The secret world of
spam e-mail

A cookie is a token or short packet of data passed between communicating programs, where the data is typically not meaningful to the recipient program. The contents are opaque and not usually interpreted until the recipient passes the cookie data back to the sender or perhaps another program later. The cookie is often used like a ticket - to identify a particular event or transaction.

For example, a cookie is like a ticket supplied at a coat check counter. The ticket itself has no intrinsic meaning, but its uniqueness allows it to be exchanged for the correct coat when returned to the coat check counter. Cookies are used as identifying tokens in many computer programs. When one visits a website, the remote server may leave a cookie on one's computer, where they are often used to authenticate identity upon returning to the website.

The Non-Threat of Cookies

Cookies aren't really threats, they are small "data tags" that web sites store on PCs in order to recognize unique visitors. Cookies are used to identify returning visitors who have registered for special services; to measure and analyze visitors' use of web site features; to count unique visitors to web pages; and to allow web surfers to use virtual "shopping carts." Online advertising networks use cookies to track users across web sites and to measure ad impressions and click-throughs. We will remove tracking cookies because we find that most people don't want them, but the information contained in them isn't truly harmful. I hope this makes you feel a little more at ease about cookies and why software may find some that we leave behind.

Whatever you do, do not, I repeat do not leave Windows open, get a good firewall. What is a firewall? A firewall is hardware or software that protects the ins and outs of your computer. Think of it as a moat with a drawbridge and you allow the traffic you want to enter or leave your computer. That is it briefly.

Firewalls in History

The term "firewall" originally meant a wall to confine a fire or potential fire within a building; later uses refer to similar structures, such as the metal sheet separating the engine compartment of a vehicle or aircraft from the passenger compartment.

A firewall's function within a network is similar to firewalls with fire doors in building construction. In the former case, it is used to prevent network intrusion to the private network. In the latter case, it is intended to contain and delay structural fire from spreading to adjacent structures, in other words viruses and spyware.

Protection in the Wild West

The bad guys don't just want in. They want what you have on your computer - personal and private info like banking and passwords. Some just want to mess you up and still others want to use your computer for their own nefarious deeds like spamming others, denial of service attacks on websites, etc. Do not let your computer become a zombie. Get a firewall and protect yourself from the outlaws. Remember these criminals reach out and find unprotected computers; do not let it be yours! A personal firewall will protect you from most evils when use with antivirus and antispyware. Here is what a firewall can prevent!

• Remote login - When someone is able to connect to your computer and control it in some form. This can range from being able to view or access your files to actually running programs on your computer.
• Application backdoors - Some programs have special features that allow for remote access. Others contain bugs that provide a backdoor or hidden access that provides some level of control of the program.
• SMTP session hijacking - SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is the most common method of sending e-mail over the Internet. By gaining access to a list of e-mail addresses, a person can send unsolicited junk e-mail (spam) to thousands of users. This is done quite often by redirecting the e-mail through the SMTP server of an unsuspecting host, making the actual sender of the spam difficult to trace.
• Denial of service - You have probably heard this phrase used in news reports on the attacks on major Web sites. This type of attack is nearly impossible to counter. What happens is that the hacker sends a request to the server to connect to it. When the server responds with an acknowledgment and tries to establish a session, it cannot find the system that made the request. By inundating a server with these unanswerable session requests, a hacker causes the server to slow to a crawl or eventually crash.
• E-mail bombs - An e-mail bomb is usually a personal attack. Someone sends you the same e-mail hundreds or thousands of times until your e-mail system cannot accept any more messages.
• Macros - To simplify complicated procedures, many applications allow you to create a script of commands that the application can run. This script is known as a macro. Hackers have taken advantage of this to create their own macros that, depending on the application, can destroy your data or crash your computer.
• Viruses - Probably the most well-known threat is computer viruses. A virus is a small program that can copy itself to other computers. This way it can spread quickly from one system to the next. Viruses range from harmless messages to erasing all of your data.
• Spam - Typically, harmless but always annoying, spam is the electronic equivalent of junk mail. Spam can be dangerous though. Quite often, it contains links to Web sites. Be careful of clicking on these because you may accidentally accept malware that provides a backdoor to your computer.
• Redirect bombs - Hackers can use ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) to change (redirect) the path information takes by sending it to a different router. This is one of the ways that a denial of service attack is set up.

This month we have 2 different types of IBM machines available:

• Option 1:
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  • 512MB DDR Ram
  • 40GB Hard Drive
  • DVD Drive
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• Option 2:
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  • 40GB Hard Drive
  • CD Drive
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• Windows XP Pro
• 1 x Full Height AGP
• 3 x Full Height PCI
• Keyboard and Mouse
• No Monitor
• Ex-Lease

Add an ex-lease 15" LCD monitor for $170

Available while stocks last. Prices include GST