Cyber Security: A Call to Arms

It doesn't take much to find stories about cyber attacks; phishing, identity theft, stolen credit card numbers are all symptoms of a critical issue in today's world: cyber security. With the advent of the internet, it has become easier and easier to steal personal info, or to unknowingly give it to someone who will use it to wreak havoc on your life.

Photo courtesy of inserbia.info

I'm proposing a call to arms, so to speak. Now, this has nothing to do with guns and bombs and military; this is a plea for people to arm themselves with an understanding that the person on the other side of the internet is not someone you know anything about. I'll use an example.

Omegle.com is a site similar to chatroulette, in which people can chat with each other in complete anonymity. It's mostly filled with horny teenagers, but with a little ingenuity, we used it to look at the dangers of cyber security. 

My brother is an amateur computer programmer. He wrote a script embedded in a url, which when clicked will send the IP address of whoever clicked it to a server. We could then trace that IP address, and find out where the other person lives, within about ten miles. Now, you might be thinking, "why would anyone click an unknown link?" People fell for it by the dozens. It didn't matter where; north carolina, chicago, paris, you name it, and we could find it. And all it took was a bit of programming.

All this to say; be wary on the internet. Anyone can steal your personal info, without much effort. That's my spiel for today; thanks for reading.