With the rise of mobile phones and our mobile dependability on our everyday lives, it's getting increasingly necessary that we are well informed of global cyber threats.
Some of the world leading threats are as follows:
1) Identity Theft: With one identity fraud occurring every two (2) seconds as reported by CNN Money, and ranking first place for 15 years in a row as the top consumer complaint, it is imperative that it is treated with utmost importance. one of the fastest growing online crimes in the world today. Your identity is at risk everyday through the availability of our everyday online materials which includes: social media information, financial data, resume, e- commerce, online audio and video streaming and the list goes on and on. But there is still plenty to do to keep your identity safe.
Some of the ways customer's identity are stolen are through the means of:
a) Unsecure websites: During online transactions, hackers are able to intercept payment details. Online users should make sure they make online transactions from secure websites and protect their information when they are online.
b) Hacking: It is important to keep our personal laptops out of public reach. Tech Savvy IT experts hack into personal computers to steal Card information and bank details.
c) Shoulder Peering: when typing ATM Pin or your card details on your smartphone, there is always a chance someone is looking over your shoulder to steal your personal information. You can stop shoulder surfers by covering your screen with your hands when entering your personal data in public.
Others include: phishing, skimming, pretexting, etc.
2) Mobile and Smartphone Vulnerability attack: these vulnerabilities sometimes come from the apps you install. Mobile phones are also vulnerable to malware, spyware which can log keystrokes and capture screenshots. One way to avoid this kind of attack is being careful with the type of apps you install and from what source they are derived, being careful of the kind of emails you open in your mobile phone, picture uploads, spam emaild etc.
3) Phishing: This usually occurs when cyber hanckers trick people inti revealing sensitive information about their passwords , card details an d personal records. One of the most popular phishing methods is sending online users emails from that seems like it emanated from their financial institution or givernmenr. Here Customers, are asked to type in their card details, financial records etc. Phishers want to lure victims to fraudulent Websites, created to steal personal information, such as names, credit card and bank account numbers, social security numbers, and financial account logins and passwords. Bait can be delivered via SMS or phone, but usually arrives via e-mail, from mass-mailed spam.
In a world of ever-evolving cyberthreats, what can you do to protect yourself? Security awareness is the first line of defense. There are powerful security tools available to help, but remember that you also need to use common sense to protect computer, your information and yourself.
For more on website protection tools, visit www.lenaxltd.com
Sir Tim Berners-Lee is a British computer scientist. He was born in London, and his parents were early computer scientists, working on one of the earliest computers.
Growing up, Sir Tim was interested in trains and had a model railway in his bedroom. He recalls:
“I made some electronic gadgets to control the trains. Then I ended up getting more interested in electronics than trains. Later on, when I was in college I made a computer out of an old television set.”
After graduating from Oxford University, Berners-Lee became a software engineer at CERN, the large particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. Scientists come from all over the world to use its accelerators, but Sir Tim noticed that they were having difficulty sharing information.
“In those days, there was different information on different computers, but you had to log on to different computers to get at it. Also, sometimes you had to learn a different program on each computer. Often it was just easier to go and ask people when they were having coffee…”, Tim says.
Tim thought he saw a way to solve this problem – one that he could see could also have much broader applications. Already, millions of computers were being connected together through the fast-developing Internet and Berners-Lee realised they could share information by exploiting an emerging technology called hypertext.
In March 1989, Tim laid out his vision for what would become the Web in a document called “Information Management: A Proposal”. Believe it or not, Tim’s initial proposal was not immediately accepted. In fact, his boss at the time, Mike Sendall, noted the words “Vague but exciting” on the cover. The Web was never an official CERN project, but Mike managed to give Tim time to work on it in September 1990. He began work using a NeXT computer, one of Steve Jobs’ early products.
By October of 1990, Tim had written the three fundamental technologies that remain the foundation of today’s Web (and which you may have seen appear on parts of your Web browser):
HTML: HyperText Markup Language. The markup (formatting) language for the Web.
URI: Uniform Resource Identifier. A kind of “address” that is unique and used to identify to each resource on the Web. It is also commonly called a URL.
HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Allows for the retrieval of linked resources from across the Web.
Tim also wrote the first Web page editor/browser (“WorldWideWeb.app”) and the first Web server (“httpd“). By the end of 1990, the first Web page was served on the open internet, and in 1991, people outside of CERN were invited to join this new Web community.
As the Web began to grow, Tim realised that its true potential would only be unleashed if anyone, anywhere could use it without paying a fee or having to ask for permission.
He explains: “Had the technology been proprietary, and in my total control, it would probably not have taken off. You can’t propose that something be a universal space and at the same time keep control of it.”
So, Tim and others advocated to ensure that CERN would agree to make the underlying code available on a royalty-free basis, for ever. This decision was announced in April 1993, and sparked a global wave of creativity, collaboration and innovation never seen before. In 2003, the companies developing new Web standards committed to a Royalty Free Policy for their work. In 2014, the year we celebrated the Web’s 25th birthday, almost two in five people around the world were using it.
Tim moved from CERN to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994 to found the World Wide Web Consortium(W3C), an international community devoted to developing open Web standards. He remains the Director of W3C to this day.
The early Web community produced some revolutionary ideas that are now spreading far beyond the technology sector:
Decentralisation: No permission is needed from a central authority to post anything on the Web, there is no central controlling node, and so no single point of failure … and no “kill switch”! This also implies freedom from indiscriminate censorship and surveillance.
Non-discrimination: If I pay to connect to the internet with a certain quality of service, and you pay to connect with that or a greater quality of service, then we can both communicate at the same level. This principle of equity is also known as Net Neutrality.
Bottom-up design: Instead of code being written and controlled by a small group of experts, it was developed in full view of everyone, encouraging maximum participation and experimentation.
Universality: For anyone to be able to publish anything on the Web, all the computers involved have to speak the same languages to each other, no matter what different hardware people are using; where they live; or what cultural and political beliefs they have. In this way, the Web breaks down silos while still allowing diversity to flourish.
Consensus: For universal standards to work, everyone had to agree to use them. Tim and others achieved this consensus by giving everyone a say in creating the standards, through a transparent, participatory process at W3C.
New permutations of these ideas are giving rise to exciting new approaches in fields as diverse as information (Open Data), politics (Open Government), scientific research (Open Access), education, and culture (Free Culture). But to date we have only scratched the surface of how these principles could change society and politics for the better.
In 2009, Sir Tim established the World Wide Web Foundation. The Web Foundation is advancing the Open Web as a means to build a just and thriving society by connecting everyone, raising voices and enhancing participation.
Please do explore our site and our work. We hope you’ll be inspired by our vision and decide to take action. Remember, as Tim tweeted during the Olympics Opening Ceremony in 2012, “This is for Everyone”.
For more details on his remarkable contributions, visit http://webfoundation.org/about/vision/history-of-the-web/
Ever seen a green lock icon in your tab? Ever wondered why some websites begin with http and others with https? There you have it. That's your SSL encryption right in front of you.
Simply put, SSL (Secured Sockets layer) is a protocol developed for transmitting private documents through the internet. It was developed by Netscape to use a cryptographic system that uses two keys to encrypt data. One, a public key known to everyone and the other, a secret key known only to the recipient of the message.
How it Works
When a Web browser tries to connect to a website using SSL, the browser will first request the web server identify itself. This prompts the web server to send the browser a copy of the SSL Certificate. The browser checks to see if the SSL Certificate is trusted -- if the SSL Certificate is trusted, then the browser sends a message to the Web server. The server then responds to the browser with a digitally signed acknowledgement to start an SSLencrypted session. This allows encrypted data to be shared between the browser and the server. You may notice that your browsing session now starts with https (and not http).
So the next time you have your website designer build you a website, you could also add SSL encryption to the list of items to be paid for. It is very affordable and remember, you can only be as safe as it gets.
Getting an SSL Certificate ...
There is the wrong way and the right way to acquiring an SSL Certificate.
Wrong way: Self sign your own Certificate, That is, using any number of different tools (both open source and proprietary) you can actually sign your own SSL certificate and save the time and expense of going through a certificate vendor.
Technically speaking, the data may be encrypted, but there still is a fundamental problem with self-signing that defeats part of the purpose of having an SSL certificate in the first place. Self-signing a certificate is like issuing yourself a driver's license. Roads are safer because governments issue licenses. Making sure those roads are safe is the role of the certificate authorities. Certificate authorities make sure the site is legitimate.
Self-Signed certificates will trigger a warning window in most browser configurations that will indicate that the certificate was not recognized. VeriSign admits that there are a lot of people that will click through anyway just like there are a lot of people that will click through an expired SSL certificate as well.
A site that conveys trust is also more likely to be a site that makes (more) money. There is research that suggests that having a recognizable SSL certificate may, in fact, have a direct correlation to increased e-commerce sales.
Why should I care?
Every business is customer centric and they are supposed to be the focal point of all our daily transaction.s We need SSL (our green lock guy) because:
Your customers need to feel secure when they do business with you online or they won’t do business with you; and
You have a responsibility to your customer to protect the sensitive information they’ve chosen to share with you.
Here’s why.. There is nothing as too much information.
If you are in business, then you would have realized every
information is critical. Why do you think people visit a website? It’s
primarily to find information. And if you’re in the business world,
information is critical. You need to have a website for your customers. It
needs to contain information about what you can do for them. Greater percentage
of people trust businesses more with websites than those without any. Here are
some reasons as to why you need your business face online.
Credibility
A website gives you the opportunity to prove your
credibility. You have to tell your customers why you deserve their trust
through your website. This can earn positive feedback for your service and
products. Also, your website serves as a place for a potential investor to
explore what your business is about and what it can do in the future.
For instance, a lot of businesses are not aware they are
searched out online by their competitors to prove how credible their organization.
You can see it as a litmus test for businesses to first go online to validate
how much of a threat you are to their business especially in a case of Tenders,
RFP’s and Expression of Interests (EOI)
Global Exposure
The truth is you really don’t know who is searching for that
special service your business is offering. The world has been woven into a
central cluster of information. Yes! That’s what the internet has brought to
our doorstep. Most businesses have local popularity, but what about
potential customers outside their city? A website can help you
generate more customers. Not just outside your city, but worldwide. The
internet offers a global community. With a website, your business will
be visible around the world.
Accessibility
Have you ever experienced having to turn customers away because it’s closing
time? Well, you don’t have to close the doors of your website. An online
site can be visited anytime of the day or night. People will look to your
site instead of going to your shop because it is more accessible. Just
make sure to post enough information about your products and services.
There are a lot more facts to the importance of a business
website. These days, they are no longer as expensive as they used to be and we
have several website design templates available for you. All you need is select
any template and customize it to suit your business.
Increased Sales and ROI
Websites gets you started, a footballer, politician,
online/offline business, shop owner, restaurant, as long as you are rendering
services, you should open a website today.
If you have any more contributions to this post, please do
not hesitate to leave your comments
You can check out some few website templates already designed for you.
A TLD identifies something about the website associated with
it, such as its purpose, the organization that owns it or the geographical area
where it originates.
ICANN identifies the following categories of TLDs:
a) Country-code top-level domains (ccTLD) -- Each ccTLD
identifies a particular country and is two letters long. The ccTLD for the
United States, for example, is .us
b) Infrastructure top-level domain -- There is only one
TLD in this group, ARPA (Address and Routing Parameter Area). The Internet
Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
manages this TLD for the IETF.
c) Sponsored top-level domains (sTLD): These are overseen
by private organizations.
d) Generic top-level domains (gTLD) -- These are
the most common and familiar TLDs. Examples include "com" for "commercial"
and "edu"
for "educational." Most gTLDs are open for registration by anyone,
but there is also a subgroup that is more strictly controlled.
In April 2009, ICANN proposed an expansion of the TLD system
to allow anyone to register and reserve any unused letter sequence as a TLD for
their exclusive use. A company that sold software, for example, might like to
use .soft as a TLD. According to ICANN chief executive Paul Levins,
such an expansion could lead to thousands of new TLDs in the next few years.
As a brief primer, Top Level Domains are the endings to
websites such as .com, .edu, .gov, etc. In the past, these were all handled by
the ICANN, but in 2014, the door was opened for entrepreneurs to create their
own TLDs that they can control on their own. So now, there are essentially an
endless amount of TLDs. Business owners could pay to can have their site end
with things like .xyz, .toys, .soy, .wed, and more. Nearly 4 million web sites around
the world use one of the newly created TLD.
What Google had to say about the new
TLD’s
Google's John Mueller recently reposted comments the company
made earlier in 2014 to reiterate their position on TLD and search.
"It feels like it's time to reshare this again. There
still is no inherent ranking advantage to using the new TLDs," Mueller
wrote on Google+ before sharing a postfrom Matt Cutts on the subject.
"They can perform well in search, just like any other TLD can perform well
in search. They give you an opportunity to pick a name that better matches your
web-presence. If you see posts claiming that early data suggests they're doing
well, keep in mind that this is not due to any artificial advantage in search:
you can make a fantastic website that performs well in search on any TLD."
Back then, if someone had the .com you wanted, there was
nothing you can do but pay them or get a different name. Now, marketers can
just move to a different TLD. The introduction of these new TLDs have created
so much internet real estate, it's impractical for one person to try to lock up
domains they don't intend to use.
So the next time you search for your .com domain for your business
and it has been taken or simply wrapped by another user who wants to sell it for a
ridiculous fee, don’t fuss about it just search for a .biz or .online or .xyz
or .anything of your interest).
Remember, Google John Meuller reaffirms that they can
perform well in search just like your .com TLD extension
Visit www.lenaxltd.com for a comprehensive list of your
TLD’s and place your order today
