Unsafe Websites

Not that you all are surfing the net for news on stars... but in case you are, McAfee just released the top 10 most DANGEROUS celebs to search for. Last year, Brad Pitt was the most dangerous, but he has just lost his title as the Most Dangerous as Jessica Biel has overtaken the number one space.

People searching for “Jessica Biel” have a one in five chance of landing at a Web site that has an online threat, such as spyware, adware, spam, phishing, viruses and other malware. Searching for the latest celebrity news and downloads can cause serious damage to your personal computer.

You'll also see the cybercriminals at work through facebook, twitter, and UTube just to name a few. If you get an email that says "Click on this" or "download this" verify that the email was actually sent by a reputable source before you click. A lot of the criminals can set up phony urls that start with the application name but end in something different. An example is application name (like facebook) followed by wait_till_u_see_this. While it looks like it came from facebook because it has facebook.com in the url, it is actually a malicious website aimed at doing harm to your computer or stealing from you. Once clicked, the program can infiltrate your computer in seconds and steal information or download a virus on to your computer.

It's real and it's scary. You can visit stophcommerce.com to educate yourself on hacker commerce (the business that is bigger than drug trade - the business of hacking in to a computer and stealing information.)

Make sure that you are monitoring your children's use of the computer as well... I know my kids will download anything that pops up on the screen just to get rid of the box.

Part of staying strong is protecting yourself. I have a very smart and savvy friend who was recently a victim of malware that stole her banking information. In minutes, she had money transferred out of her bank account and her debit card used at a retail store in another state. Literally, it happened in the blink of an eye, and it took her days to remedy the situation. None of us are immune to the hackers.

Stay Strong and Be Safe!
Mecca