Internet Security and You

"On the Internet, the world is flat."

Said by Mark Yanalits, an information network engineer, who is a security and malware professional. He has been in the field of Internet security for 15 years.

"You can have a conversation with someone you've never met, in another country just by virtue of having the right type of cell phone or browser can pull up a site from Russia, wirelessly," Yanalits said.

The Internet is a resource, an entertainer, a bridge to other places and even our friends; but people often forget that it can be used by those for ill will as well as good. Those individuals are called hackers.

Hackers are the ones who write malicious software that turns a PC and Mac from a highly efficient machine to a twisted shell of its former self. While hackers were always a blight on computerized civilization, at their beginnings they were nothing but cyber thrill seekers.

When the Internet was just beginning to form and where desktop computers arrived at the workplace, they interconnected with other companies in other states and countries, the stakes increased.

This marked the arrival of small hacker communities in both America and Europe; with only one purpose, to see if they actually could hack a company system.

Hacker notoriety and personal reputation gained persistence through the '80s and '90s

When the millennium set in, desktop computers became really powerful and complex but vulnerabilities became more and more apparent. The vulnerabilities were exploited and hackers were able to gain full control of computer systems.

During this time, the Internet had become more accessible by the masses, and complex computer commands were being simplified by new programs, applications and easy user interfaces.

"Thanks to the speed, density and reach of the Internet and the powerful yet simplified abilities of the new desktop computers; when hackers attacked they did massive damage," Yanalits said. "You can hack into a main frame computer inside a giant organization in a few seconds"

They did just that-Yahoo, eBay, CNN and Visa were all attacked and crippled by hackers and their own systems' flaws.

"It was a big wake up call because suddenly on the Internet you had this malicious software created for street cred but had the capability to take down marquee institutions," Yanalits said.

If they did not do something, big companies would be taken out of commission, and out of business.

"So in turn, those companies put up huge bounties for the writers of those types of software," Yanalits said. "What the bounties did, and what the high profile arrests did was [drive] all the 'script kiddies' [a hacker novice, in it for the fun] out of the business and left people who were committed to use this capability for financial gain."

Since 2003 to the present, the Internet has only gotten faster, computers have gotten faster and programs even more complex.

This only widens the attack range for computer criminals, which are serious about what they do. In Yanalits' experience, the type of hackers that users encounter today are smart, calculating and experienced.

"You can go walk into a bank with a hand gun, and you can try and rob the bank, and might net you $11,000/12,000. That is if you don't get any dye pack explosions or shot by the guard, it's still a high risk venture."

On the other hand, criminal hackers (or people who hire them) can build malicious software, get into personal computers and steal a person's core identity. They can use it to open multiple credit cards in their name. They can easily steal two times the money compared to an armed robbery.

"The attractiveness of being able to perpetrate a crime from a distance gives a lot of incentive to engage computer crimes using the internet, because you don't have to take the risk of actually being there," Yanalits said.

Yanalits warns, it not just about money for computer criminals.

"The theft now, isn't just a theft of money; it's the theft of anything, and anything has currency," he said.

If that was not bad enough, a skilled hacker can turn a user's computer into a 'BotNet' if they're not careful. A BotNet is a small piece of user hacked computer (kept small so to not draw attention to the owners), where it is groomed and tuned up by 'BotNet herders.'

These herders combine it with thousands of other BotNet computers and rented by buyers to deliver spam or attack other computer networks

"Suddenly it's like a herd of cattle, hundred feet wide with spaces in between, goes down a narrow channel 25 yards wide," Yanalits said, while describing what a wave of BotNets attacking a system, effectively crashing it.

So not only can hackers possibly steal everything you have, but they can also use your computer to attack some one else.

It almost makes you want to turn the computer off for good. Do not worry! Yanalits has some solid tips to prevent hackers from getting the better of you. The first of which is to keep software updated.

"The biggest threat to a person's computer in present time is not keeping your computer 'patched' with software patches, including operating systems patches, from the vender of the software you're using."

So computers users should check often for security updates, or enable automatic updates, of whatever they are running to make sure their computer patches are up to date.

"The second thing owners of computers have to be aware of is not to be 'sloppy' and add a great deal of software to computer systems. Each program carries its own set of vulnerabilities beyond the computer operating systems that you're installing."

Meaning if you downloaded or installed a lot of applications like various Web browsers, media players, demo files, etc, each one of them could have a security weakness that hackers can use to get in.