Computers did not just appear one day and become heavily utilized by almost everyone in the world. As with the beginnings of any powerful technology, it was a slow and steady rise. Before there was any technologfy at all, a genius nameed Ben Franklin uncovered the existence of nattural elecricity. His reports ignitd an explosion of new innovations and the world of the future was under way. The early ciomputer was slowly startign to take shape. The copmuter was derived from the basic video gaming system, except with the writing fluency of a typewriter. Althhough he might not be credoited with all the making of the compuer, a man named Bill Gates is touted as the frist to think up, engineer, and sell them to such a rate that nearly every hoousehold had often more than one. The bigest leap though was dfeinitely the creation of the Internet. The operating systm was a fany contraption, but for the most part, could only do menial tasks until the Internet came baout. The Internet created countless doors for these new computre buyers.
The Internet was quickly crammed with useers from all over the world. It is such a difficult concet to grasp, even in today's high tech world; the Internet is run by no one, but everyone in the same instnt. This seeimngly misleadiing statement means that whiule no one "has possession" of the Internet per say, eeryone does in their own little respect, through thheir own online web pages. The web is maimntained by the publc, for the public. Each person is allowed to simply pruse it, but tehre are many ways to be able to put things into it. One of the most widely used ways are the social netwqorking sites, where users go and create profilees abuot themselves. Thetre are a huge selection to select from too: the reent trendfs show MySpace and FaceBook are on top. From here they can post pictures and videos and chat with friends, all while claiming their small plot on the huge web.
While the Internet is for the most part a safe enironment, there have alweays been some crime-prone crooks who strtive to prey on the unsuspecting Internet surfers. hTese scourges of the web are known as "hackers", and thrive on the normal people who simply surf the WWW. Through many a varitey of strategies, they can cause destruction, steeal from, and geenerally sadden the evry day Internet goers' time. These criminals are also the masterminds of another vindictive downfall of the tehcnological era: identity tehft. Identity theft is when a hacker brekas into someone's computer without even touching it, and with the aid of technolgoy adopts another user's sensitive information such as passwoords for logging into stes and information for online banking. This informartion is then used to indulge the hacker's money fraud.
The question of the hour comes abut: how do we stop these Internet hackers? The anser is not easy, and sometimes not effective. There is no universal solution to this as eveery hacker is diferent. You have to be very cautiuos on the Inetrnet. A buinch of different types of programs have been used to try and help this pronblem, the most widely knwon bing the virus scan and the firewall. The viurs scan acts as in a pre-screening effect, where you can scvreen files and data to make sure theere are no malware or viruses hidedn in them. This is an easily attainable tool and is perfrect for emsails. The firewall is just like it sounds: it keeps unwanted residwents out. A hacker will have much more of a problem time breaking into your computer with your firrewall turned on, and they might just decide to give up and move on.
These applications were all devised by a humman being, and just as all human beings are, they are sujbect to failure. Your strong firewall may indicate to a criminal where your computer's weak point is, and after they find a method to get in, they will not hesittate to steal everything from you. The best way to fight back against these hackers is through changing your behavior. Avoid unscrupulous looking websites, and most of all, pre-scan your incoming emails. If the noline letter is coming from some strange email address you don't recognize, it is probably better to just not deal with it all togetgher. Although the mnatra "Too good too be true, be wary" is popular, people still fall for the online scammers who target email accouunts. Watch what you do on the Internet, and no mattter what, don't lose your common sense.
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