CYBER ATTACKS ARE REAL AND INCREASING WORLD-WIDE!
Ours is a digital age, with many of our citizens "surfing" the Internet for work, entertainment and education. Whether we're doing online banking with routine bills paid by a few keystrokes, accessing the nation's electrical grid through very sophisticated and protected computer controls or just sending routine emails, the facets of the digital diamond shimmer with value and worth.

While tremendous talent and innovation have been devoted to the advances of the computer era, the drive of cyber-criminals has proven to be a genuine threat to every aspect of our lives. Just as national security is addressed via military and intelligence operations, it now is an imperative that the U.S. government prioritize the security of our connectivity.

In November 2011, the Federal Bureau of Investigation busted an international ring of cyber-criminals whose actions affected an estimated four million Internet users. The FBI, the NASA Office of Inspector General, and the Estonian police synchronized their efforts in the two-year investigation "Operation Ghost Click" to seize perpetrators and their criminal enterprise, "Rove Digital."

Data centers operated by six Estonian nationals and one Russian national in Estonia, Chicago and New York were the nerve centers of an operation that affected more than 100 countries and generated up to $14 million.

According to an FBI news release, the software known as "DNSChanger" functioned to change a user's Domain Name System settings, permitting the cyber-criminals to redirect Internet users to fraudulent websites and illegal advertisements. The software also rendered computer hardware vulnerable to other malware attacks. It would alter user searches, promote illegal products and essentially "showed users an altered version of the Internet," the FBI release said.

How does this affect you?

Most infections by the malware came from opening malicious attachments in emails and visiting suspect websites through links in emails, according to the FBI. The criminal software was found to affect computers "belonging to U.S. government agencies, such as NASA; educational institutions; nonprofit organizations; commercial businesses; and individuals."

Technicians learned that "clean" DNS servers temporarily would be required to prevent the loss of Internet access by infected computers. Originally, those clean servers were to be operational through March of this year. However, the consequences of unresolved malware issues loom large for hundreds of thousands of users, resulting in moving the cut-off date for those servers to July 9.

The FBI recommends computer users visit the website www.dcwg.org/. The DNS Changer Working Group offers the diagnostic site for a very elementary check to determine if an individual's personal computer is infected.

The same conveniences and technological advances that make our digital society function are the points of potential attack by America's enemies and the thieves of liberty's prosperity.

It's time for our elected officials to address the issue of cyber-security. This is not a partisan matter; it's constitutional.

Content Courtesy Chattanooga Free Press...4/24/2012

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BCC for Privacy!

Please don't put my email address in the To or CC fields of messages being sent to people I don't know!

Please protect email addresses as you would phone numbers -- unlisted phone numbers.
BCC stands for "Blind Carbon Copy." Historically, it would indicate who had received (or should receive) a copy of a memo without being listed in the "To" or "CC" fields. In the context of email, it indicates who should receive a copy of the email without being listed in the headers. If you're sending email to a number of people who do not (or should not) know each other, it is courteous to conceal their email addresses by using BCC.
Many people are protective of their email addresses. They don't care to receive email from random people on the net. Perhaps you've decided your clever joke, worthy cause, or business announcement was worth sending to them. You've also sent their email address to everyone else on the mailing.
Look at it another way, would you send your entire holiday card list out with each card you sent? Of course, some people would not like getting the list and others would not appreciate being on the list being sent everyone.
And if you're in business, would you think of giving away your contact list? That's what you're doing by including everyone in the To or CC fields. And some recipients of your mailing might consider everyone else on your list interested in similar mailings and feel free to use the list themselves.
Viruses and spam-bots are now designed to go through mail files and address books looking for potential addresses. Sending a single message individually addressed to a large list of people increases the chances that they all will be spammed or sent a virus should any one of them get infected.
Out of respect for your recipients, would you please consider not listing them each individually in your mailings?
If your "mailing list" is personal, you can just use BCC for all the names. (You can send it To yourself.) If it's a more business oriented list, why not make it an official mailing list at your site and use the alias rather than including everyone's name and email address in the headers? You can set up free mailing lists at Google Groups or Yahoo! Groups. To protect your list from abuse, you still may wish to BCC it.
Interestingly, not using BCC when sending email to a large group who don't know each other appears to be against Google's Gmail's program policies. They list as one of the prohibited actions, "selling, exchanging or distributing to a third party the email addresses of any person without such person's knowing and continued consent to such disclosure." (emphasis added)
How to's:
#
Blind Carbon Copy (How to use BCC in Outlook 2000 and Outlook Express)
Mac OS X Mail Tips (How to use BCC in Mac OS X Mail)
BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) e-mail (How to use BCC on AOL)
Email Tips: Hide Bcc Recipients with Pegasus Mail

Here are some of other sites on the use of BCC:

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Horrors (I B-C-C You) (though perhaps apocryphal, this story illustrated the potential problems of loss of privacy on the net)
James S. Huggins' Refrigerator Door: BCC Field (Good article on the use of BCC)
Sins of the internet: Not Using Bcc (Another good article. Has a good "Help Stamp Out Spam! Use BCC!" icon)
Ethical Multiple (non-SPAM) eMailing (Includes a form letter to send to those who send you mass mailings with lots of visible email addresses)
'You've Got Mail,' More and More, and Mostly, It Is Junk (A NY Times article -- free, but registration required - which describes the growing problem of junk email: "To shield themselves from junk e-mail, many Internet users have become increasingly wary of divulging their addresses." )
Use BCC (discussion, how-to's, links)
Spam Is Not the Worst of It (Bandwidth Hogs: Exposed Addresses)
Netiquette Email 101 (See especially Rule 12 -- "Don't expose your email routing list to spammers")
Using BCC for Email Privacy (written from a business perspective by Robin Henry, Desert Wave Enterprises, Australia)
Send an Email to Undisclosed Recipients (simple explanation from about.com)
Use Cc: and Bcc: (the difference between the two from about.com)
Nettiquette and E-mail Ettiquette ("PLEASE READ and become a better E-mail user...one that is more considerate and more thoughtful.")
US-CERT Cyber Security Tip ST04-008 -- Benefits of BCC (even the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team says it's a desirable option)

Subject: Useful feedback from FEMA mailing list..

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:32:36 -0400
To: (Recipient list suppressed)

From:  W. W.,
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 8:08 AM
To: R7-All DAE; R7-Regional Office; R7-Closeout-Office;
Subject: Crime Prevention: Check Your Car Door Handles

Team,

This came to us from one of our own.  The scenario below is an
account of a crime that is on the rise. 

What will they think of next!  Wednesday, I approached my truck
from the passenger side to place my computer bag in the front 
passenger seat.  As I reached to open the door I noticed there 
was a hole right under my door handle.  My first thought was, 
"someone has shot my truck !"  I began to think about it and inspect it
a little closer and the "light" slowly began to come on.  I phoned 
my friend who owns a body shop and asked if he had any vehicles
with damage to the doors that looked like a bullet hole.  He replied,
“I see it all the time.”  Thieves have a punch and place it right 
under the door handle, knock a hole through, reach in and unlock it,
just as if they have a key.  No alarms, broken glass or anything. 

I then placed a call to my insurance agent and explained the scenario
to him.  I was puzzled that they left my GPS and all other belongings. 
Here is where it gets scary !  "Oh no, he said, they want the break-in to
be so subtle that you don't even realize it.  They look at your GPS to see
where "home" is.  Now they know what you drive, go to your home, and
if your vehicle isn't seen they assume you aren't and break into your home.
He went on to say they will even leave a purse or wallet and only take one
or two credit cards.  By the time you realize there has been a theft, 
they may have already had a couple days or more to use them. 

I didn't realize my situation for two full days!  They even gave me the 
courtesy of re-locking my doors for me. 

What Can You Do

Periodically walk around your car, daily if you are in a shopping center
or other parking areas. 
Report thefts immediately…  Your bank w/missing check numbers, your 
credit card agencies, police, and insurance companies, etc.
Never program your home in your GPS.  Use an address close to yours
such as a business.

(Below is closeup picture of what the hole looks like) 

I hope this helps you and please educate your family members of this crime.

Thanks for what you do.

s/WW