The Morning Zoo catches pedophiles in the act:
CLICK HERE to listen to recent Scared Straight podcasts.
This is probably who is on the other end, when chatting online.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO REPORT AN ONLINE PREDATOR TO OUR LOCAL INTERNET TASK FORCE
CLICK HERE: www.utahicac.com
Official State of Utah Sex Offender Registry
CHECK THE NATIONAL SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY
http://www.familywatchdog.us
Internet Security
A lot of people feel that The Internet is totally anonymous. As long as you don't enter any personal information, you can't be traced or that personal information found out. Unfortunately, they are wrong. If you don't believe me, go these sites and test it. Both of these sites are run by reputable companies and are totally legitimate.
http://stealthtests.lockdowncorp.com/
or this one:
https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
Now that I have your attention about how insecure The Internet and your computer are, here is what you can do about it.
The first thing to be aware of is a concepts called Ports. TCP/IP, the computer language used on The Internet, has about 130,000 channels of communication. Each service that you use (chat, web, ftp, email, games, etc.) uses a different channel, or port. You may ask why there are so many of them. The reason is fairly simple, the designers of TCP/IP wanted to allow for growth. Most of the services that are available you will never use because they are very specialized; the ones listed above are the most commonly used.
Now along with all these open ports, comes a lot of risk. They are open, meaning that communication can happen on each of these channels. The problem with this is two fold.
1) They don't need to be open. As I stated above, most of the services used on these ports will never be used by your computer.
2) They are open. This leaves your computer open to attacks from outside. This is where Firewalls come in.
Firewalls are a specialized type of hardware or software that only allows selected pieces of information through. On most ports, it simply closes it and does not allow any communication. But on ports that are used, such as 80 (Web access), it can be configured to allow communications only to certain sites, or only to certain programs. Most firewalls can also be configured to report when something attempts to communicate on a closed port and where that communication originated from, allowing you to trace it back to the source and report it to the authorities or your ISP.
Software firewalls are fairly inexpensive compared to their hardware counterparts. I recommend getting a software firewall and learning to use and configure it before getting a hardware firewall. A word of caution with firewalls though: An improperly configured firewall can turn off your internet connection entirely. For this reason I also recommend reading the entire user manual before installing one. Most ISPs will not provide assistance with configuring firewalls and will usually disable them if you have trouble connecting to The Internet after installing it.
At the end of this document is a link to get you started on learning about firewalls. Read over the site as it should answer any questions you may have at this point before choosing a firewall. Choose one that you feel will be easy for you navigate around and it not more complex than you feel you can handle.
Now we come to the most complex part of Internet Security. Other People. There is no way to determine if the person you are speaking to on The Internet is who they claim to be. This is of a major concern as there are plenty of stories, urban legends and actual cases of crimes perpetrated by someone met on The Internet. As much as I hate to say it, even if the details aren't true, the situations generally are. These situations can be anything from child pornography, rape, and stalking all the way to murder. The whys are something for a professional psychologist to handle, I am here to help you avoid it.
The first thing to remember is that The Internet can be very anonymous. Not anonymous in the sense that you can't be tracked down, but anonymous in the sense of who is actually at the keyboard.
As Scared Straight and several FBI investigations have shown, it is quite easy to pose as a 13 year old girl even though you actually aren't. The problem is not as obvious as it may seem as first. In the case of Scared Straight, they are posing as a 13 year old girl to await a pedophile to approach them. But there are also cases of pedophiles posing as a young man, or even young girl, and arranging a face to face meeting. Now most parents would not be happy about their daughter, or even son, going to meet some stranger they met on The Internet but tend to be a little more lenient when to person they are meeting is supposedly their same age. Unfortunately, this is exactly the response that the pedophile is hoping for.
There is basically only one thing you can do to protect your children from situations such as this. Do not allow face to face meetings without your presence. If you are there, the pedophile will not even approach in most cases. If the meeting is legitimate, you will be able to meet for yourself your child's new found friend for yourself. Since I was a teenager myself once, I realize that most teenagers will have issues with this. All I can suggest is that maybe you can suggest that your child's new friend bring their parents as well, which can make for a good time for everyone.
The last thing I want to cover is a rather touchy subject for most people, Privacy and Supervision. Unless you are home every hour of every day and sitting at the computer reading over your child's shoulder, there is going to be time when they are unsupervised on The Internet. Being a realist, I know that 100% supervision is not possible. Even if you are simply in the next room, you have no way of knowing what is happening on the computer screen. This is where a type of program called a keylogger comes in.
Keyloggers sit in the background, undetectable, much like a Trojan, recording everything that your computer does. It will record what keys are pressed, what web sites are visited, which files are opened, everything. It places this information in a log which you can open and read at a later time. Keyloggers have gotten very complicated these days and can even record where information is received from and will record screen captures (a snapshot of what is on screen) as well as both sides of a chat conversation.
Because it records everything, the privacy issue comes into play. How you handle what you find in the log is up to you. If you have any concerns about how to handle it, speak with a councilor of some sort, be it professional or religious. Aside from that, make sure that you review the log on a regular basis as the log can quickly fill up a hard drive, no matter how large. These logs can also be very helpful to the authorities should anything ever happen.
To go along with this, I realize that more than a few of you will have networked computers, where The Internet connection is either shared through a central computer or through a router of some sort. If you have the connection shared through a router, you will need to install this type of software on each computer you want to monitor. If you have a central computer that all the others go through, there is a type of program called a proxy server that you can run on it that will at least record what information is transmitted to and from The Internet. Some proxy servers are capable of monitoring what is happening on individual computers as well.
Hopefully this answered several questions about Internet Security and has caused several more. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Finding answers to questions is how we learn. Not knowing what your child is up to on The Internet can lead to some bad situations, which is why learning to use the technology available to your advantage is necessary. To this end, I have included a lot of website addresses that can and will go into more detail about what I have said here. Take the time and look over them. It is for your safety and that of your family.
If you have any further questions or need PC work done, please contact me.
Chris Totten
801-574-5951
tottec@yahoo.com
Links
General Information Sites
http://www.keystrokerecorders.org - Information about keystroke recorders/keyloggers.
http://www.firewallguide.com - Information and reviews for firewalls.
http://www.netadmintools.com/index.php - Information on network administration.
http://www.anti-trojan.net/at.asp?l=en - Website specifically about Trojans. http://www.anti-trojan.org/ - Another anti-Trojan information site.
Antivirus Software
http://www.nai.com - Network Associates, Creators of McAfee Antivirus
http://www.symantec.com - Symantec Corporation, Creators of Norton Antivirus
Internet Security Services
http://www.lockdowncorp.com/
Companies that sell or manufacture keystroke recording software.
http://www.keyghost.com/
http://www.keyloggers-online.com/keylogger.htm
http://www.spy-software-source.com/keyboard-monitor.htm
http://www.pc-keylogger.com/
http://www.spectorsoft.com/
http://www.internet-monitoring-software.com/i-spy-now/
STORY ABOUT ONLINE PREDATORS EVERYONE SHOULD READ:
Shannon could hear the footsteps behind her as she walked toward home. The thought of being followed made her heart beat faster.
"You're being silly, she told herself, "no one is following you." To be safe, she began to walk faster, but the footsteps kept up with her pace.
She was afraid to look back and she was glad she was almost home. Shannon said a quick prayer, "God please get me home safe." She saw the porch light burning and she leaned against the door for a moment, relieved to be in the safety of her home.
She glanced out the window to see if anyone was there. The sidewalk was empty.
After tossing her books on the sofa, she decided to grab a snack and get on-line. She logged on under her screen name ByAngel213. She checked her Buddy List and saw GoTo123 was on. She sent him an instant message:
ByAngel213: Hi. I'm glad you are on! I thought someone was following me home today. It was really weird!
GoTo123: LOL you watch too much TV. Why would someone be following you? Don't you live in a safe neighborhood?
ByAngel213: Of course I do. LOL I guess it was my imagination cuz' I didn't see anybody when I looked out.
GoTo123: Unless you gave your name out on-line. You haven\'t done that have you?
ByAngel213: Of course not. I'm not stupid you know.
GoTo123: Did you have a softball game after school today?
ByAngel213: Yes and we won!!
GoTo123: That's great! Who did you play?
ByAngel213: We played the Hornets. LOL their uniforms are so gross! They look like bees. LOL
GoTo123: What is your team called?
ByAngel213: We are the Canton Cats. We have tiger paws on our uniforms. They are really cool.
GoTo123: Did you pitch?
ByAngel213: No I play second base. I got to go. My homework has to be done before my parents get home. I don\'t want them mad at me. Bye!
GoTo123: Catch you later. Bye
Meanwhile......GoTo123 went to the member menu and began to search for her profile. When it came up, he highlighted it and printed it out. He took out a pen and began to write down what he knew about Angel so far.
Her name: Shannon
Birthday: Jan. 3, 1985
Age: 13
State where she lived: North Carolina
Hobbies: softball, chorus, skating and going to the mall.
Besides this information, he knew she lived in Canton because she had just told him.
He knew she stayed by herself until 6:30 p.m. every afternoon until her parents came home from work. He knew she played softball on Thursday afternoons on the school team, and the team was named the Canton Cats. Her favorite number 7 was printed on her jersey. He knew she was in the eighth grade at the Canton Junior High School. She had told him all this in the conversations they had on-line.
He had enough information to find her now.
Shannon didn't tell her parents about the incident on the way home from the ball park that day. She didn't want them to make a scene and stop her from walking home from the softball games. Parents were always overreacting and hers were the worst. It made her wish she was not an only child. Maybe if she had brothers and sisters, her parents wouldn't be so overprotective.
By Thursday, Shannon had forgotten about the footsteps following her. Her game was in full swing when suddenly she felt someone staring at her. It was then that the memory came back. She glanced up from her second base position to see a man watching her closely. He was leaning against the fence behind first base and he smiled when she looked at him. He didn't look scary and she quickly dismissed the fear she had felt.
After the game, he sat on a bleacher while she talked to the coach. She noticed his smile once again as she walked past him. He nodded and she smiled back.
He noticed her name on the back of her shirt. He knew he had found her. Quietly, he walked a safe distance behind her.
It was only a few blocks to Shannon's home, and once he saw where she lived he quickly returned to the park to get his car.
Now he had to wait. He decided to get a bite to eat until the time came to go to Shannon's house. He drove to a fast food restaurant and sat there until time to make his move.
Shannon w as in her room later that evening when she heard voices in the living room. "Shannon, come here," her father called. He sounded upset and she couldn't imagine why. She went into the room to see the man from the ballpark sitting on the sofa.
"Sit down," her father began, "this man has just told us a most interesting story about you."
Shannon sat back. How could he tell her parents anything? She had never seen him before today!
"Do you know who I am, Shannon?" the man asked.
"No," Shannon answered. "I am a police officer and your online friend, GoTo123."
Shannon was stunned. "That's impossible! GoTo is a kid my age! He's 14 and he lives in Michigan!"
The man smiled. "I know I told you all that, but it wasn't true. You see, Shannon, there are people on-line who pretend to be kids; I was one of them. But while others do it to find kids and hurt them, I belong to a group of parents who do it to protect kids from predators. I came here to find you, to teach you how dangerous it is to talk to people on-line.
You told me enough about yourself to make it easy for me to find you. Your name, the school you went to, the name of your ball team and the position you played. The number and name on your jersey just made finding you a breeze."
Shannon was stunned. "You mean you don't live in Michigan?"
He laughed. "No, I live in Raleigh. It made you feel safe to think I was so far away, didn't it?" She nodded.
"I had a friend whose daughter was like you. Only she wasn't as lucky. The guy found her and murdered her while she was home alone. Kids are taught not to tell anyone when they are alone, yet they do it all the time on-line. The wrong people trick you into giving out information a little here and there on-line. Before you know it, you have told them enough for them to find you without even realizing you have done it."
I hope you've learned a lesson from this and won't do it again. Tell others about this so they will be safe too?"
"It's a promise!
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© 2008