; in the prehistoric days, before the VCR player, you would have to buy a ticket for the theater playing at your time. Now you can simply download movies temporarily whenever you choose by taking your pick from an on-demand service. Our homes these days are like the best place to relax and have fun; it almost defeats the point of going out. This self-containment is a must today though because we have more going on in our lives than ever before.

Regardless of lackluster sleeping patterns, we beat back the sleepy with huge glasses of coffee and energy shots. As much as we might try and believe otherwise, we can’t change or avoid the obvious fact that there is only so much time in a single day; you can only plan so much in the time you are allotted. This leads to idea of making the shopping errand much faster. For many people though, and not just the ones who stereotypically enjoy spending, shopping is a fun reward for working hard. People like browsing for clothes, trying on every last article for optimum stylishness. So why would we take this pleasure away from them? A single word, in summation: time. It is time consuming to drag out to a store and lug your shopping bags around all day, and most would like to avoid it.

Online shopping is a relatively new phenomenon and began in a variety of sites. Most people first reach for massive marketing sites like Ebay when this type of shopping comes up, but they are just some of many. Through these sites, you could actually become quite the Internet entrepreneur, pedaling your old junk online. Some people make themselves rich selling their old knick-knacks to collectors! Whether or not you choose to participate in these transactions is up to every person on the site, but it was the public that took this process to the next stage. The Internet suddenly became the place for selling and buying, and all of a sudden we are bombarded with ads all over our explorer box. Unfortunately, the number one rule of the Internet rang true with this new online shopping market; any sort of economic prosperity, and bad people will catch on.

These new scam artists were witty people though, it was a shame they wasted their intellect on crime. They would make a credible name to use on Ebay and other sites. They would then post some sort of item for a great price that everyone would want. Once the customer bought, their credit card would be charged, and the scammer would send them an empty crate or maybe nothing at all. As is the nature of the Internet, the criminal packed up shop and was never heard from again. You may have known people to whom this happened, or been a victim yourself. Don’t get disillusioned; Internet shopping is a great tool; just watch who you are buying from. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Try and read their profiles on these sites too, and scan the buyer feedback. If it is bad, turn tail and run! Even if it is good, it still could be a hoax. Use your intuition and don’t let your money go to waste; or rather, to some low life who blatantly stole it.

What is an anonymous proxy, you may be asking? First of all, there are two types of anonymous proxies. The one that most people use is the web-based. This is because it is simple to find. All that is required is a search on the Google site for “anonymous proxy” and a vast amount of results will be shown. Choose one of the results and go to the site. An empty URL box will be shown and you need only type the web address of the place you want to visit. The anonymous proxy will then take you to this address without showing your IP address. When you leave the website there will not be a record of your having been there. The anonymous proxy acts as a combination protection and retrieval tool. It gets the website for you and keeps anyone from accessing your IP address. Your IP address can tell a thief where you are located. How many people do you want to know your name?

The second type of anonymous proxy is a software proxy. This is somewhat like the web-based one however, software proxies work by downloading a program to your computer. Many of the software programs are set up so that when the traffic from your browser goes through the IP servers to be changed, they are put through encryption.  This encryption protects the data stream so that a hacker cannot read what you are sending over the Internet.  Without encryption your data stream is wide open for anyone using a packet sniffer.  Unprotected Internet communications is one way that people lose their identity or their money.

Setting this up is a very simple process. All you have to do is download the software for the anonymous proxy server. The software you are using will have an icon on your desktop. Open the program from here and put in your user name and your password. The next thing will be to choose the anonymous proxy from the ones available that you wish to connect to and hit enter. Your computer will be connected to the server you chose. The browser you use can be opened and your IP address is changed to one from the software program. Eliminating your IP address from showing on whatever site you choose to visit is a terrific move. The electronic trail that is left by your computer every time you go online no longer leads back to your computer. It goes to the server company that has the program you are using. This type of anonymous proxy has more servers to handle the traffic they are getting so it is faster than the ones you can choose free from the Internet. In addition, you are not inundated with the advertisements often put on free proxy servers.

The whole process makes for a safe and secure way of doing anything online. Instead of them being able to have full access to all your pertinent information, the IP address is routed through anonymous proxy servers. This eliminates the chance of a hacker gaining control of your information while you are online. Using a wireless router or a laptop on a hotspot allows everything you are doing to be seen by those who are just waiting for an unsuspecting surfer to come along. Did you know that your ISP even has a log of everything you do on the Internet? The law says they have to keep a record of the sites you visit. Do you think this is anyone’s business besides yours? The best way to make sure no one knows what you are doing while you are online is to make use of the anonymous proxy software that encrypts your communication and keeps them private.