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Email: Savior or Murderer?

© Caroline Baker

The Internet marches to the beat of world around it. It should come as no surprise then that the word on everyone’s lips is affecting the Internet as well, Terrorism, with a capital “T”.

In the United States, there has recently been a wide rash of anthrax-laden mail messages. Snail mail. As such, many people are starting to turn more and more to the Internet to take care of their critical mailing needs. In today’s world, it’s hard to find too many people who aren’t connected to the Internet in some fashion. Even most major companies and creditors now accept payment and provide customer service through the Internet. According to the Yankee Group, an independent consultant firm, they expect over the next 3 to 6 months folks will be getting online more often to pay their bills.

Already in the United States, nearly 9.9 million households handle their bills online. The advantage to online service is speed and avoiding late payments. What would normally take a week to process by mail, payments can be handled in a matter of hours or days when done through the Internet. However, with such efficiency comes the danger of protecting yourself. Not all transactions on the Internet are safe, not even those made by some major companies across the US. Many technical people working for some top-rated companies advise caution when utilizing the Internet to pay for bills.

Cookies are one source of the problem. Cookies are text files that the Internet saves on the local computer so you don’t have to keep logging into the system. Some cookies save critical information such as your username and password. If someone were to gain direct access to that computer, they would need minimal amount of computer savvy to get into your account. Thus, never use public computers to log into your accounts.

Even on your own computer, it is advisable that you ever so often clear out your cookies so that no one will gain access to this critical information through programs known as "Trojan horses." There are several ways to remove cookies from your computer. For each browser it is different, so check your help files. There are also “cookie-removing” programs, such as SuperCleaner 2.2, which you can install on your computer and run to clear out any cookies. Again, this method isn’t fool-proof as there are some browsers that such programs aren’t setup to handle.

Cyberspies are another risk. Just like the next door neighbor with the amplifier to pick up your telephone conversations, cyberspies can find the information you transmit and grab it, thus getting all your critical information like bank account numbers and access PINs. Encryption, a means where the program codes your information so that only valid systems on the other end can decode things, is one means to protect such information. It is very hard to decrypt this information by an average cyberspy. However, because you are using that site they know have an account there and they can try to pose as a support person from that organization and ask you for your passwords and PINs.