Be careful what you throw away - sure we can`t keep everything, and the science of intricate computer know-how is lost to the layman, but it is scary what is contained in our junk, even after we delete it.
A recent Australian study conducted by Edith Cowan University found huge amounts of sensitive information such as bank details, pornographic pictures and credit card numbers left behind on the disk drives of discarded PCs.
This study coincided with reports of Nigerian fraudsters that have been selling private information they obtained from "recycled" PCs that were sent to Africa by the UK for about $50. Talk about abusing a gift!
It is imperative that information is sufficiently wiped out before trashing an old machine - this can be done by either using a commercial erasing tool to overwrite data stored on your hard drive. It is also advisable to simply remove your hard drive altogether.
Vishful thinking
Voice phishing (or "vishing") is becoming more and more popular, and cleverer, as the world begins to grow tired and weary of the e-mail variety.
Voice phishing is becoming more popular and cleverer, as the world begins to grow tired and weary of the e-mail variety.
Ilva Pieterse, ITWeb journalist
There are two ways fraudsters are obtaining personal details via the telephone, the first being posing as the bank confirming details with a client, and the second posing as a customer calling for their details from the bank.
The scariest part of these types of crimes is that criminals have discovered how to warp the caller ID, so it appears the call is legit, pretty much the same way phishing uses a bogus site under the guise of an authentic one.
Money out the window
A report has quantified monetary loss suffered by Americans due to computer viruses, spyware and online scams at $7.9 billion.
The majority of those losses were attributed to viruses - with total damage amounting to $5.2 billion for cleaning up computers or replacing machines that were irrecoverably affected.
Spyware cost a total of $2.6 billion, and phishing attributed to the loss of $630 million.
Aye, spyware
Speaking of spyware, stats and studies indicate it is not only coming of age, but spinning out of control.
With the growing use of rootkits and key loggers, spyware is becoming more and effective and dangerous. Users are even being exploited through the popularity of online video clips - as creators stay abreast with the latest Internet trends.
Webroot`s State of Spyware report indicates an increase of 100 000 identified malicious Web sites in the last year. It also shows that 89% of consumer PCs are infected with some or other form of spyware.
Google in the doodle
Google is being sued in two separate cases this week, by a Dutch farmers` dating Web site, and Brazilian prosecutors seeking information.
In the case of the dating Web site, called Farm Date, Google is being sued for displaying sponsored links to pornographic sites when the phrase "farm date" is typed into the search engine, which is "very damaging to Farm Date`s reputation".
Prosecutors in Brazil are upset with Google for refusing to provide user information from its social networking site, Orkut.
The site came under the spotlight in May when a Brazilian human rights commission presented evidence that it had been used for child pornography, hate crimes, and drug trafficking.
Google says, in its defence, there has been a misunderstanding whereby the Brazilian authorities have made the requests to Google Brazil - the sales office - as opposed to Google Head Office in the US.
Sources used: The Age, Ferris Research, Viruslist.com, Business Week Online, News.com, Red Herring
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