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Thursday, April 12, 2001 By David Radin
Last week, I told you about how easy it is to steal information from you, on the Net and off. But you can make it rougher with a few simple actions. Start by not writing that computer password down near your system and labeling it "password." If somebody comes into your office and sees it, he can log into your system with it. Similarly, don't give your password out to anybody. Even modestly proficient system managers provide a separate password to each individual. There is no need to share. Instead of sharing, ask your system administrator to give your associate his own password. If somebody calls you who says he needs your password to check your account, don't believe him. Your system administrator doesn't need your help to get into your account.
A network is well secured only if every system connected to it is secured properly. So if you're using a virtual private network (VPN) to log in from home, you need to secure your home computer just as if it is in your office. Otherwise, a hacker breaking into your home system also gets access to your entire office.
Similarly, if you use a peer-to-peer file sharing utility such as Gnutella, you need to secure your system or risk allowing others to run amok. That's because many peer-to-peer applications allow the user to determine whether somebody logging in from the peer network will be restricted to a single folder. If you don't set your peer-to-peer software to restrict him, you're giving him access to all your folders -- including the system folders in which cookies are held. While cookies are generally innocuous, it is possible for them to place you at risk in a peer-to-peer sharing situation. Specifically, there are some Web sites (typically financial or retail) that store your credit card, Social Security or other account numbers in a cookie. If stored without sufficient encryption, any casual user having access to the folders holding your cookies can read the poorly encrypted information in these cookies.
Have a question for David Radin? Contact him at his Web site
When you're surfing the Web, be careful where you type your credit card number or other confidential information. For instance, I feel pretty confident giving my credit card number when I'm logged into www.ibm.com; but I'm very skeptical when the URL is www.joesgarage.com/ ibm. Even if it has lots of IBM-looking data, it's still not IBM. Fraud? Maybe. At least it is worth checking into.
You can find out who owns a domain by looking it up on "whois." Whois is a listing from the official database that routes traffic on the Internet to various networks. Go to www.networksolutions.com. Click on the link that says "WHOIS Lookup." You can find the link in the top right-hand corner of the page. Then, when the whois page comes up, type the name of the domain into the field (without the www), and click [Search].
Q: How do I get rid of those squiggly lines that pop up when I type a document in Microsoft Word?
A: Those lines are created by MS-Word's spell checker and grammar checker. Every time you see a red squiggly underline, the spell checker has encountered a word that it cannot replace -- either because it doesn't recognize it or because it cannot determine which word in the dictionary you have misspelled. Right-click on the word to pop up a list of the words that might be correct. Select the proper word from the menu. Similarly, you'll see a green line if the grammar checker detects a possible problem. Right-click to find out your options. I find that I ignore the grammar checker's suggestions about half the time.
David Radin is host of the nationally syndicated radio show "Internet Insider," a local version of which is aired on KDKA AM 1020 at noon Saturdays. You can ask him a computer or Internet question by following the instructions at www.post-gazette.com/interact, where you also can find an archive of his previous Q&A columns.
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