Hi Folks,

Q:
I know this is kind of an odd question, but do you have any statistics on the phishing attacks that hit in the year 2007? I was just wondering how everything ended up with them. Thanks for any information you may have!

A:
That's actually a great question and I'm sure you're not the only one out there who has been wondering the same thing. As a matter of fact, I saw some interesting information about phishing attacks awhile back, but I didn't know if you all would be interested in it or not, so I passed it by. But when I saw this question in my e-mail the other day, I figured there were at least a few of you who wanted to know about it, so this one's for you!

So, I guess we might as well get right into it. According to a survey conducted by Gartner market researchers, 3.6 million U.S. citizens were victims of various phishing attacks in the year 2007. Wow, 3.6 million! Can you even imagine? Plus, in the mix of all that, 3.2 billion U.S. dollars were lost as well. That's extremely higher than last year's statistics, which amounted to a loss of 2.3 billion dollars. And as you can probably tell, it's only going to get worse from here on out.

Now, there is one positive note in all of this. In 2007, the average loss per individual person was lowered to $886 from $1,244 in 2006. While that's good news, in the whole scheme of things, the overall damage increased because so many more U.S. citizens gave in to the phishing attacks. The survey also said that most of the phishing attacks came in disguise under the eBay and PayPal names. Of course, there are several others looming around the Web today, but those two seemed to be the most popular last year.

The Gartner company went on to explain that most phishers go for debit card numbers and bank account information first. They said the security measures for that kind of data are a lot less strict than credit card information. And since a lot of people give out that information for their eBay and PayPal accounts, there's no easier way for phishers to get ahold of our personal information.

Gartner said they believe the same kind of phishing attacks will continue to increase until at least 2009. They may even go beyond that unless e-mail providers start to take firmer action against malware. All in all, I know this information is a little scary, but if you continue to use common sense when you're going through your e-mail or when you're signing up for a new online service, you will be just fine. As always, just be cautious of the e-mails you're opening and if something looks suspicious, just delete it. If you use certain Web sites like eBay and PayPal, just make sure you're logging in under a secure connection. If you pay close attention to everything you do online, you will be as safe as you can be.

Plus, if you're not part of that 3.6 million statistic yet, you must be doing something right!

~ Erin

Wireless Worm

I know I have written before about the importance of securing your wireless network. It's definitely necessary to make sure your computers are safe from intruders. Without having a secure wireless network, your computers are wide open for others to gain access to and do whatever they want with your data. I know all of that is a little scary, but today, I have a completely new issue that will definitely convince you to lock down your wireless router.

Think about this for a minute. How many times have you looked at the list of available wireless networks in range of your computer? If I look at the list here at WorldStart, I can see three of them right off the bat. That means that right now, if I had the password, I could connect to three different wireless connections.

Now, I'm sure some of you are thinking, "big deal!&#xu201D; Well, that's what I thought until I read a report the other day about the possibility of a worm that can spread through wireless routers. Researchers at Indiana University did a study on the possibility of a wireless router worm. This worm could spread by first infecting one wireless router and then connecting to all other wireless routers in range and infecting them. Those routers would then, in turn, do the same thing until all the wireless routers in range were infected.

Based on a study of New York City, a worm of this type could easily reach 20,000 routers within just a few days.

The only thing that can stop a worm of this type from spreading is having a strong password on your wireless router. If the worm cannot guess the password, it cannot access your router and will not spread. This is just another reason to make sure you have changed the default passwords on your wireless router.

Now, I'm not going to leave you hanging. Here's how to change the password on your wireless router:

1.) First, you need to find the address of your router. In Windows XP, go to Start, Control Panel. From there, click on Network Connections. Next, double click on your Wireless Network Connection and then go to the Support tab. Write down the Default Gateway address (it should start with 192.168).

2.) Next, you need to log in to your router. To do so, open your Web browser and in the address bar, type the Default Gateway address you wrote down. Then press Enter on your keyboard. That should bring you to a log in screen. Type in the username and password for your router. (If you don't know the username and password, you may need to check your router's manual).

3.) Lastly, you need to change your router's password. Every router is a little different, but you should be able to find an Administrator area on the screen. In that area, you will see a place to change the password for your router. Make sure your password is something you will remember, but also something that will not be guessed easily. It should not be a word, but rather capital letters, lowercase letters and numbers all mixed together.

After changing your password, click OK and you'll be all set. Doing this will definitely help to keep the worms out. Until next time, stay safe out there, my friends!

~ Gary

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