Anti-virus program and fraud

Security has ever been a recurring problem which brings anxiety to people. With the rapid process of globalization and fast changing and appearing new technology, it brings people easy access to everything (internet banking, online shopping...etc) but this is where the problem begins. With the increase in usage of internet espicially by office workers their security is directly at risk. Although the internet brought people many luxuries and easy access to internet banking, online chatting with long distant clients and many more, with the increase in internet usage, many fraudity is committed with new programmes to hack into peoples accounts. What people dont know is that with these hacking programmes, a stranger can read your e-mail, rummage through your instant messages without your permission or scan the websites that you visited. A casual glance through your credit card purchases or cell phone bills is an easy task with the ever evolving hacking programmes.

This kind of cyber-terror is a common crime in IT Korea. To relate to a news article from Korean news, a office worker Kim logs into his computer everyday and when he does, his messenger automatically logs on as well. Then he glances at the news before starting work. Afterwards he checks his e-mails and does all his financial needs through the internet banking. Sometimes he chats with his over sea clients through his messenger and downloads files and pdf for his work needs. This is a common everyday life in a Korean work environment. However this act of realising on the internet made Kim an easy target for cyber-terrorism. One day he received an e-mail saying that 'Your system might be at risk!!'. He then thought of all the news articles he read about earlier on issues with viruses and he clicks on the e-mail and downloads a file which was named 'Antivirus 2009 .' After he installed it the system constantly pops up saying that it found a virus, and when it does the program redirected to a site asking him to pay for the removal of the virus. Kim did so without any hesitation but after several repetitions he then realised that he became one of the victimes of a fake vaccine programme. This programe takes money by saying to remove a virus and when this system is installed on a person's computer, the hacker can view into Kim's computer. With these kinds of programmes it does not have a un-install function so it is difficult to dispose of. Also through this fake virus programme his messenger was hacked into and his friend's personal information and privacy was at risk aswell. A case like Kim is a common crime which occurs every day. (reference to article http://itnews.inews24.com/php/news_view.php?g_serial=430233&g_menu=020300)

With in increase in internet and IT usage, the notion of security and privacy must also be progressed further and faster. The two must be a parallel but today, IT is much further along, making cyber-terrorism one of the common crimes committed by many in most countries. People are now well aware there are internet cookies everywhere- there is abundant evidence that people live their lives ignorant of the monitoring assuming a mythical level of privacy. People write e-mails and type instant messages they never expect anyone to see. However we are now passed the question of "Are we safe? Are we protected" we now must 'act' in order to protect what's left of our security and privacy.