COM 125 BAZZAR!!

Friday, February 23, 2007

"Hi there! How's everything with you and Jeannie?"
"What's wrong with us?"
"You told me yesterday you guys almost broke up."
"No I didn't! I wasn't online yesterday, how did you know?"
"You told me!"
"I..."

Wait a minute. You could almost swear that you were not online yesterday. How did your class's number one gossiper know about the break up? Suddenly, it struck you. You share a computer with your younger brother and he was the only person around when Jeannie and you started a huge fight.

This is just the first warning sign of your online identity being used by someone else. A little personal information got leaked out, but it will not affect your life. What could be worse is that someone out there could be imitating you online right now, collecting enough personal data of you so he could hack your bank accounts, racks up debt in the your name, collects the cash, and disappears. You would be left holding the bag and it takes years for you to clear your name which was damaged by the credit-rating (Mitigating Identity Theft, 2005).

As we were growing up, our parents often remind us to protect our IC, our student passes or any other relevant personal documents. Not anyone is as nice and considerate to return you your ID without taking the advantage. So, is it safer to keep your personal information online? Can we rely on the security systems provided by the bank or credit-card systems online?

Before we pursue these questions any further, let's talk about online identity first. What is online identity? According to Wikipedia, an online identity is a social identity that network users establish in online communities. Most Internet users prefer to identify themselves by means of pseudonyms instead of using their real names online (Wikipedia, 2007). Identity is definitely necessary in virtual communities. In communication, knowing the identity of those with whom you communicate is essential for understanding and evaluating an interaction. Yet in the disembodied world of the virtual community, identity is also ambiguous (Identity and the Virtual Community, 1996). In the internet world, you could be anyone you want. Every single person you meet online should be given the benefit of doubt if he/she is worthy of your trust. Take mIRC for example, its a free and simple chat system which anyone can register. After going through the registering procedure and choosing your server, you get to create your own nickname. Its almost like the scenario in the youtube video clip whereby everyone is trying to be someone else. Sexual predators usually use the chat systems to lure ignorant

teenage girls to their 'traps'. It is so simple to convince someone else to believe you, given that the chat system is a peer to peer sharing system, which means you can send music or picture files over to other people. Being able to see your 'photo' provides a sense of trust to the opposite, this is what we call 'a wolf behind the screen'. Besides that, people could also hack into MSN or email accounts of a renowned person and collect the victim's information from his friends. By doing so, they could either hack into bank accounts of the person or ruin his reputation by creating havoc under the person's name.

I was unaware of the importance to protect one's online identity until a good friend of mine trusted me with his ebay account. Due to his national service duties, he need me to help him check his ebay regularly in case there are messages about the

items he's selling and if there's any problems regarding payments made for his items. I did as he said, check his account regularly, and that means at home and in school labs. When he found out I did check his account in school, he was mad. He gave me a whole lecture about hackers. At first, I did not understand why was he making such a big fuss about the issue especially when I remembered to log out each and every time I checked his account in school. After I attended the presentation by the guest speaker, I was stunned. I learnt about a program known as key logger which automatically records down your username and password. This way, hackers could easily steal your identity in ebay and take advantage of the available 'resources'. In ebay, you are charged a certain amount when you list each item. The money will be automatically deducted from your bank account. Thus, if anyone were to grab hold of your ebay username and password, that person could list as many goods as he wants to sell and you will be left paying the bill for the listing. Not only that, the hacker would also be able to assess to your paypal and he would definitely not hesitate to transfer all the money in your paypal to his own bank account. Ever since, I become very careful with usernames and passwords, and I never check ebay in school again.

Stealing of identity online has become a common crime these days. It is not easy to prosecute hackers and we never know whatever we download or information we filled in would end up in somebody else's hands. Therefore, it is strongly encouraged that we should never download unnecessary programs or give out information freely as the online security is not 100 percent safe guaranteed. Besides depending on security programs we download, we should also hold up our guard by changing our passwords regularly and keep a look out on websites we visit. It's the same in the virtual world and the real world, one's got to keep his identity safe in all ways possible.

REFERENCES:

Schneier, B. (2005, April 15). Schneier on Security: Mitigating Identity Theft. Retrieved 8.45p.m., February 22, 2007 from http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/04/mitigating_iden.html

Online identity. (2007, February 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 1:14a.m., February 22, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Online_identity&oldid=108207999

Donath ,J S. (1996, 12 November). Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community, MIT Media Lab. Retrieved 12.45a.m., February 22, 2007, from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception

12:58 AMi hate HOMEWORKY

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