News for the Week of February 04, 2007
The launch of Vista, Microsoft's latest operating-system upgrade, and fresh attacks on PCs and Macs, computer security in the home has been in a lot of tech-news headlines of late...
'Zombie' threat growing
It's a threat not to Net users' physical well-being so much as financial. "Zombies," in the world of data security, are compromised computers - including family PCs. And they're stealth zombies, because it's really hard to tell if one's computer has been compromised (operated remotely by criminals and malicious hackers). It's also hard to tell exactly how many of the world's 650 million Net-connected computers are zombies, but "the consensus among scientists is that botnet programs are present on about 11%" of them, the New York Times reports. They get into our computers via worms and viruses downloaded from malicious Web sites or activated by clicking on email and IM attachments - which we all, including kids, can easily do without thinking. What's new about this, the Times says, "is the vastly escalating scale of the problem - and the precision with which some of the programs can scan computers for specific information, like corporate and personal data, to drain money from online bank accounts and stock brokerages."
Education the best protection
Computer security experts worry that the average computer user doesn't understand the threat enough to do something about it, and it is hard to explain. I'll try: For example, a worm gets downloaded, infects, and - with key-logger software - starts recording credit card numbers, passwords, social-security numbers, etc. by monitoring users' key strokes when they type. In a case the Times cites, the stolen info "generated 54,926 log-in credentials and 281 credit-card numbers... [and] affected 1,239 companies, including 35 stock brokerages, 86 bank accounts, 174 ecommerce accounts, and 245 e-mail accounts." Eighty percent of all that spam we get comes from botnets (networks of infected computers). Security firms can't keep up with the problem, and Internet service providers are pretty much ignoring it, according to the Times.
In other news...
- Globally safer Net. That was the aim of the fourth-annual Safer Internet Day, which took place February 6 with participants in nearly 40 countries. The event involves the work of nonprofit child advocacy organizations in multiple countries, led by Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for the Information Society and Media. "The highlight of the day [was] a worldwide blogathon that included the work of young people from 200+ school in 25 countries participating in a content-creation competition. They created "Internet safety awareness material on one of three themes: e-privacy, netiquette, and power of image." Really great topics US educators might consider for next-generation (Web 2.0) Net safety curricula!
- Teen video viewing. More than half (53%) of US teens view online videos occasionally, and 22% view videos weekly or more often, according to new findings by JupiterResearch. The teens who watch them frequently "tend to be both active online and socially influential," Jupiter says. Like adults, teens tend to rely on friends' recommendations to find online videos. That's the top source, followed by personal blogs, social networking sites, and search engines. There are approximately 21 million teens online in the US. In other video news, Facebook has struck a deal with Comcast to start a user-produced video contest in March. Winning videos will be part of a new 10-episode TV series called "Facebook Diaries, XChange Online reports.
- YouTube as police tool. Toronto police have posted video of missing 17-year-old Eva Ho on YouTube to help their investigation, CTV Toronto reports. Investigative leads suggest she might be in Hong Kong, so the social Web is a logical tool to get the word out internationally. It's a first for the Toronto police but a growing trend in law enforcement, CTV adds.
- 1 million online students. That's the total number of seats, K-12, in all online classes across the US, a figure that "has grown more than 20 times in seven years," the Los Angeles Times reports. It cites figures from the North American Council for Online Learning projecting growth of 30% a year. "Nearly half the states offer public school classes online, and last year Michigan became the first in the nation to require students to take an online course to graduate from high school. In California, a state senator introduced a bill last week to allow public high school students to take online classes without depriving schools of the state funding they receive for attendance."
- Schools banning phones. Schools all over the US are "cracking down on students whose cellphones disrupt classes and make it easier to cheat," USATODAY reports. For example, Milwaukee's 222 schools just started enforcing an if-you-use-it-we'll-take-it rule "prompted by fights that escalated into brawls when students used cellphones to summon family members and outsiders." Reporter Judy Keen gives us other examples in Minnesota, Kentucky, Mississippi, and New York City. Meanwhile, 2006 was a record year for cellphones - more than 1 billion shipped in last year, the Associated Press reports. And in the New York Times, SafeKids.com's Larry Magid points out that, with a mere download or two, most any kid could figure out how to make the most basic phone do a lot of what today's expensive "smart phones" can do.
