more individuals and companies are running background screening and history checks, this blog will discuss tips, reviews and information about background checks.

How Safe Is Your Password?

Posted: July 11th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Cybertheft | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

Nearly everybody works with the net every day. It’s now so commonplace that you can access the web from a phone, come across wifi hotspots inside train stations, and sometimes connect to the world-wide-web using the television. It’s safe to suggest that it is here to stay and is not going to be heading anywhere fast. It is challenging to imagine a lifestyle without requiring the net and computer systems. Where would people hear news or information? How might people connect with one another? How might we buy items? Lifestyles are increasingly starting to be challenging to manage. A lot of people utilize the web simply because it is faster and frequently more straight forwrd compared to having to do tasks physically. Sadly this also means we all have to be more and more smart with the information we supply on the internet. The surge of internet crime and identity theft is a continuously growing worry for users.

First, it is crucial to use a strong password. Too many internet users have incredibly inadequate security passwords that tend to be easy to break into. Hackers employ potent tools that try to crack your account details. The weaker your account password, the more straight forward it is to crack your online accounts. There are a few quite straight forward and easy rules to have a more effective password. Arguably the single most important rule to follow is to never use a password which can be found inside the dictionary. Your password ought to be made of at least six characters long (the longer the password the better). There are four types of characters to utilise for a great online password: make use of upper and lower casing, use numbers, use special characters (grammatical symbols). Variation is vitally important to an excellent account password and by making use of all four different kinds of characters you can have a strong online password. Another easy tip is to exchange normal characters for numbers and special characters. For example, s will be $, e will be £ or a would be 4. These are fairly easy steps to follow but having  a great online password is often one of the most important defences in fighting online crime.

Similarly, you should always be watchful of what is published online. The increasing popularity of online networks and personalised homepages have made it even easier for criminals to commit online identity fraud. It is always important to check what personal information you are publishing on the internet. The relative anonymity of the internet and the ease at which we can correspond with other people has meant people often become rather laid back about what private data they upload on to the internet. You should always ask yourself would you be okay with telling a stranger you have not met before this information? Private data like your age, your address and family details are all things which are crucial to keep confidential. Whenever you do post this information then you should definitely make it private and show it only to other people who you trust totally.

Something to try is to use an online password management service. These are free services you can use that make managing your passwords more straight forward and more safe. Online password managers work by storing your online account information safely and securely on the web. They can either work by being local to your computer (where you install them) or by being online (where you sign in online). They are very helpful tools as they take away the need for remembering complicated passwords. What this means is you are able to have really difficult passwords and use unique passwords for every online account that you own. A password is undermined by using the same password for all of your online accounts. Some will even allow you to automatically log into your accounts for you. Understandably, some people might not necessarily trust online password managers however they are very useful and really quite safe.

In conclusion, you should try to remain conscious of two ideas: use a great password and be cautious of what details you publish on the web. These are two easy to understand rules and whilst it may be tempting to ignore them (or just be lazy about them), online security is something everyone should really take into consideration.

Online Game Crime – Virtual Theft

Posted: July 5th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Cybertheft | No Comments »

I’m afraid that online game crime does happen and is a lot more common than you would imagine.   I recently read a story about a young girl who played a very popular online game called Lineage, she spoke a lot with a male friend who slowly became rather infatuated.  Eventually the girl said to her friend ” give me your password to prove simply how much you care about me.”   The youthful boy duly agreed and was rather horrified to discover later the fact that object of his affections and transferred all his online money, gold and equipment to her own character.

Would you describe this act as one of theft? The young lady didn’t think so, citing the fact it was just a game.  Even so the sale of online possessions is really a huge ‘real world’ business which grosses millions of dollars every year.  There  was no real world financial gain in this instance however there easily might have been as the online proceeds of this cruel act could easily have been sold.   At least this young man has learnt a valuable life lesson with virtually no real damage.  He definitely won’t be the last to fall for this kind of ploy on or offline I’m certain.  As we speak an army of cyber criminals using an elaborate network of anonymous proxies are targeting user accounts for all sorts of online systems

It is a real danger, each and every year a huge number of viruses and trojans are written specifically to steal the passwords of online game enthusiasts everywhere.  For those who have ever logged into any of the online games then you’ve probably come across people offering to sell gold or possessions at very low prices.   It is big business and your accounts are at risk be careful with them. We might laugh at the poor victim of an alleged cyber mugging – however the players of these games invest huge parts of their lives in their online personnas.  The truth is many of them would handle being robbed in real life better than having their online goods stolen.

All of the important lessons we learn in the real world often are just as relevant online.  You could be actually mislead, deceived or robbed online a good deal more easily than in real life.   Although you’d think criminals wouldn’t target games, most don’t care how they steal – actually stealing virtually from young adults is low risk which has a high reward. Be careful with your accounts and never, ever hand out your passwords to anyone online, even if you adore them !  Keep your PC updated with the latest security patches, never open attachments on emails unless you trust  the sender and ensure that your pc includes a firewall and virus protection.

Remember all that virtual wealth you’ve attained in a game like World of Warcraft has a value, if someone has access to your account they control your character and his possessions.  If you lose everything it’s going to hurt and you will feel pretty stupid trying to explain at the local police station that Asgrad of Vannekin has been robbed of all his armour and his flying mount by a chinese teenager who runs a power leveling site from Shanghai.   Online game crime is real and happening now, but if you’re a victim then your pretty much on your own.