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Another unfortunate occurrence is when you go to a website that was legitimate the last time you visited, yet now has objectionable content.
All it takes is for a domain name to expire without the legitimate owner realizing it. Many scumbags lurk with their names on lists to automatically grab a domain name as they expire. They then hold it hostage, demanding big bucks from the former owner in order it get it back. In the meantime, they may post pornography or something equally objectionable, so going to "nicesite.com" may give you the shocking experience of seeing more than you (or your kids) bargained for!
A practice known as "pharming" may also send you to sites that you didn't intend to go to.
This practice involves intercepting legitimate DNS updates and replacing them with their own. In plainspeak, it means that scoundrels are tweaking a basic internet protocol and using it to send you to bogus websites.
Pharming attacks can happen in two places: publicly accessible machines known as DNS servers, and on your own machine. It is the responsibility of those who manage DNS servers to keep their machines healthy, and the majority do. On your own machine, a good antivirus/spyware combination will protect you from the trojans that write to your local hosts file to send you to bogus websites. Again, Chapter 5 will tell you what you need to do.
On Windows machines, you may get a different type of popup message.
This particular message takes advantage of the Windows built-in messenger service. It looks like a dialog box that appears when you are running Windows applications. It will have some sort of message (usually advertising) and a clickable button that says "Okay."
This one is easy to prevent. Go to Start/Administrative Tools/Services. Find a service called "Messenger." Double-click on it, stop the service, then disable it.
If it's such a pain, why is it there at all? Well, Messenger is useful in a corporate environment. It allows system administrators to send out global messages to users. You probably don't need it at home, and disabling it makes for one less way that intruders can get into your system.
Hostile JavaScript can cause problems as well.
It can redirect your browser to unwelcome sites, pop up numerous windows (even after you shut down your web browser), and similar annoyances. Opera and Firefox allow you to specify exactly what behaviors you will allow JavaScript to have access to. Internet Explorer makes it difficult to control specific behaviors (what a shock! ;-). It doesn't make a distinction between JavaScript and the far more dangerous (when used on the internet) VBScript. Firefox's defaults make for good basic security. Disabling JavaScript entirely will eliminate any potential problems, but it will also severely limit website functionality.
If I sound like a broken record in telling you to beware of IE, my apologies. But you can eliminate a host of security issues by the simple act of using a different web browser.
Okay, let's move on to some cool projects for your kids!
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