“Surfing” the Internet used to be a popular pastime. You hopped on your computer surfboard and rode the waves of the Internet, randomly surfing and exploring from one website to the next.
In recent years, though, random Internet surfing has become a much more dangerous activity. Upwards of a million malware-infected websites mar the Internet, hoping to trick uneducated surfers into clicking the wrong thing. A study released by security vendor Commtouch Security Lab (CSL) in December 2013 notes that, “The average of nearly 11,500 new threats every day increases the digital foothold of cybercriminals as well as the likelihood that victims will stray into dangerous territory. The malware endangers businesses and end users with a wide range of threats, including password and identity theft, use of hacked PCs as bots for spam, denial of service attacks, and a growing favorite of cybercriminals – encrypting and then ransoming critical data.”
The report goes on to say, “In many cases the sites hosting malware or phishing are compromised legitimate sites with an unnoticed malicious page injected into the site by hackers.”
“Malware sites typically rely on exploit kits that seek out known vulnerabilities in the browser, operating system, or PDF reader software, among others, and then use these vulnerabilities to gain control of the visiting computer or smartphone. The majority of phishing sites targeted PayPal users, but an increasing number aimed for the Google credentials of users – since these credentials open up an increasing range of linked Google services.”
Add to the threat of malware-infected websites the problem of Internet bad guys actively scanning both public and private networks for users signing into bank accounts, credit card accounts, email, etc., to steal passwords and the problem rapidly escalates to one of untenable proportions. If you can’t do what you normally want to do on the Internet without the bad guys tracking your every move, what do you do?
You hide.
The decision of whether or not to hide will be based what type of network you are using. Do you only use your home network, meaning, the wired or wireless network that was set up at your house by the person sent from AT&T or Cox? If so, stay on that network and ignore the rest of this column.
However, if you use your iPhone, iPad, Android tablet, Galaxy phone or laptop computer on any network outside of the home, a network other than your carriers’ network, and you do not take the proper precautions, then you may as well sit back and watch the carnage, because at some point in time, you will be hacked.
My best advice is that, if you travel, stay on your carriers network. Do not jump off your carrier’s network, be it AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, or Verizon, and get on the local iHop network just to save minutes. Minutes are cheap. Repairing your credit history and reclaiming your identity is expensive.
The reasons for this are simple. The AT&T network, as a 4G network serving your phone and tablet, is very secure. The Verizon network serving the same purpose, is very secure. The T-Mobile network of the same class is very secure. Stay on your carrier’s network and you don’t have much to worry about.
It’s only when you start jumping off these networks in an attempt to save minutes that the potential for trouble becomes very real. Suddenly, you are joined to a network where “your stuff” becomes readily accessible to anyone else on the network, i.e., the iHop network, the Panera Bread network, The Holiday Inn Motel network, it doesn’t matter. If the Internet Bad Guys are also using that network, then you are risking exposure.
To stay safe in these situations, you may want to use a Virtual Private Network service which utilizes a technology called “tunneling.” Using such a service hides your activities from other people on the same network, making you virtually invisible to prying eyes.
One such service is called SecurityKISS (www.securitykiss.com). There are many good online VPN services, but I point people to SecurityKISS because it is easy for most people to configure and use, and it is also free. Check it out and start safely tunneling your way through the Internet.