Preventing Cyber Crime Targeted at You

Preventing Cyber Crime Targeted at You. Anyone connected to the Internet is at risk of being targeted and could become a victim of cyber crime themselves. Some have suggested you are more likely to be threatened, bullied, assailed, or “mugged” online than on your local street corner. With this in mind, you must make active steps to prevent yourself from getting injured, either emotionally, financially, or physically. You must protect you, your identity, your reputation, and your well being.You are the one who will allow others to know information about you directly by responding, or indirectly by not following common-sense guidelines.This section identifies ways you can protect yourself and prevent cyber crime from occurring on a personal level.

Often, you will hear cyber cops ask the following questions:

• Why would someone want to target you?
• Who might the culprit be?
• What might you have that they want? www.syngress.com Cyber Crime Prevention
• How did they gain access to your computer system, PDA, or cell phone?
• When could these attacks have occurred?

Use of Computers

How often have you walked into an empty office or cubicle only to notice your co-worker has failed to log out or lock their computer? How many times have you heard a co-worker share their password, or log on to a system only to have another use it? Lastly, in regards to protecting your identity, do you freely share your data with the world? Do you BLOG and tell all? Do you post personal pictures, stories, and other details online? If you answered yes to any of these, why? And what do you hope to gain?

Habits

Back to the questions, though. Just why would someone target you? Did you offend anyone? Do you have poor online habits that might allow someone to quickly gain access to your bank accounts? Are you in the middle of a divorce or have you given your spouse reason to suspect something is amiss? Are your adult children looking for their supposed inheritance? Have you posted to your Web site inflammatory or inciting comments?