Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
An email or pop-up message designed to trick you into revealing personal
information
A phone call or instant message, again designed to trick you into revealing personal
information
The personal touch is often the hardest to resist, because the individuals concerned are
normally very good at encouraging you to reveal personal information. It's more diffi cult
when you're unsure if they're genuine—it's unpleasant to mistrust everyone.
This topic can't teach you good judgment and provide you with the life experience to
discern who is honest and who is dishonest. However, you may wish to consider with care
anyone who asks questions about the following:
Your preferred email address
Where you were born
Your maiden name (if you have one)
Your mother's maiden name
The school(s) you went to
Where you currently live
Your date of birth
Your favorite sports team
The type of music you listen to
As you can see, such questioning could give someone enough information to work out
the answers to forgotten-password security questions as well as commit identity fraud.
Unexpected phone calls that include subtle questioning can also be an issue. It's possible
to make you believe that the call may be genuine and from your bank or your company's
network administration team.
Web Browser Risks
Web browsers work by downloading and displaying web pages, which are, essentially,
programming scripts. The script is rendered as a formatted web page by your web browser
on your local PC.
The trouble is, at the moment when that page is downloaded, there are numerous
opportunities for a hacker to take advantage of the connection in various ways. For
example, your requests for pages can be intercepted on their way to the server. This can
compromise your privacy, because someone can see what pages you're requesting. More
important, however, it can compromise any login information you may be sending to a
fi nancial or business site. Scripts can also contain malicious code that infects your system,
making it perform unwanted activities like sending your private information to a third party
or displaying countless ads. Web pages can also have embedded Flash or Java applications
that can do harm in some cases.
