Welcome to our new Danblog.
A blog is a forum, where you can voice your opinion on many subjects. What better subject to start with than the controversial issue about Internet security? Hopefully there will be many responses on this issue. Let us start with a statement that will get many people out of their chairs:
“For many people, it is still not known that shopping on the Internet is just as safe, if not more safe as shopping in the mall. The same people also swear that they will never use their credit card/debit card over the Internet. Little do they know they are already doing it.
Every time they swipe their credit/debit card in a restaurant or store, the information goes from the restaurant or store via the Internet to their bank, and they feel perfectly safe.”
Let us start from the beginning and define a few things first. This will lead us to understand how the Internet works and why it is safe.
First let us define the word security. The encyclopedia says: “The condition of being protected against danger or loss” Note, It does not state that danger or loss cannot happen. Nothing in this world is perfect—security is a condition that has many levels, and we will define them later.
Now, what is the Internet? Before we go there, we have to understand what a Network is:
A Network is formed by one computer being connected to another, or to many others. These connections enable the computers to exchange information with each other.
Now what is the Internet?
• A network of networks, joining many government, university and private computers together and providing an infrastructure for the use of E-mail, bulletin boards, file archives, documents, databases and other computational resources, which can be anywhere from the same office to anywhere in the world.
So now we know the Internet consists of a large number of computers connected or networked to each other. There are two types of such networked computers: servers and clients. Thereis no real difference between these computer types except that servers tend to have greater capacity and be more expensive. The different uses of servers and clients mean that they tend to be configured differently and run different software.
A server computer is an information storer and provider – Like our Dania web site is on a server. It contains all our newsletters, Photos etc.
A client computer is an information seeker and consumer – like your own computer
Who invented the Internet: The US Department of Defense
In 1969, the US Department of Defense wanted a communication system that was safe, and could not be destroyed in the event of an emergency. They outsourced part of the project to prominent universities such as UCLA, Stanford and CERN (French, for Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Council for Nuclear Research),
Computers were linked over telephone lines, so if one computer failed to work, the others could still communicate with each other. Currently the links are besides telephone lines also cable, satellite and wireless connections.
Here we get the first indication about security. The US Department of defense had—and still has—a very strict demand to secure connections nobody can intervene with. They use encryption (scrambling or coding of data) to send a message and decryption to read, so if you listened or tap into a network line, you would only get a junk message. Encryption and decryption has developed to a very sophisticated technology, which is used to day on the internet.
You can easily see when a website is secure and uses encryption/decryption.
Next time you go on the Internet notice what the address bar says. A website that starts with https://www uses encryption/decryption for transactions.
When a stranger swipes your card, you cannot see what kind of Internet transmission they use. When you use your card at home you can see it.
More uses for the Internet, and the development of standards
As the system developed, people found other uses for this system, such as sending messages and files between computers. During the 1970s, standards developed in the message formats. And by the close of the 1970s computer networks had become international standards.
No one owns the Internet.
These days the US Department of Defense neither runs nor owns the Internet. No one does.
Our original issue was Internet security for consumers. Now that we know what we are talking about, we can go back to this issue.
I mentioned before that the same group of people who will never use their credit card on the Internet already do so, unknowingly. When you use your credit card or debit card, chances are you use the Internet. How do you think the information from the credit card or debit card, when it is swiped at the restaurant or store, gets to your bank?
Right, via the Internet. There is no cable between the store and restaurant to your bank. The bank computer is not even in your local branch location either, but in a safe place somewhere in the country.
Here is another twist: Most major banks do not own the big, expensive Mainframe Computers which are used to store and transfer data. Instead, they outsource the computer programming and work. They are in the banking business, not in the computer business. However hundreds of millions of dollars are transferred between banks, institutions, insurance companies, and investment companies every day with no problems. In fact, the world’s financial systems could not function without the Internet and networks.
Now let us rank security:
1. Using your credit/debit card in a restaurant is the most unsafe use of a card; you leave your credit card in the hands of a stranger. Credit card # and expiration date can easily be written down by the waiter or sales clerk on the way to the cash register or behind the counter.
2. When you swipe your card in a store, and type in your pin-code, you at least keep your card in your hands, but there are other customers in the store that stand next to you, not behind you as at an ATM. Using a card in a store is the next most unsafe use of a card.
3. Using an ATM gets a little higher grade, because people stand behind you. However, even at an ATM the information goes via the Internet to the main bank computer in another state or in an underground cave somewhere. Major banks lease network lines that make it even safer for transactions.
4. The safest use of your card is in front of your computer, because nobody is there to peak, and the information goes via the Internet in all cases. On top of this, if you use your credit card in front of your computer, you can see the site is safe (remember https://) and you can stop the transaction immediately if you want. You do not have a chance to do it in any of the other cases.
Conclusion: Shopping at the Internet is at least as safe as shopping at the mall if you use credit cards
When to use debit card or credit card?
In both cases you have to manage your balance very carefully.
Always use a credit card online; never a debit card. Credit cards offer fraud protection (in almost all cases; every person should confirm with his/her credit card issuer). If your card is used fraudulently, the credit card issuer won’t charge you for the stolen amount.
Banks (debit cards), however, don’t normally issue the same level of fraud protection. In addition, while you are hassling with the bank to credit your account, your account may be drained of funds for several weeks.
Use your debit card only for local purchases. With a debit card the money is gone and almost impossible to get back. Your bank has already paid the store, and you have to go there, to get your money back
Social Engineering.
Since nobody can break into the Internet, neither your transactions, this new term Social Engineering mean malicious people can be targeted the weakest link YOU,
The biggest danger on the internet is these phishing scams, in my opinion. These are incredible dangerous and easy to fall for. A malicious user makes a website look like a real website, and then sends mass junk mail to people saying something like “your personal information may have been compromised. Please click <here> to update your account information to protect you.”
However, what is really happening is that they are sending you to a fake website and watching you enter your REAL username and password.
NEVER click a link from an email if you DO NOT KNOW who sent the mail. NO LEGITIMATE business will EVER ask you to click a link to update your username or password. Repeat, NO REAL BUSINESS will ask you to click a link to update your username or password.
If you have ever done this, likely someone has stolen your account information.
If you think the email might be from a real website you use, CALL or EMAIL them first.
I hope this little article opened a few eyes, and helped most of you to understand the issue of Internet security.
John Johansen