Cyber Criminals, Cyber Crime and You

Copyright (c) 2008 Ed Opperman

With more people using the internet, and the availability of the internet on every street corner, there has been a drastic increase in cyber crime. These can be committed against large companies, and individuals. It is easy for large companies and large wallets to stop cyber crime, but what about those on limited budgets? What is the solution for those who have fallen victim to cyber crimes?

First it is important to understand what cyber crime is. Cyber crime is a crime committed online via emails, or chatrooms or any other form of interaction that can take place online. It does not vary much from the same criminal misconducts committed in real life. The only difference is the fact that it is much harder to pursue these types of criminals, because they transcend the typical borders associated with countries and the jurisdictions of various law enforcement agencies may clash as a result.

Cybercrime can take the form of cyber stalking, where they follow you around into various chat rooms and harass you online. This can also be things like a hacker taking control of your computer or someone stealing your identity online. Everything can be destroyed by cyber criminals. They can wipe entire hard drives, steal your entire life and everything about it and essentially just mess with your entire world.

How can you protect yourself from becoming a victim of cyber crime?

To prevent criminals from reaching your personal computer it is important to have a good antivirus protection program in place as well as a firewall. Ensure you use spyware programs and of course that you keep up on all the security updates for these programs as well.

Protect your personal information. Although many now have pictures and their entire lives posted on blogs and other sites, they are playing in dangerous waters. Criminals can locate everything about you from something as simple as your email address. So, simply put, minimize the information you provide online. Don't give out vital information like your Social Security Number or anything else unless you trust the source and their use for that information.

When shopping online, always ensure that you are using secure sites for your e-commerce transactions and payments.

Password protect everything, and do not use the obvious birth date or mailing address or any other simple to guess password. Pick up instead a program like roboform that will generate randomized letter and number combinations that are not associated with anything in your life.

When all is said and done if you really want to protect yourself from cyber criminals and cyber crime, you can always purchase a detailed report on how safe you are online. This report is called a risk assessment report and can give you a greater insight into how and where you are risking yourself online and how you can fix the problem. The prevention of identity theft and other cyber crimes begins with you. Knowing how to protect yourself and minimize your risk is essentially all you can do to limit the chances you are taking with your life.