by Graham Ricks

With the holidays fast approaching, people are beginning the search for the perfect gift. Our nation’s most prolific shopping day, Black Friday, is a week away. Stores have already begun stocking for this shopping rush. Each year we hear more elaborate stories of people camping out overnight for a Tickle Me Elmo doll, or the newest game console, but with the use of the internet you no longer have to worry about fighting those long lines and sitting in hours of traffic.

Cyber Monday has brought holiday shopping into the 21st century. For those of you who have not heard of Cyber Monday, this is the name given to the Monday after Thanksgiving. Instead of fighting people for the last toy on the shelf, many people have decided to do all of their shopping online, and most people tend to do it while at work and behind their computer. Below are a few tips to follow when doing online shopping.

* First of all, make sure you are dealing with a reputable online retailer. This time of year a lot of websites pop up hoping to catch unsuspecting shoppers giving out their credit card numbers for a seemingly good deal. If you stick to larger retailers like Buy.com, Overstock.com, or even EBay’s Shopping.com you have less to worry about than if you shop at a generic internet discount store.

* Make sure that any page you submit any personal information to begins with https://. If the web page address does not begin with this, DO NOT ENTER PERSONAL INFORMATION. The “s” in the address indicates that the page is secure; if the “s” is not there your information could be captured by an outside source looking to steal your identity.

* Look for logos on the site from groups like TRUSTe or VeriSign. These are companies whose business is to verify the legitimacy of other websites. They look at things like how long the company has been in existence, customer surveys and the amount of internet traffic they receive. Making sure a website is verified by TRUSTe or VeriSign will ensure a more pleasant shopping experience.

If you follow these guidelines for online shopping safety, you are going to insure that you have a pleasant and safe holiday shopping experience.

Happy and Safe Computing!

by Brady Begley

"Real-Time Guardian™ (RTGuardian) is the most advanced perimeter security solution for managing web browsing, securing unauthorized IM and P2P usage and blocking the spread of malware in the enterprise." -facetime.com

RTGuardian is your new best friend in the battle against spyware, malware and the other trouble related websites. RTGuardian has gotten rave reviews from leading technology sources. This new service will be coming soon from IT!

"it can enhance your ability to filter unwanted data from your network." -networkcomputing.com

"Offering the zero latency that IT users have come to expect from the Real Time Guardian platform with double the throughput of FaceTime's RTGuardian 1000, the new RTG 2000 addresses the challenges of managing and securing the avalanche of real-time applications being deployed on the enterprise network." -eetimes.com

"Enterprises can manage employee use of all Internet channels—both greynets and the Web—with a single solution using unified policy management." -itwire.com

Typical user will not see any changes to the network but if you are one of the unlucky few who are infected with any spyware you will see a page that tells you "Web Site Restricted". If for some reason you feel you have reached this page while trying to view a legit site please contact us at resnet@eku.edu

As of the date of this summation EKUs IT has no intentions of blocking IM and P2P usage.

By Demetrius Anderson

Just right for Halloween is this tale of robots and zombies. Over the past few semesters Eastern has experienced a rise in software robots or BOTNET software. BOTNETt (also known as a zombie army) is a number of Internet computers that, although their owners are unaware of it, have been set up to forward transmissions to other computers on the Internet. These computers are remotely controlled and they are used to send out worms, Trojans, and/ or backdoors throughout the net. According to the Symantec Internet Security Threat Report, through the first six months of 2006, there were 4,696,903 active BOTNET computers.

Of course there are many ways to prevent this from happening to your PC and the safest form of prevention is always internet absence. If you don’t what your PC to become a Zombie we recommend that you avoid going to websites you don’t trust, don’t install software when you’re unsure of what it is, and be cautious of programs like Limewire and many other file sharing programs that install a huge amounts of spyware. If a browser or instant messenger pop up asks you to install software it’s probably not a good idea to install it! We recommend that you download and install Ad-aware and other free anti-spyware programs offered on our support site. Make sure to keep these programs updated and run them weekly!

For more support visit:
http://support.resnet.eku.edu/
http://www.resnet.eku.edu/

Just last week Virgin Mobile in Australia is being sued over the use of a photograph in one of their ad campaigns. This photo, published on Flickr under a creative commons license, is now in dispute by the under-aged girl in the photo, her family, and camp counselor who took the picture. Her uncle, by the way, posted the picture on Flickr.

What exactly is a creative commons license? It is basically a copyright free work--meaning it can be used without charges. [http://creativecommons.org/]

Is this really all that new? No. Software developers have had GNU (free operating systems) and "open sources" codes forever.

So, if the picture was posted as copyright free as long as where the photo came from was credited--and it was on the ad--is this really a violation by Virgin Mobile or Flickr? Is this merely a money issue or was she really embarrassed? Does her being embarrassed matter if the photo release was signed away? Should creative commons licenses include photos of others who didn't give their permission, especially if under-aged?

Lots of questions but not a lot of answers yet. Could be a real slam for Web 2.0 and user generated content but we'll see.

Remember: Don't put your pictures online without changing or morphing it somehow or worse could happen! NOTHING you post online is safe from anyone....folks much worse than some Madison Avenue type. I promise.

http://support.resnet.eku.edu/phishing.php

If you get rid of your old computer and leave the hard drive in it...you could be giving away or selling your information!

Your old computer could end up on Ebay, at a recycling center, or a computer show. This leaves you completely open to identify theft if you don't wipe your hard drive before disposing of it properly.

Find an effective erasure program and use it next time you get rid of a computer. Do a Google search for one or pay to have it done, if you must, or you could end up paying for it later!