Safe Internet Alliance

Riddle: What do 16th century ships with rats carrying the plague and today’s Internet have in common?

Answer: Both have malicious, detrimental entities that can freely harm the public because they essentially cross all borders and boundaries.

This was the point made by Peter Cassidy of the Anti-Phishing Working Group this afternoon while participating as a panelist in Safe Internet’s first media teleconference, “Cybercriminals: Exploiting the Enforcement & Deterrent Gaps” (part of a series to discuss ways to better educate and protect all Internet users.) Peter was joined by two other panelists: Pamela Warren, cybercrime strategist at McAfee, and Marcus Sachs, executive director of national security policy at Verizon.  A lively discussion ensued about the evolution of cybercrime, with the following advice about actions every Internet user should take:

1. Secure every Internet connected device you own. Practicing good Internet device hygiene means having up-to-date anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-phishing software installed on every device that connects to the Internet. Set these programs to automatically update. Use strong passwords to protect your computer and other devices, and use strong passwords on your wireless networks. These security measures are an absolute requirement for protecting yourself, and a social requirement for responsible online interactions with others, as unprotected Internet- connected devices represent a risk to everyone.
    
2. Apply defensive Internet-use procedures. Your biggest threat, once you have secured your computer, is through your own actions online. Cybercriminals are masters in fooling unsuspecting computer users into clicking malicious links, believing their sob story, or into providing sensitive information in messages, search engines, social networking sites, forums, and everywhere else imaginable online. 21st century life skills include knowing how to:
   • detect and block spam and phishing ploys
   • apply defensive browsing tactics – “drive, don't be pulled” to sites!
   • use caution when sharing information to prevent ID theft
   • and shop only on sites that you know or that have strong reputations  
3. Refuse to use sites that do not place your privacy and protection first.  Sites need to earn your business by ensuring that your safety, and the safety of children in your care is their top priority.
   • Companies should let you know that they employ the most stringent standards for data security.  Far too often, a single set of credentials is all it takes to breach a security system and put millions of consumers at risk.  With the recession forcing cost savings, security measures cannot be among the cuts.
   • Companies need to spend the time to develop features in a way that provides maximum consumer protection instead of racing a feature to market and attempting to patch problems when complaint levels get too high.
   • Companies should clearly explain how to successfully use each feature in their products from a safety perspective.

Pamela, Marc and Peter also provided some additional resources that users will find helpful:

• The McAfee Threat Center blogs: Researchers provide objective analysis of trends and the evolving online environment: http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/
• How consumers and small business can avoid being a cyber-victim: http://www.mcafee.com/cru - it's a free portal
• Verizon’s Business 2009 Data Breach Study, which examined data analyzed from Verizon Business' actual caseload comprising 285 million compromised records from 90 confirmed breaches, and revealed that corporations fell victim to some of the largest cybercrimes ever during 2008. It also found a significant rise in targeted attacks and organized crime involvement: http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/verizon/2009/verizon-business-2009-data.html  
• The Anti-Phishing Working Group’s consumer recommendations, where you can download secure toolbars, learn how to avoid phishing and ways to report ID theft and phishing scams: http://www.antiphishing.org/consumer_recs.html

For additional information on the topics above and to hear more from our panel click on the link below.  http://safeinternet.org/sia_cut2.mp3