Hi All:
This is my first post to this forum. I have been working on Web sites for nearly 10 years now so I have some knowledge of the Internet. However, I went to a seminar given by one of our local police about cybersafety for our children and I was shocked by what I heard: some of the shocking information was truly inaccurate information, and other information is dubious and I was wondering if you could help me separate fact from fiction. The presentation seemed to be more scare tactics than reality which is what is getting my goat.
1) Can a remote user "hijack" a web cam, turning it on or off?
2) Can someone participate in a conversation I am having with my friend using MSN Messenger (or Windows Messenger) without being invited? The police officer was saying that Messenger is a public chat room but my experience is that it is private and you can limit who chats with you.
I can't think of anymore at this time.
TIA,
Jules
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Seti
Posts:
2
Registered:
9/16/06
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(6 of 6)
Re: Reality or scare tactics?
Sep 16, 2006 11:58 AM
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Just about any program that you can run on your computer can be run by someone else who gains access to your computer: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/28/webcam_trojan_case/ As for MSN being a public chat room: earlier versions of MSN enabled you to access public chat rooms but this is no longer the case as Microsoft removed the function. To access the same chat rooms at present you have to download the MSN Chat program. From mid October 2006 Microsoft will be closing their chat rooms accessed via this program in a move it says will ward off pedophiles and junk e-mailers. However, it will continue to offer unsupervised chat room access to users who subscribe to at least one other paid MSN service in the United States, Canada, Japan and Brazil. Hope this helps. Cheers Todd www.netowl.net -- Edited by Seti at 09/16/2006 7:44 PM -- Edited by Seti at 09/16/2006 9:58 PM |
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Larry
Posts:
136
From:
Silicon Valley, California
Registered:
6/19/06
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(5 of 6)
Re: Reality or scare tactics?
Sep 15, 2006 11:16 PM
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The fact that there are some things you know she said that are true and some things that are false should cause you to question her presentation. A police officer is a professional and with very rare exceptions should never publicly say anything that she doesn't know to be true. I'm a journalist and I hold myself to that standard and I would hold any public official or law enforcement officer to the same standard. That's not to say that she might not have been correct about a person posing a 15 year old. We know that there are such predators on the Internet. The question isn't where they're their but whether kids are being trapped by them. Kids need to be careful. That's why we created this website. But we also need to avoid false fears that are sometimes perpetrated by people who ought to know better.
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Larry
Co-director
BlogSafety.com
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vernus15
Posts:
2
Registered:
9/13/06
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(4 of 6)
Re: Reality or scare tactics?
Sep 14, 2006 2:49 PM
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I challenge your comment about staying in the kitchen, there are many tools of mass destruction available there (just as any vegetable).
The police officer provided some facts that I cannot doubt and/or challenge such as a particular pedophile masking as a 15 yr old boy to dupe some girls into meeting him. There are other "facts" she spoke of such as cookies are responsible for pop-up windows. Some things I know are true, some I can't challenge, some I am uncertain of and some are outright wrong (she recommended that we update our Anti-Norton [sic]). One item I am uncertain of is cookies. I know they are simply text files but what can be stored in them? Can personal information be stored in them? Can one site obtain the cookie from another site? If someone were to gain full access to my computer, would they learn anyting about me through my cookies (other than the web sites I frequent)?
TIA,
Jules
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Larry
Posts:
136
From:
Silicon Valley, California
Registered:
6/19/06
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(3 of 6)
Re: Reality or scare tactics?
Sep 13, 2006 9:40 PM
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It seems to be that your understanding is more accurate than that of the police officer. While in theory anything is hackable, the fact is that Messenger doesn't allow people to enter chats unless they are invited. Web cams work the same way. You have to establish a connection between all parties involved. What bothers me about what you're saying is that this a police officer appears to be spreading false information. I'm sure it isn't deliberate but it's unfortunate. There are enough real dangers in the world to worry about without having to add more. Of course to be 100% safe you shouldn't connect to the Internet and all but of course by that same of reasoning you shouldn't ever leave your house or for that matter into your kitchen. Everything has its dangers and there is always the possibility of a freak accident or some kind of unlikely crime. But if we live our entire lives worry about that we would really be living our lives.
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Larry
Co-director
BlogSafety.com
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fuzzybutton
Posts:
71
Registered:
9/10/06
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(2 of 6)
Re: Reality or scare tactics?
Sep 13, 2006 8:38 PM
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I doubt you'd be able to 'hijack' a webcam. After use, you should turn it off and unplug it anyway. And when you aren't at the computer, isn't the internet turned off? It would take a desperately determined person to do that, so it seems highly, highly unlikely.
No, no one can participate in a conversation you are having without being invited. There are public chat rooms in msn, but if you are just having a conversation, it stays between the two of you.
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vernus15
Posts:
2
Registered:
9/13/06
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(1 of 6)
Reality or scare tactics?
Sep 13, 2006 6:34 PM
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Hi All:
This is my first post to this forum. I have been working on Web sites for nearly 10 years now so I have some knowledge of the Internet. However, I went to a seminar given by one of our local police about cybersafety for our children and I was shocked by what I heard: some of the shocking information was truly inaccurate information, and other information is dubious and I was wondering if you could help me separate fact from fiction. The presentation seemed to be more scare tactics than reality which is what is getting my goat.
1) Can a remote user "hijack" a web cam, turning it on or off?
2) Can someone participate in a conversation I am having with my friend using MSN Messenger (or Windows Messenger) without being invited? The police officer was saying that Messenger is a public chat room but my experience is that it is private and you can limit who chats with you.
I can't think of anymore at this time.
TIA,
Jules
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