At the CSM-ACE 2010 (pt 2) 3:39 AM

The second speaker at the CSM-ACE 2010 was IT consultant S. A. Khor.

The very funny Mr S. A. Khor. His picture's a bit small, sorry!

Mr Khor had a personal story to tell. Alicia was a teenaged girl, his daughter's friend. It all started when she got an iPhone for her birthday.

On Monday, she Tweeted: "Daddy just bought a BMW X5!"

On Tuesday, she Tweeted: "Driver is picking me up in the Merz today, X5 hasn't arrived yet".

On Wednesday, she Tweeted: "I don't want to go to music class in 1U!"

And on Thursday, she Tweeted that the driver was late to pick her up for ballet class.

This went on until Christmas Eve of 2009, the day in which she disappeared.

True enough, she was made vulnerable via her social networking sites. The crooks could find out from her Facebook page what she looked like, her birth date, family members, address, and her school. And from the photos she took during her birthday, they probably found out if her house had dogs, CCTVs or guards as well.

Not only that, they could obtain her current location from Foursquare and Twitter.

Thankfully for Alicia, she was released five days later - but not before her father paid a hefty ransom. She was unhurt.

This is just one example of the kind of trouble you can get into when too much of your personal information is freely available on the net. So set those privacy settings on FB to the max - its no joke what people will do to take advantage of your ignorance.

Of course, this doesn't mean you should delete your Twitter account this instant, but just be careful that your online activities don't leak out precious information to would-be hackers and criminals.

Final tip from Mr Khor: verify every information you receive from cyberspace at least three times. You know those wacky emails about what fruits prevent cancer or how to unlock your car door using a mobile phone? Don't be a fool and repeat these things hook, line and sinker - check it out first! Its as easy going to Google and typing in several keywords.

Especially email addresses - one person can be 10 people online. He showed us about 12 different email addresses that could possibly belong to badminton player Lee Chong Wei and asked to guess which was genuine. FYI, one address was set up by his friend's son to play a prank on his classmates.

With that, I conclude my report on the CSM-ACE 2010. Hope you found it useful, and remember: you can't be a victim of the net, but you can be a victim of ignorance. Now go fix those privacy settings!

At the CSM-ACE 2010 8:36 AM

I was recently invited to attend this event called the CyberSAFE Ambassadors Convention held at the KL Convention Centre.

The convention is part of Cyber Security Malaysia's week-long Awards, Conference and Exhibition (CSM-ACE) outreach program to educate the public about safe internet usage. FYI, Cyber Security Malaysia (CSM) is an agency under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) that is in charge of our country's cyber security.

If you're thinking "why should I care?", well here's why: so much of our lives is spent online now - on Facebook, on Twitter, blogs, Foursquare and countless other "social networking" sites. Have you ever thought that maybe you're not so safe online? Ever wondered if people can find everything they need to know about you from your FB profile to plan a kidnapping? It’s all very real, and that's why CSM has organized this series of events.

Anyway, the convention I attended was a platform for four notable experts on IT security to share their knowledge with us non net-savvy folk. I managed to catch two speakers and was honestly surprised at how much I DIDN’T know about online security. First up was Mr Azli Paat who talked about SMS and internet scams.

PROtip#1

I remember my dad getting an SMS claiming he had "won" a big cash prize from Shell. So he replied with a text message saying he'd forward the message and their number to Shell. Bad move. According to Azli, whenever you receive such SMSes you SHOULD NOT REPLY as it will be a sign to the scammers that your number is active. The same thing for bogus emails. Do not try to be smart by contacting or threatening them; instead forward the message to RakanCop at 32728.

Here's how: start your SMS with RC and insert the offending message. The police are obliged to respond as it is part of their KPI to do so. Alternately, you can send an email to aduan@mmcp.org.my - this is the complaints email for the Malaysian Mobile Content Providers Association. 

PROtip#2

For internet scams, a good way to check if a bank account number is valid is to simply Google it. If the number exists in Google, it is a scammed account. I think it’s because internet businesses are not supposed to reveal their account numbers online. Azli also joked that the "http" in URLs is short for "have to type properly".

PROtip#3

As for internet banking, you're supposed to insert the exact URL of the e-banking website. Some links could fool you into thinking they're the real thing, so be cautious and use only the URL provided by your bank.

Finally, try not to use public computers or public WiFi for internet banking. There is such a thing as “DNS poisoning” where a hacker hijacks public WiFi servers. If you absolutely must transfer money to your LV-loving girlfriend/boyfriend via public internet, switch the server settings to "Open DNS" to avoid this problem.

That's all from me for part 1 of the CyberSAFE Ambassadors Convention! Stay tuned for the next post in which an IT consultant relates how his daughter's friend was kidnapped after some careless Tweets. :-)