Teaching texting to the masses
With community education classes set to begin around the country in the New Year, a course being offered through Hutt Valley High School has caught NetSafe’s eye. ‘Text Like a Teen’ began in 2007 by community educator Claire Farrell and her teenaged daughters, Hannah and Katie, after the trio observed that older generations could benefit from the skills and knowledge of text-savvy teens.
Senior Net, a community organisation that teaches technology to elderly people, has recently adopted the idea for use with their members. However, the Farrells’ course remains popular with adults of all ages, with most in the 30 to 40 age bracket.
In addition to learning how to maximise the functionality of their phones, attendees are taught text language (without the stresses of texts or exams).
Typo-squatting on the rise
A new report from McAfee suggests that the practice of ‘typo-squatting’ – using common misspellings of popular brands, products or people in order to redirect surfers to alternative websites – is on the rise.
Once on the incorrect page, users may be led through a series of click-through advertisements to generate revenue for the typo-squatter, or may be tricked by a seemingly legitimate-looking webpage into entering their personal details (like login or password information) which is then harvested.
Popular sites such as Google, Youtube and Wikipedia are amongst the most popular typo-squatting sites. Children's sites are also heavily targeted, with more than 60 of the most squatted sites having been designed to appeal to the under 18 demographic who may be more likely to click on links and quizzes.
The report estimates that a typical consumer who misspells a popular website address has a one-in-14 chance of landing at a typo-squatter site.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10477751
Flirting and cybersex provide latest social engineering lure
Russian website Cyberlover.ru provides software which can be used in chat environments and social networking sites to elicit personal information from women online. The software is able to chat, flirt and have cybersex with up to 10 women at a time and is apparently so convincing that people cannot tell that it isn’t a real person chatting with them. The software’s settings can be changed to attract men, persuade people to visit a website or encourage them to top up mobile telephone credit.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=137&objectid=10482322&ref=rss |
The Hector’s World Safety Button™ is a free simple executable file which installs a small swimming animated character (pictured) on the top right of a computer screen. When a child sees something upsetting, they can click on the animated character and a screensaver covers the screen with a stunning underwater scene, which includes a message encouraging the child to get adult help. 