One Step Ahead

Microsoft's Internet Explorer is the world's most common Web browser by far. Unfortunately, it's also the most bug-ridden when it comes to security, and some of its security holes can be very dangerous when exploited by smart criminals.

The latest alert reported by security researchers is about an Internet Explorer security hole that is being used (they think) by organised crime in Eastern Europe. These criminals can surreptitiously install "spyware" on PCs when the user merely visits certain Web sites. It usually requires users to take some deliberate action - such as downloading some software - to install spyware, but thanks to Internet Explorer's security bugs, it can now be done behind the user's back.

The researchers say that the problem is not widespread, but it is serious.
What's worse is that Microsoft has not released a fix for this problem, and the software isn't typically detected by anti-virus software either. So if you're using Internet Explorer, you're skating on thin ince!

This won't be a popular piece of advice, but here goes anyway: Don't use Internet Explorer! I use the excellent Mozilla Web browser, a descendant of the Netscape Web browser. I do have Internet Explorer installed, but I only use it rarely.

You'd think that a Web site would be happy to get as much site visitor traffic as it can, especially from a well-respected source like the Google search engine, but that's not always the case. CMP Media, which reports on technology news, is actively blocking traffic from Google News, claiming that Google has "has chosen to reproduce a significant amount of our content in a manner that we deem to be outside the bounds of fair use". But, by all accounts, Google News only takes a small portion of a news article, and then links to CMP Media for the full article.

Two points here:

• As a general rule, blocking incoming traffic is dumb. Sure, you might do this in exceptional circumstances - for example, if some other site that's highly critical of you is linking to your Web site. But even then, you're better off approaching that site directly.
  
• From the other side of the coin, be very, very careful about copying anything from somebody else's Web site without their permission. If in doubt, ask. And if they say no, accept graciously.
  

You may already be familiar with Google's AdSense program, which allows you to display Google ads on your Web pages, in return for a share of the commission if somebody clicks on the ad. It's a very popular program for people who publish high-content Web sites that get lots of site visitors.

Now Google has taken this to the next level. You can insert a Google search box on your Web site, and you get to share in the revenue if people use that box to search Google and then click on an ad. It's a logical extension of the AdSense program, and just another way that Google helps you to make money.

AdSense - both the original and the new version - can be an excellent money-making tool for you. However, before you rush out to add this to your Web site, remember that the big downside is that as soon as somebody clicks on a Google ad on your Web site, they immediately leave your site and might never return. So weigh up the cost of losing that visitor against the revenue you're likely to get from Google.

OK, this is not about the Internet at all, but I just had to include it here ...

The story so far ... Beth from the BBC asks Paul to send her a video tape by courier. He sends it. It arrives, but the mailing label was peeling off. So somebody in the mailroom kindly sticks a new label on the tape before sending it to Beth, and sticks the old label temporarily on the lunch room fridge.

Unfortunately, Beth goes to the fridge before seeing the video ... and rings Paul to leave this message.

Spammers resort to all the dirty tricks they can think of to get you to open their junk mail. I get spam with innocuous-looking subject lines like "Here's the document", "Undeliverable document" and "Hi from a long-lost friend". And then there are the more aggressive subject lines like "I saw your name on a spam blacklist" and "Naked photos of your wife".

But seasoned e-mail users are getting used to even these sort of messages. So spammers now have a new trick: including personal information in the subject line - such as your pet's name, family members' names, or even passwords that you use.

How do they get this information? They install "spyware" on your computer, which monitors all your keystrokes and sends them back to the spammer, who can then insert these into the outgoing e-mail.

The most important thing is to protect yourself from spyware. It can do far worse things than just trick you into opening junk e-mail!

David Winer, who has been running a free blogging service since 2000, upset his 3,000 users when he pulled the plug on his service this week. They complained that he should have given them a reasonable amount of notice, so they could put alternative plans in place.

OK, the guy could have given his users some warning before shutting down the service. But remember that this was a free service, and I reckon his users are ungrateful. Just imagine if each of them had been willing to pay him $5 per month for the service - it would probably have given him the ability to keep the service alive.

Folks, a lot of the stuff on the Net is free, but remember that it's all provided by people who invested their time and energy in it. So please do your part to help them to keep providing that service.

A Singapore professor of information studies predicts that the spam problem will be gone in two years. He doesn't propose a solution; he merely suggests that it's become such a big issue that somebody will find a workable solution.

Hey, he may be right! In the meantime, if you're suffering from spam, use an anti-spam program like MailWasher Pro.

This is not really about the Internet, but I just had to share it with you ...

Thieves stole two laptop computers from a trade conference. That in itself isn't newsworthy, except for the fact that this was a security conference, where companies were showing off their latest technology to stop thieves!

Read the full story here ...

Almost two million U.S. consumers have had money stolen from their Internet banking accounts, according to a recent Yahoo News report. Some of this is due to "spyware" software that gets installed behind the user's back, and some of it is due to users being fooled into giving their banking account details to scammers.

There are simple things you can do to protect yourself from these sort of problems. I talk about them in The Common Sense Guide to PC Security.

I noticed recently that the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, which I read every day on the Web, has started asking people to register before reading the articles. The SMH is just one of many newspapers to add this feature. Even though registration is free, many users resent having to give out their personal information just to read a Web site. In fact, one enterprising company, BugMeNot.com has created a free service just to help people bypass this registration process.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that people don't like giving out personal information anywhere, let alone to a Web site. So take a close look at any pages on your Web site that ask for personal information. Unless you have a good relationship with your Web site visitors, there's a good chance that they will either (a) leave your site or (b) leave false information. If you really must ask for personal information, ask for as little as possible, and make as much of it as possible optional.

A report from VeriSign, which manages .com and .net domain names, says that we had more new domain names in the first quarter of this year than ever before - even more than during the crazy dot-com boom days. Click here for the full story

If you're still wondering whether the Internet is going to work for you, stop wondering! Get out there and make it happen ...

Coming up in the next issue of Make More Money From Your Web Site is the story of an e-book author who recently published an e-book that made $4,000 in the first 24 hours after it was released.

Find out how he did it: Subscribe now - it's free!

The State of Utah, in the USA, is trying to make "spyware" illegal, but a spyware company is trying to block the legislation, claiming that it infringes on free speech
rights in the U.S. Constitution.

"Spyware" (or "scumware", as it's sometimes called) is the name given to the annoying software that pops up advertising windows when you're surfing the Net. It's often installed without your permission, or the permission notice is buried deep in the bowels of the terms and conditions when installing something else.

I run SpyBot and AdAware every week to clean my PC of any scumware that might have been installed behind my back.

To learn more, read The Common Sense Guide to PC Security.

A recent study reports that on-line auction company eBay tops the list of trusted companies by American consumers, leading American Express, Procter & Gamble, and even Amazon.com.

This is a big turnaround from a few years ago, when the vast majority of Internet fraud was reported as coming from on-line auctions. Although there are still some well-publicised reports of big eBay fraudsters (such as the Australians who sold fake Los Angeles Lakers season tickets to American basketball fans), the general feeling is that eBay is a safe community for picking up a bargain.

I've bought a few business books through eBay, and I've found it easy and safe to use. If you haven't tried it yourself yet, I suggest you take a look at it yourself.

The latest banking scam making the rounds is an e-mail message which is supposed to be from Westpac, a long-time Olympics sponsor, talking about fund-raising for the Paralympics. But it's a scam, and it could infect your computer with a virus if you fall for it. You can read the full story here.

I've been talking about e-mail scams for a long time, and if you've been a regular reader, you probably won't have fallen for it. But "There's a sucker born every minute", as P.T. Barnum said, and I bet some people will get sucked in by it ...

To learn more, read The Common Sense Guide to PC Security.

Australia is getting on the broadband band-wagon, with over 900,000 broadband connections - according to a report in The Australian recently. But that still puts us a long way behind many other countries. Currently leading the field is South Korea, according to The Bandwidth Report.

Well, if your Web site is catering to a general audience, it's still not time to use those high-bandwidth Flash animations, video clips and other massive downloads!