We don't use E-gold very often since most of our online business and customer sales are conducted through our online merchant account. However, we occasionally have someone who will request paying by E-gold so we keep an account there for this reason. Once a month or so we withdraw the funds and decided to do so yesterday. Imagine our dismay when we logged into our E-gold account yesterday and found our balance to be a big fat ZERO! We had checked the balance just a few days ago so we knew this was not correct. After investigating the history of the account, we found that a spend had been made to another e-gold account user WITHOUT our knowledge or authorization. We had been hacked! Since we have up to date anti-virus and firewall software on our computer, we assumed we were safe. Not so! It seems this is not enough to keep away the hackers as the software does not prevent "Spyware" from being installed on your computer. "Spyware" is software that gets onto your computer and literally "spies" on your activities. The spying can range from relatively harmless use of cookies tracking you across multiple websites... to extremely dangerous "keystroke loggers" which record passwords, credit cards, and other personal data. That data then gets relayed to the person who put the software on your computer. Spyware gets on your computer in one of several different ways. First, it rides along with software you download from the 'Net and install on your system. Second, they come as email attachments (much like viruses) and automatically install themselves on your computer when you open the email message. Third, hackers find an open port on your computer and use the "back door" to install basically anything they want. And fourth, the more malicious types, like keystroke loggers, can even get installed by someone with direct physical access to your computer such as an employer, suspicious spouse, business competitor, or someone who wants to know exactly what you're doing. So how do you protect yourself against these malicious hackers? You need a program that specifically scans your system for the tens-of-thousands of existing spyware programs along with the new ones appearing daily. Below are two programs which specifically check for and remove spyware from your system: "Spybot Search & Destroy" - www.safer-networking.org "Ad Aware" - www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/ You may have spyware lurking on your computer right now so protect yourself today by downloading one of the above programs! As a point of reference, we contacted E-gold and informed them that we had been hacked. We provided them with the account number of the person who received the funds and asked for a contact e-mail address on the person. E-gold informed us that they could not provide that information without a "court order" and that basically there was no way of getting the money back! Take action today to protect yourself from this growing threat! The bottom line is: - Keep your anti-virus program current - Install a firewall- Carefully screen software before installing it- Scan specifically for spyware weekly- Stay current on this growing threat.Comment on how this article makes you feel on your safety on the computer and your identity safety. Plus the safety of your money though out banks, websites, and stockmarkets.

I thought too, that if you had some sort of thing to make sure hackers can't get into your accounts, that you were automatically safe. I wasn't even sure that if you had an account that involved money that you could get hacked for some reason. And I also thought that if you used something that was totally different than your name or something, that it would be hard be hacked. I really don't get why people even hack in the first place. How do these people even get all this information?! Now, I'm thinking that I'm not safe using anything on the computer that involves money. You never know what could happen now!

Experts say the worm has "skyrocketed" in recent days.It is sweeping through thousands of offices in the UK and has affected computers at the Ministry of Defence.The virus - known variously as Conficker, Kido or Downadup - burrows deep into the operating system and tricks the machine into running the infected program.Once the worm is running on the computer it automatically starts to download more malicious programs from hackers' websites, with devastating effects.The majority of computers infected by the worm, which was first identified in October, are in Russia, China, Brazil and India. But the virus is now taking hold in the UK.The worm has password cracking capabilities, often successful because company passwords sometimes match a predefined password list that it carries.Eddy Willems, a security analyst with anti-virus firm Kaspersky Labs, said that a new strain of the worm was now causing additional problems.This virus is mainly affecting offices, who have not kept their software up to date. Graham Cluley of computer security firm Sophos.Computer users are advised to ensure their anti-virus software, operating system and firewall is up to date, and that they have installed a Microsoft patch designed to combat the problem.Experts have also warned the virus could spread by copying itself to USB memory sticks shared between computers, and urged users to use caution.1. What could be the problems if this worm infected computers in the United States?2. Do you feel as though your personal computer is safe? What are some ways that you can protect your computer?3. Do you feel as though your identity is safe when you are using your computer?4. How can you protect your identity while shopping online?

1. It would probably give other people access to people's personal stuff, like passwords and things inside someone's computer. I'm sort of thinking it might do similar things that it does to a computer in another country.
2. Well after reading this, not really. I thought before it would be, because I don't have anything that would say my identity, but I think someone could get my passwords.
3. Yes, because I never use anything obvious for any of my passwords, or even my usernames
4. Making sure that when you have to make an account to buy something, that you use a different name then your own, and use a password that is really hard for other people to get a hold of, but that you remember.

Windows2007 or Vista

"The British government's educational IT authority has issued a report advising schools in the country not to upgrade their classroom or office systems to Windows Vista or Office 2007. According to this InformationWeek story, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency says costs for Vista and Office 2007 'are significant and the benefits remain unclear.' Instead, Becta is advising British schools to take a long look at Linux and open source suites like OpenOffice.org."Remember to respond to these questions on your blog. Do not comment on mine. You may copy and paste the questions to your blog to help you. Write well thought responses that are at least a paragraph long. Then comment on at least three of your classmates posts.1. Would you like to see WKHS upgrade to Vista or Office 2007? Why?2. After doing a little more research, do you believe that the British government is correct in advising against updating to the new versions of the software?3. What is Linux and Openoffice.org? Would these be better options for WKHS to go to? Why?


1.Yes, I think they should upgrade to one of these, 2. Yes in a way because if it's newer than something could go wrong on the software. 3. If the school upgrades then we'll have newer software and we might be able to research or do things on the computer easier. And I think it might be a little faster too.