We all have heard about cyber crime and how it can damage your computer and rob you of data, money, and even identity. Not many of us are current, however, on this recent scourge. For the most part cyber crime originated when it became obvious that there was a relatively open door to the internals of everyone’s PC. This awareness led to an increase in the interest in ways to exploit this gap in security.
If you leave your front door open long enough, thieves will enter. In the world of computers, this was previously limited to data – about you and your life. The remote access software tools that were developed by computer service provider for remote error repairs is now used by cyber thieves. They use these tools – called RATs, or Remote Access Tools, to gain access and freely wander about your hard drive in a search for anything that they can used to extract money or access to it.
They also use these same tools – and later-generation improvements – to access the sites you visit and get their data as well. That data is very often related to other users and the progression to another computer is continued.
Most recently cyber criminals have begun to exploit the capability of storing data on your PC, not just getting data from it. Why would someone want to go through the complex process of putting data on someone else’s computer? Simple. It is stolen data and dangerous for them to have on THEIR PC. When that computer suddenly becomes yours – even though you were not the thief who stole it – your PC, and hence you, become the FBI’s target location.
The final area of concern in this category of recent advances in Cyber Crime is their organization. This latest awareness by the FBI about groups of thieves is the most alarming because data theft is typically a misdemeanor. A conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor(s) in most States is, in fact, a felony. This means that thieves can now pass stolen data on – indirectly – to others for processing and the entire scenario become literally impossible to trace or follow. Finally, the last guy in the series actually performs the theft or unauthorized wire transfer and the preceding participants get paid their agreed share of the stolen money.
One of the things you can do to minimize your exposure to cyber crime is to locate and purchase a top registry software package that cleanses your registry of bogus records automatically. They also do other registry fix functions that accomplish any needed Registry Repair.