CHAPTER 10: Chat and Send Instant Messages Safely 279 10 IM services they support. The only problem is that few third-party clients will automatically download updates. That means you need to periodically check the web site for the client you use to make sure you still have the latest version. ■ Gaim While there aren’t a huge number of updates to Gaim, you will need to check back with the Gaim web site from time to time. The client application doesn’t offer any sort of automatic download of updates. ■ Miranda The Miranda IM client doesn’t have an automatic update feature, but the developers post announcements of new releases or updates on their message board (http://find.pcworld.com/43048). ■ Trillian Trillian doesn’t alert users of its free client that there are updates through the client, but you can expect to see them every two or three months posted on the front page of that company’s web site. Head to http:// find.pcworld.com/43050 to check for updates about every three months. Preserve Your IM Settings, Contact Lists, and Conversation Logs Logging your instant messaging client helps you remember the details of past conversations—but they’re only useful as long as you keep track of them. When you need to back up your computer, you’ll want to keep a copy of your IM client’s settings, your contact lists, and these conversation log files, so you can have a smooth transition and not need to set up everything the way you like it from scratch. The following sections describe how you can accomplish these tasks. Back Up Your Contact List and Settings Every instant messaging client (and mIRC for chat) stores its settings locally on your hard drive. IM clients also store your buddy list/contact list on the hard drive. Usually, you can find the location of these files in the C:\Documents and Settings\ (your login name)\Application Data\ folder, inside a folder named for your instant messaging client. A few programs, like mIRC, store settings in the folder where you installed the program (in mIRC’s case, in a file called settings.ini). Anytime you back up your critical files, you should back up these settings and contact list(s), in case you ever need to reinstall the client software or if there’s a hard drive disaster and you lose your data. Backing up the contact list also can Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. help if you want to use the same client software on another computer, or in case you delete a contact’s name accidentally. Some programs, like Trillian, give you a lot of options for keeping logs (as shown in Figure 10-8). Determine If You Need to Log Your Conversations Most people find it handy to log the past 50 or so messages in an instant message conversation. If your boss sends you a link to an important work file, and you close the message window before you get the file, the message will stay in the message history or message log window for a while. Some businesses require their employees to keep logs of all business-related conversations held in an IM client, in order to comply with laws governing certain kinds of financial transactions. In that case, you’ll need to open the settings or preferences dialog for your specific client, find the log settings, and make sure the program keeps your logs indefinitely. 280 How to Do Everything with Windows XP Home Networking FIGURE 10-8 Trillian gives you a lot of options when it comes to logging chat sessions. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Encrypt Archived Message Logs and Delete Old Logs Periodically, you may find it useful to clear out some of your older chat logs, just to save a little space. But chat logs can contain sensitive information, so if you plan to archive those files, you’ll want to compress and encrypt them, as well. First, you’ll start by compressing the files. Navigate to your logs (one of the windows in your client’s preferences dialog will show you where that client stores its log files) in Windows Explorer, right-click the folder containing the logs, and choose Send To then Compressed (Zipped) Folder. The Zip file containing the logs will appear in the same directory as the original folder. Next, right-click the Zip file, choose Properties, and then click the Advanced button. On the Advanced dialog, fill in the check box labeled Encrypt Contents To Secure Data (as shown in Figure 10-9), and then click OK twice. The encrypted file’s filename and attributes will take on green lettering in Windows Explorer. Defend Your Privacy in Chat and IM Without question, when you use instant messaging or chat, you must defend your private information from virtually everyone. You can never truly know for certain whether someone who you chat with regularly, someone who might always seem cheerful and friendly, might be slightly unhinged. Online chat and IM attract a wide range of people, some of whom bring their real-life baggage with them into the online world. 10 CHAPTER 10: Chat and Send Instant Messages Safely 281 FIGURE 10-9 Compress folders containing IM or chat logs into Zip files, and then use Windows XP’s encryption to protect those files from snoops. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 282 How to Do Everything with Windows XP Home Networking You shouldn’t think of chat and IM as a scary place where everyone is a pedophile or stalker. But just as in real life, you need to develop a form of street smarts online, that gut instinct that can help you judge a person’s character. This is very difficult for some people, but it needn’t be: You just need to follow some simple rules about protecting any information that can personally identify you to someone you meet online. Who Wants Your Name? Right now, as you read this book, many millions of people are online, chatting with one another. When you go online to chat, you place yourself not in a whirlwind of criminal activity, but into a frenzy of socializing, almost like a cocktail party with a zillion people, all talking at the same time. But not all of these digital socialites are there for the fun. Among the hordes of people who love to chat you’ll find a few lowlifes: criminals, creeps, nosy Nellies, weirdos, and a whole host of other people who—believe me—you don’t want to get involved with. For some, it’s all work: some want to separate you from your hard-earned money; others might want to infect your computer with spyware, which earns them a few cents. Who are these folks? We can categorize them into a few general classes of shnooks: ■ Scammers and identity thieves They will do whatever it takes to get you to click a link to their web site, where they can fool you into giving up a credit card number or bank account login name and password. ■ Spyware goons They will tell you about some great new game, or cool tool, but the file they send you won’t be either—it’ll be a piece of spyware, which will infest your machine and cause you a lot of grief. ■ Spam zombies They aren’t real people but computers that have been infected with a worm or Trojan horse and want to send you a file that’ll do the same to you. ■ Chatbots They are software programs that respond to conversations as if they were real and ask probing questions you don’t want to answer. ■ Screen scrapers They don’t care who you are, but if you type your e-mail address in a chat room, they’ll pass it along to spammers within minutes. They all want the same thing: your personal information. All you have to do is not give it to themsimple as that. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. CHAPTER 10: Chat and Send Instant Messages Safely 283 10 Apply Common Sense Liberally Joining a chat room isn’t necessarily an activity that’s fraught with peril, if you know how to handle yourself. Here are some common sense guidelines to follow if you’re interested in chatting or IMing: ■ Don’t assume you “know” someone you chat with regularly Even if you’ve talked to the same person for months on end, that person may not be who they make themselves out to be. Men pretend to be women, and vice versa; children pretend to be adults. Unless you know someone in the “real world,” don’t assume the other person is being completely honest with you. ■ Watch out for social engineering Most people respond sympathetically when someone asks for help online. Unfortunately, the people asking for help might be trying to worm their way into your business, ingratiating themselves through flattery or deceit. Sometimes they pose as someone you know, or they might toss around the names of people you may have mentioned previously, and try to pass themselves off as a friend of your friend. ■ Never give anyone your passwords Anyone who tells you they work for “the company” who runs your IM service or chat system, and then tells you they need your password for some sort of service call or to fix something, is shoveling a steaming pile of baloney in your face. Laugh it off, and then report them to the real company employees. ■ Think before you type If you mention the name of your employer, or school, you might be giving the other folks in the chat too much information. When asked about what you do, where you live, or anything else that could let a potential weirdo find you and follow you around, just give a vague answer. You’re not on a witness stand, you know. ■ You don’t know who’s reading over their shoulder You might know every person in a chat room, but you don’t know if they are alone in their rooms. Assume you’re standing in a crowded bus station; don’t say anything aloud you wouldn’t want that sleazy guy who’s standing in the corner staring at you to hear. ■ Hide your IP address If a malicious chatter gets annoyed, they might decide to launch hack attacks against your computer as retaliation—but many chat and IM services hide your real IP address so hackers can’t do that. Never tell people what your IP (Internet Protocol) address is, even if they tell you they need it. They don’t. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. ■ When in doubt, don’t give it out If someone’s being persistent about wanting to know your age, sex, or location, that should raise a red flag. Sometimes these people sleazily use the initial letter of each of those three pieces of vital data as a question, as in “A/S/L?” Tell ’em to take a cold shower. Should You Create a Personal Profile in Your IM Client? Most first-party IM client software allows you to create elaborate online profiles of yourself, most of which can be viewed, searched, and browsed by any other user of the service. Not only does this create a huge market for scammers and identity thieves, but pedophiles and other kinds of stalkers don’t even have to exert any effort to build a dossier on you if you give them everything they need on a platter. Among the items of information you could put into a profile, you can publish: your home and work mailing addresses; any number of e-mail addresses and phone numbers; your birthdate; details about your interests, hobbies, and educational background; your photograph; and links to your personal web site and the web sites you frequent. Many IM services (like ICQ, shown in Figure 10-10 below) also allow you to also create free-form bios of yourself and publish those along with all this other information. 284 How to Do Everything with Windows XP Home Networking FIGURE 10-10 ICQ lets you create an entire dossier about yourself, all of which becomes publicly available as soon as you click OK. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. CHAPTER 10: Chat and Send Instant Messages Safely 285 10 You have to wonder what planet people are living on when they fill out questionnaires with all this unbelievably sensitive data and publish it all online. It’s almost as if they’ve been living under a rock the past several years, while the crime of identity theft has turned into the number one white collar crime in the world. In general, creating a profile is a bad idea. Just don’t do it. Handle Chat and IM Security Issues Chatting safely in IRC or IM takes just a little smarts. Knowing what you can and can’t do isn’t always obvious (though after you’ve finished this chapter, you should be a pro), but the steps aren’t too hard to follow. The three things you need to be careful about are making sure to scan any files you download for viruses, not blindly clicking links people post in chat rooms or send you in IM messages, and not divulging information about yourself. See, I told you it was easy. Avoid Chat- and IM-Borne Malware Instant messaging and chat rooms sometimes can be vectors for malware—malicious software, such as viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spyware, or keystroke loggers (for more on what these things can do, see Chapter 8). In addition, links in instant messages may take you to sites that could load spyware or worms onto your computer. But you don’t have to stick your head in the sand, just take some simple precautions. Download Files Safely over IM When is it safe to have folks send you files? The answer is, it’s usually pretty safe. The only time people get into trouble is when they haven’t developed smart habits and practices that keep them safe. For instance, you should never open a file immediately after someone sends it to you; always run it through a virus scan. A ten-second scan could save you hours of hassle trying to rid your computer of a nasty bug. In the long run, it’s gotta be worth it. Another rule that’s got to be set in stone is never accept files from people you don’t know or aren’t on your Buddy List. Sounds simple, right? It is, if you have your IM or chat client set up correctly. In fact, if you set this up right, you won’t even see the file someone’s attempting to send you, because your client will know better than to download it. And for those files you want to receive, set up your client to save them to a folder (as shown in Figure 10-11) where your antivirus program will always scan the incoming files. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 286 How to Do Everything with Windows XP Home Networking Finally, and probably most importantly, you need to install a modern, up-to- date software firewall and antivirus package before you accept the first file from anyone (not to mention, you need to keep current with your antivirus updates). We can’t stress this enough—these two programs are your computer’s first (and sometimes only) line of defense against some pretty nasty malware. Once you’ve done that, you can configure your IM client so it launches your antivirus program any time you download a file (as shown in Figure 10-12) and scans the newly downloaded file for viruses. It’s not enough just to have antivirus software installed, you must set up this automatic scanning on each IM client you use. Configure Antivirus for Chat and IM Instant messages can spread viruses or worms as easily and quickly as they can send messages or files. Several IM clients have special settings within their overall program preferences that can launch your antivirus software to scan any files sent to you through the IM service. But even clients that can’t launch your virus scanner can be set up more safely, by saving all downloaded files to the same place and then setting your virus software to scan that place on a regular basis. FIGURE 10-11 AIM lets you decide which incoming files you want to accept and where to save them. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. CHAPTER 10: Chat and Send Instant Messages Safely 287 10 For instance, the AOL Instant Messenger software has a special Virus Checker setting (shown in Figure 10-13), which you can use to tell AIM where your antivirus software is located on your hard drive. (To find the setting, press the F3 key, click File Transfer in the left pane, and then click the Virus Checker button in the right pane. Use the Browse button in the Virus Checker dialog box to navigate to where your antivirus software is installed.) When you receive a file from someone else, AIM automatically launches the virus scanner, which then scans the file. But not all IM clients have this functionality. To protect yourself, create a folder on your hard drive where you can store all the files people send you over IM. In the example shown in Figure 10-13, we’ve created a folder on the top level of the C: drive named scan-for-viruses. Every IM client lets you choose the folder where it will save downloaded files, so go into the settings dialog box for the IM client you use, and direct the client to save its files in C:\scan-for-viruses (or whatever folder you use). FIGURE 10-12 You can set up most IM clients, such as Miranda, to trigger your antivirus program to scan downloaded files for viruses as soon as you get them. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 288 How to Do Everything with Windows XP Home Networking Once you’ve got that set up, you’ll want to set up a system to protect yourself. Most antivirus software can be configured to scan a predetermined folder on a schedule. Set your antivirus program to scan any files that appear inside this incoming files folder once a day or once an hour; at the very least, just scan the folder manually, whenever you get a file. Play It Safe in mIRC IRC has a reputation as an outlaw hub of malicious software (and the hangout of the hackers who write and use those programs). In reality, IRC is a lot more like a social club, though some unsavory types do occasionally crop up. Turning off file sharing features in your IRC client software is one way to prevent worms or Trojans from taking root on your PC. But not all infections start when an automated worm spreads itself around: Many more people accidentally infect themselves with viruses when they download and install scripts for their IRC client that, they think, are intended to serve some useful purpose. An unsophisticated IRC user can get in a lot of trouble by downloading scripts, especially if that user doesn’t have the foggiest idea how to check whether the script is just a Trojan horse. Scripts can help you do certain things in IRC, such as enter passwords (as shown in Figure 10-14), manage channels, play trivia games, listen to music, or mute annoying chatters. FIGURE 10-13 AIM’s Virus Checker dialog lets you set up your antivirus application to scan downloaded files automatically. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. [...]... service to their customers, though not all companies offer all (or exactly the same) Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 11 308 How to Do Everything with Windows XP Home Networking services to all their customers Sometimes you need to have a specific card, or (in the case of Visa and MasterCard) the card-issuing bank needs to be signed up for the service in order to. .. on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 290 How to Do Everything with Windows XP Home Networking WiredSafety’s Parry Aftab: The Importance of Teaching Kids How to Chat Safely Parry Aftab is no stranger to the risks people face when they chat or send instant messages As the founder and director of WiredSafety.org, Aftab is an expert on the subject Her book, The Parent’s Guide to Protecting Your... desire to be honest Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 301 11 302 How to Do Everything with Windows XP Home Networking FIGURE 11-5 Mozilla displays the SSL serial number with colons between pairs of characters Delete each colon in the search field before you submit it, or the search won’t go through with customers; many policies read as if the company took those... insist to the other party that you be allowed to pay by credit card Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 11 296 How to Do Everything with Windows XP Home Networking FIGURE 11-1 Escrow.com was the first Internet auction escrow service if the item costs more than $50 to $100 Most people who get victimized used a check, a money order, or PayPal to transfer funds to the... lower pane by holding down the CTRL key and hitting the C key Go to the VeriSign page and paste the serial number into the Search By Serial Number field, but before you click the Search button, carefully delete the spaces between each group of four characters Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 11 300 How to Do Everything with Windows XP Home Networking FIGURE... www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 11 310 How to Do Everything with Windows XP Home Networking FIGURE 11-8 You’ll have to state your intentions when you register for Friendster.com Rules of the Road for Social Networks Sure, social networking can be a fun way to make new friends, but there are a few rules you should always follow when you sign up for one (or more) of these services You don’t want to set... Finding nothing in the BBB online database doesn’t necessarily indicate the company’s untrustworthy But it doesn’t affirm anything, either If you can’t find 11 FIGURE 11-2 Use whatever information you have to search the BBB Online database Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 298 How to Do Everything with Windows XP Home Networking anything at the BBB, you can... decline to use a site and complain to the site’s operators if they didn’t agree with their privacy policies The operators of some web sites tend to cry ignorance when customers challenge some invasive change to the site’s privacy policy We haven’t received many (or any) complaints, they almost always say Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 11 306 How to Do Everything. .. Do Everything with Windows XP Home Networking Most people who object to a privacy policy don’t complain, because it’s just so easy to close the browser window and go somewhere else But unlike walking out of a brick-and-mortar store in a huff, the act of leaving a web site gives the site’s owner no useful information The solution: let the operators of a web site know why you didn’t choose to buy something... someone has started harassing or stalking you online Remember, online stalkers can quickly turn into Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 10 292 How to Do Everything with Windows XP Home Networking real-life stalkers, who could harass you at work, vandalize your property, or do much worse If you’re concerned, here are some places you can call ■ The cops Many police . www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 290 How to Do Everything with Windows XP Home Networking WiredSafety’s Parry Aftab: The Importance of Teaching Kids How to. Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 294 How to Do Everything with Windows XP Home Networking How to ■ Identify secure shopping sites