Amanda Turner ’19: In an age where teenagers are spending, on average, nine hours a day on the Internet, safety online is more crucial than ever. Some of the biggest dangers on the Internet are scams and viruses. Blair Bendler, Technology Services Coordinator, defined viruses as, “Malicious programs that replicate themselves.” Viruses can infect computer programs by modifying them. Because an increasing number of students at Episcopal have either school provided or personal Mac laptops, viruses are not as much of a problem. Bendler explained that Macs are not very susceptible to viruses because of “obscurity,” the idea that information is hard to obtain or understand. Macs’ operating system is based on Unix, which is very secure. But Macs usually fly under the radar, and have built in technology to prevent these viruses,” Bendler explains.
It is still possible, however, for malicious software to get onto the computer. “If the software does get onto the computer, it actually needs your permission and password to actually get on.” Mac computers are also just as susceptible to popups or scams. “A lot of things involve pop ups. You’ll go to a website and a page will pop up saying something is wrong with your computer. So you’ll see a number on the page and think, I should call this number or “tech support” person who is generally in another country. Generally, they use this in order to get you to give them your credit card number.” In these cases, the lure of a broken computer is almost always false. Even if a computer were to have a problem, users would not be notified in this manner.
Bendler continued, “Some other kinds of scams are emails that look like they’re from websites that you regularly shop at. Through nefarious ways, scammers know websites you have gone through. These emails might show up as asking a question about a previous order or whatnot and want you to click a link. If you click it, it might take you to a fraudulent copy of that website. They might ask you to log in, and once you do, they can steal all of your information. It’s mostly about stealing your credit card.”
Bendler also elaborated on the different ways these scams can get onto your computer. “These people have found a way to make your computer request information from a place that doesn’t have actual authority on the server. They hijack that very complicatedly, but nothing is really installed on a computer, especially on Macs.”
Schulyer Kresge ‘18, technology buff, says, “Most of the time, if you are the victim of a scam online, it’s based on a human error. For example, a common internet scam is for someone to send you an email posing as a “confirm your password” email from a company such as Facebook or Twitter. I have never experienced one of those types of scams, but I know a couple of people who have. One of them it was for their paypal account, and they ended up having to dispute a bunch of charges that the scammers made on their account. The other it was for his facebook, and they charged a $100 ransom to get it back.”
For the hackers who do this, there are often no real legal repercussions. “The kinds of people who do this are really hard to track. When something like this happens to you, you can sometimes get your money back by filing a police report. The bank can close your account etc. As far as catching the people, it’s pretty rare. These people are usually overseas, and there is little authority there. They make themselves very obscure,” says Bendler. He explained that usually these scams “are all on a big scale,” and that, “there is usually a big ring running a lot of these. Sometimes you will hear of Interpol or another international body making an arrest of these rings, but it is pretty rare.
Overall, online scams can pose a serious threat, especially to those inexperienced or naive about technology. Hackers and scammers will take your personal information, hijack your computer and cause more damage. It is pertinent that everyone takes precautionary measures to protect themselves and their computers. Bendler advised, that in order to keep students’ and faculty members’ computers and information safe, “Always know where you are browsing. Something we have found here is that kids who play Minecraft go to websites that offer mods for Minecraft and a lot of these are hosted on less than reputable websites which could induce pop ups. When your credit card is involved: check for a padlock symbol during checkout, which means it was a secure checkout. More importantly, if you don’t know what a website is, you should stay clear of it, and always keep your computer up to date.” Making sure to stay safe online is incredibly important in this day and age. As technology continues to evolve, precautionary measures against online dangers must as well.