With this day and age of technology, you find that more and more consumers are doing their Christmas shopping online. In most cases it is a cheaper and more convenient approach to shopping at the brick and mortar retail stores. An extra bonus is that you can shop online at anytime of the day and you can do it in your jammies.  To give you an idea of the magnitude of online shopping that occurs, Forrester Research projects that U.S. consumers will spend $44 billion dollars online this month and next. WOW!

As you can imagine, all of this online purchasing activity does not go unnoticed. Cyber criminals are out in force and ready to prey upon an unsuspecting online shopper. Most cyber criminals are employing malicious programs that act very similar to a virus. They infect your computer like a virus, however, instead of shutting your computer down or corrupting your hard drive, the program lurks behind the scenes and tries to capture your personal information.  Once it has gathered your bank information, social security numbers, and so on.. it will then send that information back to the cyber criminal and they will use it in ways that are sure to hurt your bank account and/or credit report.

So, what can you do to combat these incredulous cyber criminal tactics?

1. Make sure you have some sort of anti-virus software installed on your computer. Any off- the- shelf program should work fine. You may also want to look into downloading AVG’s free virus software or the free version of Avast. Do a search on google and you will find them.
2. Be wary of the sites you are visiting. If it is a site that you have not used before and you question it’s legitimacy, then you may want to steer clear.
3. Stay vigilant even when you are visiting known sites. Unbeknown to them, they may get compromised and in turn compromise your information or data.
4. Never click on any links that are emailed to you (unless you know it to be a secure source) Always go directly to the website that the links imply that they will be taking you to.
5. Make sure your web browsers and plug-ins are up-to-date. Usually you can click on the help button in your browser and it will have a “check for updates” tab

Hopefully this list helps our readers at SmartSecurityPeople.com to become less susceptible to cyber criminals during the holiday season. If you have any other suggestions for our readers, please feel free to share below in comments.

A recent article from Pioneer Press reveals a situation where a student engaged in a relationship with a professor at the University of St. Thomas that ultimately ended with her email account being compromised and the professor being arrested by the FBI and being charged federally for his actions (not the relationship with the student - the breaking into her email actions). As you read through the article, you can very quickly realize that both parties (Koster, 27 and Grzeskowiak, 34) in this situation are not dealing with a full deck. Their history together carries a number of restraining orders, accusations of stalking, and both have apparently been getting counseling. It is certainly something that you would expect to see on Jerry Springer. None-the-less, the relevance of this situation is to educate you about a software package (SniperSpy) that was used by the professor. Apparently, you can install this on anyone’s PC and instantly give you access to everything that person is doing on that computer. It has the ability for you to access the computer remotely and view the same screen shot that they are seeing on their monitor. Here is a list of all that it can track:

• Web Sites Visited
• Applications Executed
• Keystrokes Typed
• Passwords Typed
• Documents Opened
• Windows Opened
• File Changes
• Folder Changes
• Active Window Shots
• Full Instant Messaging Chats
• Live Screen Viewing

If anyone you know, or don’t know, tries to install something like this on your computer, please delete the program immediately. No good can come from it. Based upon the list of what this program can accomplish; your identity, not to mention your privacy,  could be greatly compromised.

Does anyone know of any other programs, similar to SniperSpy, that we should try to avoid?