Cyber crime is a term broadly used to describe criminal activity in which computers or networks are a tool, a target, or a place of criminal activity. This affects a large amount of internet users from all over the world on a daily basis. You need to protect yourself - same as locking the front door of your house. Below are typical cyber crimes

This is wrongfully impersonating someone typically to steal from them. It is done several ways but mostly from the user receiving a bogus email (generally pretending to be a legitimate, trusted company). The email then informs to follow a link and confirm their personal details. Once these details are entered the cyber criminal can then gain access to anything from their computer to bank account details. Other methods include phony websites and the use of crimeware which is detailed below.

Trojan - This type of program is unknowingly downloaded onto your computer and is often designed as the first stage of attack. The Trojan will often silently stay hidden while recording keystrokes to obtain your personal details or installing stronger threats such as a bot.

For a Trojan to infect, it must be invited onto a computer by the user opening an email attachment or downloading and running a file from the internet.

Bots - “Bot” is short for robot – not the kind found in science fiction movies or on the production line though. These are one of the most sophisticated types of crimeware facing the internet today and are similar to Worms and Trojans. The difference is, they perform a wide variety of automated tasks on behalf of their master (the cyber criminals) who are often safely located somewhere far across the internet. This ranges from spamming to hosting fraudulent websites.

Bots can sneak onto a person’s computer in many ways. One such way is to spread them across the internet by searching for vulnerable, unprotected computers to infect. When they find an exposed computer, they infect the machine and then report back to their master. Other ways in which a bot infects a machine include being downloaded by a Trojan, installed by a malicious website or being emailed directly to a person from an already infected machine.

The best advice to not download files from unknown sites and don’t open emails from unknown addresses. Further protect yourself via enabling Email Anti-virus on your Slingshot mail box and installing NOD32 Anti-virus software.

Here are some good security habits that will protect you too:

• Choose strong passwords and keep them safe
• Protect your personal information
• Remember, online offers that look to good to be true usually are
• Review your bank and credit card statements regularly
• Disconnect your computer from the internet when your not using it