RE: [TCLUG:15961] Internet myths

["Eric Hillman" <ehillman@cccu.com>]

> 2. You can get computer viruses by reading email messages. (General
> discussion of computer virii would follow.)

  Well, you can *now*, thanks to Outlook.  But that's a problem with Outlook's
default setup more than anything else.

> 4. Buying something online is more dangerous than "traditional" uses of a
> credit card.

  Possibly a brief discourse on the fact that cookies *cannot* read your bank
account, blood type or shoe size would be in order.

  On the other hand, instilling their impressionable minds with some *valid*
forms of paranoia may be a good thing.  Possibly a brief intro to the joys of
digital certificates & signatures, public key encryption, e-mail spoofing, and
the hazards of putting pretty much any out-of-the-box OS onto the Internet
without some basic security precautions.

--
Eric Hillman
UNIX Sysadmin/Webmaster
City & County Credit Union
ehillman@cccu.com