How to Handle a Hacking Attack

8 Steps: Easily Setting Up Security

Until the government gets serious about fighting identity theft and other internet crimes it is up to you to report those crimes to all the following agencies:

Hacking or a Computer Virus

Alert the appropriate authorities by contacting:

Report it to your ISP and the hacker's ISP. An ISP's email address SHOULD be on its website.

The FBI at http://www.ic3.gov. To fight computer criminals, they need to hear from you.

Internet Fraud

If you get scammed on an Internet auction, online shopping, or any other way, report it to the Federal Trade Commission, at ftc.gov. http://ftc.gov/

Deceptive Spam

You should forward deceptive spam, including email phishing, to spam@uce.gov. <mailto:spam@uce.gov> Be sure to include the full header of the email, including all routing information. You should also report phishing email to reportphishing@antiphishing.org. <mailto:reportphishing@antiphishing.org>

Divulged Personal Information

If you believe you have mistakenly given your personal information to a fraudster, file a complaint at ftc.gov, and then visit the Federal Trade Commission's Identity Theft website at ftc.gov/idtheft to learn how to minimize your risk of damage from a potential theft of your identity.

Parents

Parents sometimes can feel outpaced by their technologically savvy kids. Technology aside, there are lessons that parents can teach to help kids stay safer as they socialize online. Most ISPs provide parental controls, or you can buy separate software. But no software can substitute for parental supervision. Talk to your kids about safe computing practices, as well as the things they're seeing and doing online.

Social Networking Sites

Many adults, teens, and tweens use social networking sites to exchange information about themselves, share pictures and videos, and use blogs and private messaging to communicate with friends, others who share interests, and sometimes even the world-at-large. Here are some tips for parents who want their kids to use these sites safely:

Use privacy settings to restrict who can access and post on your child's website. Some social networking sites have strong privacy settings. Show your child how to use these settings to limit who can view their online profile, and explain to them why this is important.

Here are some of the ways you can avoid being a victim of phishing scams:

1. Email, text, or pop-up message that ask for personal or financial information is likely an attempt at phishing. Don't click on links in email messages. If you want to go to a bank or business's website, type the web addresses yourself.
   
   
2. Don't respond to messages by email, text, pop-up or phone that ask you to call their phone number to update your account or personal information to access a prize or refund. If you need to reach an organization, call the number on your billing statement, or use the telephone directory.
   
   
3. Identity thieves can steal identities from large numbers of people by hacking into huge businesses or government agencies. While the some businesses on the Internet may require you to share some personal information, you can share only with organizations you know and trust. If you give out personal information, first find out how it's going to be used and protected.
   
   
4. When shopping online, don't provide personal or financial information through a website until you have checked that the site is secure like a website URL that begins "https://" (the "s" represents a "secure" web-page). Unfortunately, some scammers have faked security web-pages. Also, some sites that took appropriate security precautions still get hacked.
   
   
5. Be sure to always read privacy policies. They SHOULD explain what information is collected, how it is used, and with what other companies it is shared. Try to find out what security measures are taken to protect your information. If you don't see a privacy policy, can't understand it, or have any doubts consider doing business with someone else.