Protect Yourself: Fighting Computer Crimes

Reported September 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- It's the crime of the future, and it's happening right now. However, now there is someone trying to stop it. Markus Jakobsson, Ph.D., computer scientist at Indiana University School of Informatics in Bloomington, Ind., says: "We're the good guy. We make the move. Then we go over to the other side of the table, and we're the bad guys. We make the move."

Jakobsson is working to find out what the next computer crime will be. He believes more elaborate phishing schemes are in the works. His or her target, Jakobsson says is anybody with an e-mail account.

Phishing is when criminals send you a fake e-mail to try and get your personal information. "The strongest evidence that you're being phished is that you're getting an e-mail from a bank that you don't have a banking relationship with," he says.

One solution: delayed password disclosure. It not only uses a password, but also pictures. Jakobsson says, "For every character you enter, you get a new image on the screen. If there's even one image that you don't recognize, that means you're being attacked."

Each letter or number in your password would correspond to a picture. For example, if your password were dog, when you entered the "D," a picture of a house would appear. You would recognize correct pictures, but if the wrong image appears, you would stop entering your password.

Jakobsson says until our passwords change, you need to take steps to protect yourself whenever you go on line; any time you use your password. Jakobsson warns computer uses to, never give out any personal information on line, don't use your mother's maiden name for any reason, and remember, if it seems like you are being played -- you probably are.

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