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Archive for July, 2009

Identity Theft – How To Protect Your Identity

by Paul Wilcox

There are plenty of things that you could own. Some may have been bought, others given to you, and still other passed along from generation to generation.

In addition, those possessions can have monetary or sentimental value. Some of those items that have sentimental value can include photographs or heirlooms that have been passed down within the family.

The down side of owning things of value is that they may be susceptible to theft. Sometimes theft can be broadly defined as items lost to a fire, flood, earthquake, etc. In addition, there is an element in society made up of individuals who steal from others and can rob law abiding individuals of their prized possessions.

One of the most personal things that can be stolen from you is your identity. Identity theft is becoming more and more of a problem, and the first step in preventing it is to understand what it is.

Definition Of Identity Theft

Identity theft is when one person pretends to be someone else, most often for the purpose of committing some type of fraud. This could mean accessing your banks accounts or even committing crimes in your name.

One of the most common impacts of identity theft is financial loss of some sort. Identity theft can affect your finances and credit rating when the thieves are able to access your bank accounts, credit cards and other private information.

In addition, if not addressed quickly, an identity theft victim will have to deal with damage perpetuated on their good name. Often this damage is reflected in credit ratings, possible criminal activity, employment interviews, etc. Although the victim is innocent, often it takes months or even years for the devastating effects of the identity theft to be cleared.

How Identity Theft Occurs

Identity theft often occurs when critical, personal pieces of information are somehow obtained by an identity thief.

This can include identification numbers, such as your social insurance number and driver’s license number – things that only their owner should know. Other potentially dangerous pieces of information are your passwords, account PINs, date of birth or even your mother’s maiden name.

If an identity thief gets hold of this information, they can impersonate you to banks, credit card companies and other services. Don’t ever give this information out to anyone who shouldn’t have it.

Often a company is very clear that they will never ask for these sensitive numbers unless the customer has initiated the call. In addition, often a company will only ask for the last four numbers of a person’s 9 digit social security number.

Also, identity thieves may look through trash or steal a person’s purse or wallet. It is therefore very important to shred all unwanted mail that contains sensitive information as well as never carrying your social security card with you.

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How Viruses Can Attack More Than Just Your Computer

by Theo McLanahan

You would be hard pressed to find any computer connected to the Internet without some type of anti-virus software to protect from the thousands of viruses circulating the World Wide Web. However, viruses can hit more than just computers. We need to learn how to protect all vulnerable technology such as routers, networks, and servers.

Routers are used to route network traffic, and are basically a special type of computer. Servers work to serve computers on a specific network.

They typically have more space, more memory, and are faster. There are several different types of servers, such as web servers, file servers, and email and ftp servers.

Anti-virus software is a must for all of these types of systems. They are vulnerable to the same viruses which plague our PCs. Therefore we must work diligently to ensure that they are protected from malicious viruses such as Trojans.

One way that servers and routers can be infected by viruses is from computers which are connected to them. Users can help by ensuring that there computer’s are virus free and thereby prevent the spread to servers or routers.

Users can do this by not only installing and running anti-virus software, but also by using Internet browsers which allow them to limit what types of websites can be visited and what those websites that are allowed may install.

It is also important for all users on a network to be diligent when it comes to opening emails. Most viruses are spread via email attachments which usually come in the form as an executable file, but may come with image attachments as well. Users should never open an email attachment if they don’t know the source or if it hasn’t been scanned for viruses.

In order to better protect servers, routers, and other important systems on our networks, technology companies are working towards better security options. Preventing viruses is vital to keep networks running smoothly.

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What is a System of E-mail Encryption ?

by Amy Nutt

Email encryption is a term that refers to the encryption as well as the authentication of email or electronic mail messages. Most commonly, email encryption is designed to rely on what is known as public key cryptography. There are a number of popular protocols that are used for the purpose of email encryption, the most notable of which are mail session encryption, identity based encryption, Open PGP encryption, TLS encryption and S/MIME encryption.

- Mail Session Encryption – This involves using a STARTTLS SMTP extension, which is a TLS layer that is on top of an SMTP connection. It is capable of protecting mail traffic from being sniffed while it is being transmitted, but this does not actually involve encrypting the actual email because the content inside the email messages is capable of being revealed to, and thusly tampered with, by the email relays that are involved. The encryption, then, actually occurs between the individual SMTP relays rather than between the individual sender and recipient. When both of the relays offer support for STARTTLS, then it is capable of being used regardless of whether or not another protocol is being used to encrypt the contents of the email.

- Identity Based Encryption is a form of public key cryptography that is designed and implemented to use unique information regarding the identity of the user such as their email address as the public key. The public key may also be a text value such as the domain name or name or its associated IP address for example.

- Open PGP – PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy, and Open PGP is a computer program designed to provide cryptographic privacy as well as authentication. It is often utilized for the purpose of signing, decrypting or encrypting emails in order to increase the level of security for email communication.

- TLS – TLS stands for Transport Layer Security, and it is the successor to Secure Sockets Layer or SSL. These are cryptographic protocols designed to provide data integrity and security for network communications such as through the internet. There are a number of different versions of these protocols that see wide spread use including web browsing, internet faxing, electronic mail, VoIP and instant messaging.

- S/MIME – S/MIME is an acronym that stands for Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, and this is a standard that is used for signing email and public key encryption of email that is encapsulated in MIME.

A Private Email Network , PEN is a secure pathway that employs highly effective encryption, without requiring complex programs, certificates or servers. Secure messages use existing e-mail address and can be created and read in any systems. Email2 is a business communication platform that enables security for your organization and creates a Private Email Network

Each of these email encryption protocols, mail session encryption, encrypted email solution, identity based encryption, Open PGP encryption, TLS encryption and S/MIME encryption are used for different purposes and some apply not only to email encryption but also to other types of encryption including internet browsing and instant messaging encryption depending on the method and mode of communication.

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Online Public Arrest Records Free

by Cassandra Lane

Conducting a criminal investigation nowadays is very feasible like checking on a persons arrest records for the purpose of finding out the criminal background of that individual. The public arrest records provide everyone the opportunity to be informed of someones criminal activities in the past or present. The records are meant to reveal the complete identity of the individual involved and they act as a precaution to the public.

The information that is going to be covered in the records may vary according to the control of various nations. These are necessary to be able to produce a concrete judgment about the job applicants, co-workers, neighbours, etc. People who are in the process of investigating a person must have some legal basis, public arrest records are needed to support legal actions. They are also of great help to immigration, licensing, security clearance, and identification.

Individuals must not hesitate whether or not to retrieve on the public arrest records because it is totally legal as authorized by law. The rationale of keeping such pertinent public records is to make people be aware of other peoples records of illegal activities. This is to ensure the protection and security of the public. In the records are the legal proceedings against a certain person like the offenses, crimes, allegations, etc. Everything will be properly documented and will appear on the free arrest records even when the person was not put behind bars.

Criminal cases that could be summed up in the records are burglary, sexual assaults, murder, and the other activities that violate the law. Additionally, the public records contain private information like the date of birth, address, contact details, tax records, health care, contractor license, property records, etc. For those who are still minors and have involved themselves in any form of criminal acts will not include their information in the public arrest records.

These important records are well taken cared by the government and law enforcement agencies. They are the ones responsible to provide the public with necessary details on arrest records. There are a number of record providers over the Internet these days. But, the free access to these records online may not be available to some places. Thus, people have to make a written request to the office concerned in order to obtain the records.

Searching for free arrest records nowadays is definitely a simple and quick task to perform with the aid of the Internet. This is a very convenient way to investigate a particular person. But, not all of the websites are providing free services; some require a reasonable price for the access of the public records. Paid services are meant to give anybody complete pieces of information about the person. These online sources are a great help to have a guaranteed safety and security of the public.

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How Important Is an Email Address Nowadays?

by Amy Nutt

In today’s business environment, which is as competitive as ever, every little advantage that you can create against competitors is going to benefit you, and having an e-mail address is one such advantage. Even something as small and as simple as an e-mail address can have a large impact on your business when it comes to determining whether or not you are going to land a deal, or create a sale before a competitor can.

When the internet was first taking off a few years ago, nearly everyone was signing up to utilize free web based email services such as free access mail. These were very convenient services at the time, and they gave us a means of communicating with other people all over the globe. Free browser based email services are still quite popular today, as there are millions of people subscribed any Free access mail. These free web-based e-mail services were primarily created for individuals that wanted email accounts, but businesses have also utilized these email services as well. In the past, having an free access account, an -at-free access mail.com account or an -at-yahoo-dot-com account was perfectly acceptable, even if the account was intended for business purposes, but this has changed significantly in recent years.

Now that we have moved so far forward in the realm of digital business, something looks fishy if you are still using one of these free email service providers as your primary business e-mail address. If you are using a free access mail account for your primary business contact, you may actually be giving people the wrong idea about your business by telling them that you are not serious about what you do. Because it has become so important for business people to have websites, you should already have an email to correspond with your domain name, meaning that there is absolutely no need for using a free web based service for your email needs.

Having an e-mail address is vitally important for communicating with other business people, clients, customers and people interested in what you do for a living. But you need to understand the difference that exists between being johnsmith-at-free access mail.com and being johnsmith-at-yourcompanyname-dot-com. If you are serious about having people take you and your business seriously, then you have to have a yourcompanyname-dot-com website, and an accompanying e-mail address.

If for example, if business has an email2 platform or you run a communications company, then telling people that your e-mail address is JohnSmith-at-A1Communications.com is definitely going to be better for your reputation and image than telling people that your email address is A1Communications-dot-free access mail-dot-com. Which company would you sooner rely on? For this reason, it has become vitally important for you to have a website and an accompanying email address that helps to build your reputation in the business world rather than to tear it down.

So how important is an email address these days? Vitally so, if you want your personal life, social relationships and business to go anywhere in this highly competitive world and make sure it’s an email security solution.

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