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Computer: Safety rules on the WWW
Why the Internet is like playing a video game: How many of you play video games? Good ... many of you. Now let me ask you a question: “In video games if the hero/heroine has to travel to a land which is infected with dangerous creatures and predators, do they ever venture there unprepared?” If you say No, you are correct. The hero/heroine always has some sort of weaponry, even if it is only a sword. Now why is this question important? It’s because the Internet is like that very land full of monsters and you are the hero or heroine of the video game every time you go online. So if you’re not careful, like the hero/heroine, you can regret your move.
The monsters that ravage this land of WWW are called Worms, Trojans, and Viruses, and they want to destroy what you cherish most — the data on your computer. Not only that, if they break in to your castle (your computer), they will loot and plunder, so that you will end up having to format everything. Sometimes the damage can be beyond repair, too.
In this land, you will also have to guard against rampaging Bots and Digital Spiders who will want to steal your information and use it to send SPAM! (Email that you didn’t ask for) to your email accounts until they crash and most of all, here you will have to guard against the worst threat of all — other people who want to steal information about you, or worse harm you physically.
Now don’t be scared. It’s not really as bad as it sounds. But before you step into the world of the www, you should be armed properly. Exciting isn’t it? You bet. Let’s start by learning about the monsters that you will find here, shall we.
Viruses and Worms are the worst monsters that you will find on the Internet. These are like any other file that runs a program that you want. The only difference is that when you double click an MP3 file, it plays a song. When you open a virus or worm, it can:
* Destroy the data on your Hard Disk,
* Slow your system performance down tremendously,
* Display unusual messages on your screen
* Make your data go amiss
* Make it impossible for you to access anything on your Hard Drive.
You can unwittingly bring viruses or worms onto your computer by downloading an infected program or file from the Internet or opening an e-mail attachment that carries the virus or worm.
The Trojan Horse (another type of virus) is another threat that you will find rampant on the Internet. Remember how the Trojan horse was used to break into the city of Troy, when nothing else was working. The soldiers were hiding inside when the horse was wheeled into the city. At night they opened the gates, so the armies could march in and destroy. This is the same reason why these types of programs are called Trojan Horses. The program will install on your system and wait for commands from the programmer. It can steal any type of information it wants ranging from your email account’s passwords to credit card’s information and send it back. It can also be used to let a hacker break into the system.
When you’re online, you will also have to watch out for Bots and Spiders. These are programs that travel the Internet searching for email addresses, especially on popular websites. They work by looking at every page on the Internet for email addresses, and when they find one, they send out SPAM! Spam is email that arrives in your mailbox with subjects related to ‘Get Rich Quick Schemes’ ‘Drugs’, ‘Mortgage’, ‘Credit Cards’, and so forth. These are unwanted emails that just take up space in your email account and generally just cause frustration. However, if you start getting excessive spam, your email account can crash.
By far the most dangerous monsters, however, on the WWW are the real humans themselves. There have been countless cases where people have been befriended by strangers online, especially in chat rooms, and then lured into revealing secrets or worse kidnapped and harmed. There have also been many cases of frauds and theft as well. So always be extra careful with people whom you don’t know online.
Malware and Spyware are also a certain class of software which you will have to be careful not to install. However, these happen to be more annoying, rather than destructive. These programs spy on what websites you visit and then send that information to Advertisers who then send you Pop-up windows (Windows that will automatically open, every time you will connect to the internet) or spam. These programs will also slow down your net connection tremendously.
Now brave warrior you have been fore-warned, but then what is life without an adventure. Next week we will give you your armour, a shield and a sword and then we’ll venture forth from then on, into this land of the WWW. Until then, be prepared.
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