Threats to be aware of on the Internet

 

Here is a brief explanation on certain internet threats to be aware of when you use I.T communications (Social networks, blogs, genral search etc)

                                                    

Cyber bullying

 

 

Cyber bullying is defined in three definitions in legal glossaries. The three in general, are as follows:

Actions that use technologies and communication to use repeated, hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm and abuse another or others.

Actions that are in support of communication technologies, that have the sole intention of harming another person or persons.

use of internet service and mobile devices such as web pages and discussion groups, as well as instant messaging or sms text messaging with the intention of harming another person.

 

 Spam

Spam is a method to electronically communicate a bulk of messages to a mass audience. This use is commonly known through E-mail messaging.

There are other forms of spam which are known as instant messaging spam, web search engine spam, Blog spam, mobile phone messaging spam, forum spam and social networking spam. These are just a few of the know types of communication spam.

 

Phishing
 

Phishing Is a term used where an unauthorised user attempts to acquire personal information from another user. This can be in the form as passwords, credit card details, usernames and other such information. 

It can be done by email with a link to a hostile site owned by the phisers. The site will store the details that are entered and can then be used by the phisers.

                                                                  

Denial of servive attacks

 

Is a term to describe where a method is used to block or stop users from accessing their intended network or machine resource.

Overwhelm a site by too many requests so server is unable to cope.

Examples are criminal/activist, anti political groups.