Introduction

Editors Note: Protecting our computers and information from attack is becoming an increasingly dangerous and dodgy game in the Internet age. This article is the beginning of a series that will explore the issues surrounding fraud, identity management and computer security. I hope that you will find it informative and entertaining, and that it will help set the tone for more security-related articles and reviews on Tom's Networking Guide.

The cost to business of online fraud is over $50 billion a year in the US alone. Fraud directly aimed at the online consumer is averaging about $5 billion a year.

Think about that. We attend the cinema and are treated to an advisory before the show about video and music piracy potentially benefiting terrorism, and the specter of the 9/11 attacks is never far from our minds. So where are those online fraud billions going? And what are we doing to stop them from funding criminals and terrorists?

The truth is that for a decade or more, the online financial industry, banks, credit card companies, payment gateways, merchants, wealth management agents and so on, have all had it within their power to eradicate the majority of online fraud. Online banking and card payment consumers are being attacked primarily through techniques called phishing, pharming, trojans and spyware, man in the middle (MITM) attacks, and social engineering. We will examine the specifics of many of these techniques throughout the series. What is most worrying is the progression and sophistication of the attack methods, the widening of the scope of these attacks to include targets other than large financial institutions, and the difficulty in apprehending the perpetrators.

In this series, we will explore many types of threats, and attempt to simplify the detail so that readers from all backgrounds can better understand what all the fuss is actually about. We aim to look beyond the headlines, which spout the usual advice about having multiple "strong" passwords and watching out for trojans and other malicious software. We will see how hackers ply their trade, and from there teach you how to protect yourself.

In this world, as with most others, knowledge is power.

Tags: Internet Security,

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