Your Name on the LineWritten by By Val .K.
I might be in "big" trouble. Because someone persons hacked into my email box. I don't know who they are. But I am worried. No; scared. Because I know its implications. And these may be far reaching—even, incriminating. And I may just be visited, any day from now, by Interpol or local police. And arrested—like one of my unfortunate friends—for any of dozen or so cyber crimes.But know this. I will not be arrested for denial-of-service attacks. Neither will it be for credit card hijacks. Nor downloading my MP3 songs into NASA's computers. Nor even—every hackers dream—gaining access into Pentagons secret files. And to find out if "Area 51" exists. My arrest and exit from civilization would be quick and without a murmur. And not in a blaze of glory and media buzz. Like Kevin Mitnick's, a former prima hacker. But with ingloriousness and stigma which follows a scam artist. Like some bogus Nigerian prince. This situation which I find myself, however, is not an isolated case. Because I am just one of many victims of identity theft. Which according to one FBI comment is "hottest, and most troubling, new scam on Internet." I might call myself lucky. Because I found out soon—I checked my e-mail, only to find scam mails sent from it, much to my horror. But there are those not so fortunate. And these had to wait months, or even years, before they found out that some miscreant was using their name as a front. Some because of this have lost their credit card privileges, loans, houses and jobs. Or in some cases, arrested for crimes they did not commit. Life can't possibly be this unfair? But it is. Because dishonesty of others may rub off on you. Dishonesty is an art. And spammers have gotten so artful. Gone are days when you worried about simple spam mail. Though annoying, these were easily detectable. That was past. Now, your worries are greater—the mails are not easily detectable. So good are these counterfeits, replete with links and genuine looking logos of bonafide outfits like eBay, that many customers are deceived into parting with their credit card and social security details. And name of this new actor in our cyber sitcom? Phishing mail.
| | How your business can save money with VoIPWritten by Louis Philip
Many of you have probably already heard about VoIP, or voice over IP. This is a technology that allows you to make telephone calls using internet. From a consumer standpoint VoIP offers significant savings in monthly phone bills and long distance charges. However, what you are probably only starting to hear about is significant cost savings that VoIP brings to business's. A recent Business Week article titled "The Power http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_25/b3938601 of Us" .htm describes story of a small 35 employee software firm in Palo Alto, Calif. that uses Skype to make 90% of their 2k$ per month long distance phone bill vanish. This is only one of many similar stories. So how do you get started? Well, you can either start by checking out more than 1100 VoIP providers that exists today, doing a careful analysis of all pros and cons, or you can simply go to http://www.skype.com/ and download Skype. Skype is essentially "plug a headset or phone into my computer and it costs me nothing to make telephone calls" option. Skype is free, Skype is easy to use and Skype works. It is completely painless. Perhaps, if you are like me, you will start using Skype because you want to stop paying for long distance at home. After a while you realize that this would be great at office. Since you are probably sitting at computer anyhow, you will find that it is more convenient to simply talk to a colleague on Skype rather that picking up phone and dialing a number. And that Skype conversation is completely free regardless of where that person is located.. absolutely no cost what so ever! After you get used to paying nothing for long distance, you will begin discovering some of Skype's other options. As of June, 2005 Skype has following options:
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