internet dangers
Have a Nice Day!
Someone mentioned on the "late night" thread I think about the dangers of the internet.
I wanted to let you all know that 2 nights ago, my daughter was in a chat room and someone persuaded her to give him our IP address.
It had never occurred to me to tell her about the IP address, so I never did. She gave it to him and he sent a file. After she opened it he told her it was a Trojan Horse.
I was out with my husband and came home only 5 minutes after it happened.
The GOOD news is that I have a firewall which captures every IP address that makes contact with my computer. (I didn't know that until this happened).
I caught the guy who did it because I was able to trace the IP address. I actually have his name, phone, fax, physcial address, email address, and ISP. He doesn't know that (yet). He was bragging to my daughter that I'd never find him.
I emailed his ISP and sent all the evidence (saved text of the chat conversation, fire wall logs, and yahoo messenger profile, along with the trace that I had done).
I should know in a few days what his ISP decided. He did in fact do a port scan, which is not illegal in the UK (where he lives), but is against his ISP policy. Using a Trojan *is* illegal and he will likely be arrested if they decide that is what he did. At the very least, he will lose his ISP account.
So far, we do not appear to be infected, so it might have been a hoax...nevertheless, I'm glad I have the firewall.
You can get a free firewall at zonealarm.com
Kristen
****************************************************************
Today is even more important than tomorrow because "today" is a gift, and "tomorrow" might never come.
Today is where hope lives because today is when we can make things better than yesterday.
The only thing we can be sure of is today and life isn't worth living if it isn't lived in joy for as many moments of today as we can manage.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
I wanted to let you all know that 2 nights ago, my daughter was in a chat room and someone persuaded her to give him our IP address.
It had never occurred to me to tell her about the IP address, so I never did. She gave it to him and he sent a file. After she opened it he told her it was a Trojan Horse.
I was out with my husband and came home only 5 minutes after it happened.
The GOOD news is that I have a firewall which captures every IP address that makes contact with my computer. (I didn't know that until this happened).
I caught the guy who did it because I was able to trace the IP address. I actually have his name, phone, fax, physcial address, email address, and ISP. He doesn't know that (yet). He was bragging to my daughter that I'd never find him.
I emailed his ISP and sent all the evidence (saved text of the chat conversation, fire wall logs, and yahoo messenger profile, along with the trace that I had done).
I should know in a few days what his ISP decided. He did in fact do a port scan, which is not illegal in the UK (where he lives), but is against his ISP policy. Using a Trojan *is* illegal and he will likely be arrested if they decide that is what he did. At the very least, he will lose his ISP account.
So far, we do not appear to be infected, so it might have been a hoax...nevertheless, I'm glad I have the firewall.
You can get a free firewall at zonealarm.com
Kristen
****************************************************************
Today is even more important than tomorrow because "today" is a gift, and "tomorrow" might never come.
Today is where hope lives because today is when we can make things better than yesterday.
The only thing we can be sure of is today and life isn't worth living if it isn't lived in joy for as many moments of today as we can manage.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Shyrley
"Have a Nice Day!" wrote:
My computer is always in stealth mode. If you go to Privacy International you can get additional free software to protect your computer - there's even stuff that blocks Carnivore :-). Apart from yahoogroups email, my private email is encrypted so only people that have the key can read it. I can't remember
where I got that from but I'll look it up if anyone is interested. The downside is your recipient must have the same software.
Guess I'm just paranoid :-)
Shyrley
> Someone mentioned on the "late night" thread I think about the dangers of the internet.I have Zone Alarm Pro for that very reason. Not cos I think my kids will hand out my IP address or email online but to stop hackers. We get our ports scanned every few minutes. Hackers use automatic software to detect vunerable ports.
>
> I wanted to let you all know that 2 nights ago, my daughter was in a chat room and someone persuaded her to give him our IP address.
>
> It had never occurred to me to tell her about the IP address, so I never did. She gave it to him and he sent a file. After she opened it he told her it was a Trojan Horse.
>
> I was out with my husband and came home only 5 minutes after it happened.
>
> The GOOD news is that I have a firewall which captures every IP address that makes contact with my computer. (I didn't know that until this happened).
>
> I caught the guy who did it because I was able to trace the IP address. I actually have his name, phone, fax, physcial address, email address, and ISP. He doesn't know that (yet). He was bragging to my daughter that I'd never find him.
>
> I emailed his ISP and sent all the evidence (saved text of the chat conversation, fire wall logs, and yahoo messenger profile, along with the trace that I had done).
>
> I should know in a few days what his ISP decided. He did in fact do a port scan, which is not illegal in the UK (where he lives), but is against his ISP policy. Using a Trojan *is* illegal and he will likely be arrested if they decide that is what he did. At the very least, he will lose his ISP account.
>
> So far, we do not appear to be infected, so it might have been a hoax...nevertheless, I'm glad I have the firewall.
>
> You can get a free firewall at zonealarm.com
>
> Kristen
>
My computer is always in stealth mode. If you go to Privacy International you can get additional free software to protect your computer - there's even stuff that blocks Carnivore :-). Apart from yahoogroups email, my private email is encrypted so only people that have the key can read it. I can't remember
where I got that from but I'll look it up if anyone is interested. The downside is your recipient must have the same software.
Guess I'm just paranoid :-)
Shyrley