According to an article on Tech News World, web-based attacks have increased 93 percent from 2009 to 2010.
Companies around the world are scrambling to try to find a solution to our crippling Internet security solutions, as even major U.S. corporations have announced that they have faced attacks from viruses over the past year.
Symantec, a popular computer malware software application, has conducted a report highlighting the latest issues that are plaguing users.
Google has said that Hydraq (a Trojan that allows hackers remote access to a target computer), has attempted to steal their intellectual property in the past.
Where Symantec really wants users to take notice is while they are installing applications on social media sites like YouTube, Facebook and smaller URLs, like http://tinyurl.com/3zz2oc5.
A site like Facebook is actually teeming with unsuspecting links to viruses and trojans that will let the hacker sitting in their parent’s basement gain access to your most important files.
With many of the games on these social media sites, a download is required, which allows the game access to your hard drive and allows it to operate a lot more smoothly.
But nine times out of 10, a user will just press “Next,” without actually reading what they’re agreeing to.
Once these kinds of fake programs are installed, the hacker has almost unblocked access to your entire hard drive and, in a matter of minutes, your bank account, passwords and photos.
The popularity of the “tiny URL” phenomena is adding insult to injury.
Unlike a normal URL like, http://www.theminaretonline.com, where it is easy to tell what you’ll be navigating to, the latest craze, which shortens the URL.
It has made it almost impossible to see where your browser will be taking you to.
The URL, http://tinyurl.com/3zz2oc5, is actually The Minaret Online’s website, but there is no sign of that in the address.
It could just as easily be a virus waiting to take over your computer.
I would consider myself a pretty avid computer user, but even I have fallen victim to the scheme of the “tiny URL.”
I once received a link on my Facebook wall (“Justin Bieber: DEAD!”) that I knew was a lie, but I clicked it anyway and within seconds there were windows popping up all over my screen.
It took restarting my computer to combat the issue.
Thankfully it turned out not to be a virus, but the possibility is out there and most of us probably don’t secure our information as well as we should.
UT junior Frank Powers had this to say about his surfing habits: “I hardly watch what I download on my computer; I’m sometimes wary about the links on Facebook, but that’s probably it.”
“Honestly, the reason I got a Mac was because I thought they were like “virus proof,” so I haven’t thought about online security since… well, never,” said Bradley Wank, UT sophomore.
Kristine Bowers had a few more thoughts about security on her PC: “It seems like when I had one of those virus fighter applications on my computer, that it just made it slower and never caught anything, or, when it did, it would take hours for a full scan to be done and it’s not like my computer got any faster.”
As it stands, the fate of Internet security seems to be lying in our actions.
Avoid clicking those “tiny URL’s,” unless you’re almost 100 percent positive of their source, and never download a random application, especially to play something as unexciting as a Facebook game.
Todd Sanborn can be reached at todd.sanborn@spartans.ut.edu.