The problem is that all too often they’re NOT decipherable. You’ve probably cursed the darn things on numerous occasions as you fail – repeatedly – to figure out the characters and are presented with a new set of largely indecipherable options.

If you’re among the millions frustrated with wiggles and dots, take heart. I’ve recently seen very cool security checks that allow you to pass the ‘human’ test by applying basic logic. AMEN!

In the example shown below, users are asked to identify a number in a sequence based on instructions, and it was such a pleasant experience that I’m recommending companies switch methods. The key is to have infinite number of variables, some spelled, some shown numerically so a automated system can’t simply recognize a few options.

Is it possible an advanced scripted program could figure out the logic? Probably. But there are additional tests that can be performed to identify non-humans by their interactions on a site, and that don’t put humans through visual contortions.

Whoever thought of this alternative is brilliant.

Linda

However, campaigns alone will not solve the problem. Stiffer fines, laws, and penalties will not alone solve the problem. What we need is a cultural shift making texting while driving an unacceptable behavior, and for that to happen every single person has a clear role to play. Please play your role.

Here are some of the resources made available to consumers through this STOP THE TEXTS. STOP THE WRECKS. campaign:

• Facts sheet – with 30 sobering facts, here’s a sample
• Survey results
• Videos – 4 videos that help illustrate how quickly distraction leads to disaster
• Infographic – see below

This campaign has partnered with the U.S Department of Transportation who created the excellent Distraction.gov materials.

Also check out the following blogs:

• New Online Safety Lesson: Texting and Driving Don’t Mix
• NTSB Recommends Ban on All Non-Emergency Use of Mobile Devices
• In Spite of Risks, More Drivers Text than Ever Before
• Consumer Reports Study; Young Adults, Cars, and Phones a Deadly Mix
• Deaths Related to Drivers Distracted by Cell Phone Use
• Distracted Driving? Take the Distractology 101 Learning Challenge
• Talking and Driving, a Dangerous Mix

Linda

Check it out:

Linda

But the problem doesn’t end there as a new variant has sprung up. Sound familiar? It should. Apple has grown in relevance to now face the same frustrations as the Windows platform – fix a hole and watch hackers find a new angle.

On April 23^rd, the New York Times reported that “researchers at Intego, another computer security firm, discovered that a new variant of the malware, called Flashback.S, continued to spread through the same Java vulnerability. Security researchers said the variant was “actively being distributed in the wild” and noted that the malware deletes traces of itself on victims’ machines to avoid detection.

Today (April 24^th) the Wall Street Journal reported that security firm Sophos released new research that analyzed “100,000 Mac computers running its free anti-virus software, and discovered that one in five machines was found to be carrying one or more instances of Windows malware.” And that “2.7 percent (one in thirty six) of Macs were found to be carrying Mac OS X malware.”

The Journal article included comments from Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, who said “Some Mac users may be relieved that they are seven times more likely to have Windows viruses, spyware and Trojans on their Macs than Mac OS X-specific malware, but Mac malware is surprisingly commonly encountered. Mac users need a wake-up call about the growing malware problem.”

“The simple fact is that you can scan your Mac for infection from your armchair. The test is painless and free; you just download an anti-virus product and allow it to check your computer and protect it against infections in the future,” explained Cluley.

At the end of the day the question is this, will Mac users be any better than Windows users at securing their devices with anti-malware tools?

Linda

Unfortunately, the malware has run rampant the last two months – when the malware was first detected. The Russian antivirus company, Dr. Web, reports that over 600,000 Mac’s are infected – and that 56% of the infected Macs are in the hands of U.S. consumers.

A ZDNet article includes these links for Mac users to get “the new version of Java that patches the security hole in question from Apple here: Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 7 and Java for OS X Lion 2012-001. Additionally, F-Secure has instructions on how to remove this malware if you think your Mac may already be infected.”

If you are among the Mac users who have clung to the belief that Macs don’t need strong malware protection, let this be a wakeup call.

Linda

But teens will be surprised to learn that if they are on the freeway going 65 mph, a quick two-second glance to read a text means they have driven nearly two-thirds of a football field without looking. And those precious seconds can kill them, their passengers or the people in other vehicles.

More than 3,000 people died, and thousands more were injured, due to distracted driving in 2010 alone.

This lesson discusses eye-opening statistics on the perils of distracted driving and alerts teens to the hazards of looking away from the road, plus offers tips for avoiding the temptation of phone use while driving.

To see and use this lesson, the companion presentation, professional development materials, and parent tips click here: TXT + DRV = Total Fail.

Linda

Nielsen’s research also shows that Android remains the leading cell phone platform with 48% of the U.S. smartphone market, followed by 32.1% who use an Apple iPhone, and 11.6% who remain Blackberry owners.

Up until last week, I was among the diehard Blackberry users, but I’ve purchased an iPhone and will never look back.

As a further indication of the imminent demise of Blackberry, their stock has plummeted.

Among consumers who acquired their smartphone within the last three months, 48% surveyed said they chose an Android and 43% bought an iPhone.

Not only was Blackberry absent, so was any mention of Windows phones.

In the now two-horse race, the rising frustration by developers and users of the Android platform indicates their market lead over Apple is far from assured. From a safety perspective, choosing Apple and Apple apps is the best bet.

Linda

Court documents say the gang members recruited teen girls through Facebook, DateHookUp.com, in schools, and on Metro busses. In the course of pimping and trafficking these girls, the court records charge these gang members transported them across at least 4 states.  If convicted, each could serve life in prison.

Gangs have been leveraging the internet’s power to glamorize gang life, recruit, coordinate, commit crimes, and brag about their crimes, for many years. To learn more about gangs internet use and prostitution/human trafficking see my extensive coverage in these blogs: 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment – Emerging Trends and The Internet,   Gangs use of the Internet and Cell Phones  and Human trafficking Top Initiative for Incoming NAAG President Rob McKenna

According to court documents, in this most recent case just outside of D.C. if the girls tried to quit, they were threatened and subjected to violent and frequent beatings and threats. The ring leader, Justin Strom, 26, allegedly choked one girl when she said she no longer wanted to engage in prostitution.

The affidavit shows that in another occurrence, Strom made a 17-year-old girl use cocaine, cut her on the arm with a knife and then forced her to have sex with him. The girl was

The gang members charged allegedly recruited at least 10 girls – most of whom are 15 and 16-years-old – over the last three years often telling the girls they were pretty and could make money by having sex with men. Many girls were required to have sex with gang members as an “initiation”. The girls allegedly would share the proceeds with the gang — sometimes $50 or $100 per customer — afterwards gang members would supply the girls with drugs and party with them, according to court records.then taken to an apartment, where she was forced to have sex with 14 other men. Strom allegedly collected $1,000 that night. Sometimes, girls were forced to go door-to-door soliciting men for sex. Two gang members drove her home, and according to the affidavit she was told she “got what she had coming” and that if she told anyone they would “come back and kill her.”

These arrests add to a string of prostitution and trafficking charges against gangs in the D.C. area; Members of the gang Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, also have been accused in federal court in Virginia of prostitution-related charges involving juvenile victims.

The Underground Gangster Crips have a long and violent history in Fairfax County, allegedly committing rapes, armed robbery and selling drugs, according to court documents.

Speaking about the case, U.S. Attorney Neil H. McBride said “The sex trafficking of young girls is an unconscionable crime involving unspeakable trauma. These gang members are alleged to have lured many area high school girls in the vile world of prostitution, and used violence and threats to keep them working as indentured sex slaves.”

Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II described the case as “every parent’s worst nightmare,” adding that it showed human trafficking can happen anywhere and is “a very real danger here in Virginia. By working together with U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride and our law enforcement partners, we will send a swift and strong message that this criminal behavior will not be tolerated in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

Learn more in my posts Child Trafficking and the Internet and ‘Women to Go’ Shop Drives Trafficking Awareness in Israel; What You Can do in Your Community.

The sexual exploitation of women and children by gangs and other criminals isn’t just a problem in D.C., or L.A. or Chicago. The sexual exploitation of women and children as a revenue stream is occurring in towns and cities across the country. And every single decent person has a role to play – you’re either part of the problem or part of the solution when it comes to identifying and reporting the exploitation of women and children.

To get involved in the campaign against human trafficking, you can find more information and organizations in your area by searching online for human trafficking and your region. If you suspect someone is a victim of human trafficking, or you yourself are a victim, get help by calling the Human Trafficking Hotline 1-888-373-7888. Or Call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s hotline 1-800-THE-LOST.

Location of the NCMEC posters:

• http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/documents/InnocenceLost_Ad_13yrs.pdf
• http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/documents/Ad_Fists_8.5×11.pdf

Linda

Congratulations to Microsoft for their dedication to helping all internet users have a safer, more trusted experience.

As this raid highlights, the often heard desire to blame some rogue country for facilitating online crime, or at least to blame an underdeveloped country for failing to maintain proper oversight of their internet traffic, is unwarranted. This week’s sweep targeted command and control servers in Scranton, Pennsylvania and Lombard, Illinois. How banal is that?

Heading up the initiative from Microsoft was Richard Domingues Boscovich, senior attorney in Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit on the official Microsoft. Here are excerpts from the company’s official blog:

“As you may have read, after a months-long investigation, successful pleading before the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York and a coordinated seizure of command and control servers in Scranton, Pennsylvania and Lombard, Illinois, some of the worst known Zeus botnets were disrupted by Microsoft and our partners worldwide.

Valuable evidence and intelligence gained in the operation will be used both to help rescue peoples’ computers from the control of Zeus, as well as in an ongoing effort to undermine the cybercriminal organization and help identify those responsible.

Cybercriminals have built hundreds of botnets using variants of Zeus malware. For this action – codenamed Operation b71 – we focused on botnets using Zeus, SpyEye and Ice-IX variants of the Zeus family of malware, known to cause the most public harm and which experts believe are responsible for nearly half a billion dollars in damages. Due to the unique complexity of these particular targets, unlike our prior botnet takedown operations, the goal here was not the permanent shutdown of all impacted targets. Rather, our goal was a strategic disruption of operations to mitigate the threat in order to cause long-term damage to the cybercriminal organization that relies on these botnets for illicit gain.”

This is the fourth high-profile takedown operation in Microsoft’s Project MARS (Microsoft Active Response for Security) initiative – a joint effort between DCU, Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC), Microsoft Support and the Trustworthy Computing team to disrupt botnets and begin to undo the damage they cause by helping victims regain control of their infected computers. As with our prior takedowns, Microsoft will use intelligence gained from this operation to partner with Internet service providers (ISPs) and Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) around the world to work to rescue peoples’ computers from Zeus’ control. This intelligence will help quickly reduce the size of the threat that each of these botnets pose, and make the Internet safer for consumers and businesses worldwide.”

You play a role in online security

Are you contributing to the botnet problem? If any of the following statements sound familiar, you are a botnet risk.

• Your anti-virus and anti-malware tools haven’t been updated since you bought your computer.
• You’ve ignored those pesky popups telling you that your computer, browser, or programs need updating to get the latest security fixes installed.
• You love chain emails, and answering survey’s and quizzes.
• You respond to spammers asking them to stop spamming you.
• You trust links you come across in emails, Twitter & Facebook and in online ads.
• You don’t know a phish from a fish, a worm from a grub, or what a botnet is.

4 simple steps can make all the difference in your level of security protection – and in the protection of the whole internet

1. Start by ensuring your computers are up-to-date with all available patches, fixes, and upgrades.
2. Then confirm your browsers are up-to-date with all available patches, fixes, and upgrades.
3. Next, check to see that your security software is up-to-date with all available patches, fixes, and upgrades.
4. Now, strengthen your spam filters, and smarten up about spam so you don’t click on malicious links.

Learn more about how to protect yourself and your devices in these blogs:

Are You Sure Your PC is Malware Free??

Are You a Malware Magnet? 4 simple steps can make all the difference

Every 3 Seconds an Identity is Stolen – Don’t Be Next

Need help understanding botnets?

See my blogs What are Bots, Zombies, and Botnets? And  McAfee Infographic Makes Botnets Understandable.

Here’s a quick illustration to get you started…

Note: I was a Microsoft Employee for 13 years, until the fall of 2006. I have written both positive and less favorable articles on Microsoft, but hold an abiding respect for the company’s ongoing commitment to security and to providing a responsible, trustworthy environment for consumers.

Linda

Among the stats:

• In 2011, the number of smartphones sold exceeded the number of PC’s sold but that’s just the tip of the iceberg because….
• Off all the mobile device users, only 835 million are smartphone users, whereas 5.6 Billion are still on ‘dumb phones’.
• Mobile apps are now a ~10 billion dollar market – growing at 100% a year.
• It took AOL 9 years to get 1 million users. It took Facebook 9 months. But it only took the new “Draw Something” mobile app 9 days.  (NOTE: Draw something roared onto the mobile app scene to now be the #1 App in 79 countries, with more than 20 million downloads. It generates over $100,000 in revenue a day, and has more than 12 million users a day.

Take 5 minutes to flip through the deck and be awed by the sheer volumes represented.

Linda