Wrapping Things Up

This Week

This will be my last blog post! I will be wrapping up Internet Safety with some brief information on submitting your personal information online through internet banking websites and more specifically when purchasing items on eBay or any other online consumer company.

• Submitting personal information online

I am aware that many people, including myself, use the internet to pay bills and purchase consumer item from websites such as eBay. Now these sites often require its users to submit some of the above personal information in order to pay bills online or purchase an item through eBay.  So under these circumstances, how can we ensure that our personal information will remain safe? Familyhomesecurity.com provides five helpful tips to help ensure your personal protection while purchasing items online. First, make sure that the item you are interesting in purchasing does not have any restrictions related to it; for example: controlled substances, firearms, lottery tickets, ect. Second, check the sellers feedback, make sure that the individual or company you’re about to purchase from has had previous transactions and the exchange was done professionally and properly. Third, be wary of outside transactions, that is to say purchasing an item through eBay ensures that if you never receive the item you purchased from the seller you are able to be refunded your money. So if a seller prompts you to complete the transaction outside of the eBay understand that you are taking the personal risk and will be unable to be refunded your money is something goes wrong. Forth, bidding on eBay can be exciting often related to gambling in some sense. Make sure that you do NOT over bid on an item, make sure you check other similar sites that may offer the same product. Fifth, it is essential that you communicate with the seller, make sure that the item you are interesting in has a detailed description and the seller provides you with proper contact information. If the description of the item is brief and the seller does not provide you with personal contact information, I suggest you find a different seller to purchase the item from.  These five steps are good building blocks but are in no way fail proof.

• Moving forward

I hope that you found this blog helpful for creating your own personal blog, as well as learned additional information on how to protect yourself while using the internet. As mentioned at the beginning of this post, this will be my last blog post, however, if you have any questions or concerns please email me at epeer@rams.colostate.edu and I will do my best to answer any question you might have or at least point you in the right direction to get them answered.  I enjoyed making this blog and I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Indentity Theft

This Week

So looking back on my past few blog posts addressing internet safety and personal protection while using the world wide web, I failed to address and mention a few aspects and alternatives to the information I provided you with regarding internet safety. So this week I will try to correct myself, and go into further detail and expand on my thoughts and research of personal protection online and internet identity theft.

• Spam

When I addressed spam mail, I mentioned that spam main should never be opened and should simply be deleted, and I personally do not mark any emails as spam I just simply delete any unwanted mail I receive. However it has been brought to my attention that marking certain emails as spam can help your email provider better recognize spam emails which can help prevent some spam emails from even reaching your inbox.  However, spam blockers are not full proof, many online predators and thieves have found ways around email spam blockers. One very effective way that predators have used to gain access to your personal information, is by creating emails that resemble something your bank would send to you, these emails are extremely hard to catch which is why one must always be wary when submitting personal information online regardless of the “appearance” of the email.

• Cookies

When I discussed cookies previously I mentioned that you should manage and delete your cookies on a regular basis. However, after looking into cookies more, my understanding is that cookies can actually help your navigation and the function of certain websites work better, so cookies aren’t necessarily a bod thing all the time, but they should be monitored regularly. Of course purchasing and installing anti-virus software such as Norton Antivirus, McAfee Antivirus, and Kaspersky Antivirus software packages will help monitor your cookies and delete any non essential cookies that may compromise your protection or identity.

• Corporate Identity Theft

Initially identity theft started at the individual, however now, threat of identity theft has now reached the corporate level. According to news.softepedia.com Colorado Secretary of State Bernie Buescher is warning the public that many local businesses have now become the targets of identity theft. Criminals have now found ways to misuse the company’s identity to run up credit. They are able to do this by manipulating records that all companies are required to submit and are then held by the Secretary of State’s office. Originally this was supposed to be a security measure to help protect businesses; instead it has turned into a weapon for committing large scale identity theft. The only short term precautions the state is taking, is sending notifications to the company anytime their records change to they can make sure no un-authorized transactions go through. So if thieves are able to get a hold of companies private information, what’s to say they can’t get a hold or our personal information threw companies in which we do business with?

• Wrapping things up

No matter what precautions we take as individuals or as a business, the treat of identity theft can never be fully eliminated.  So we as a society must take ever precaution available to us in order to maximize our safety while using the world wide web.

• Next week

Next week I will go into further detail about submitting personal information online i.e. when it is safe to, and when it is not. Hope this weeks blog helped clear up some concerns and issues that I have missed regarding identity theft and internet security. Here are a couple more funny videos like the one I posted last week, hope they make you laugh just like the first one made me!

Safety Continued…

This week

As I mentioned last week I will provide additional information on internet safety, tip, and tools on how to use the internet effectively while maintaining personal protection from internet fraud and identity theft.

• Safety Continued

The internet as exploded in the past ten years. Since 2000 internet usage has grown from 5.0% of the world’s population to 28.7% as of 2010.  The creation of Facebook in 2004 now has over 600 million users. MySpace created in 2003 whose number of users is debatable, but estimated to be somewhere around 223 million. The recent uprising of Twitter in 2006 already has over 200 million users, with around 500,000 new accounts created daily. Last but not least YouTube which started in 2005 has approximately 48 million accounts and around 845,177,209,022 videos; but hundreds of videos are uploaded every hour.  Yes, this internet explosion does  compromise our privacy and personal information?

According to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) 1 in 8 Americans in the last five years have been affected by internet identity theft. What makes internet theft different then common theft? Common theft is the theft of physical things like residential and commercial robberies. Internet theft is the theft of a person’s personal information by use of the internet and in most cases more devastating because most of the time the victim is completely unaware they are being stolen from.

In my previous blog I mentioned a few of many ways to help project yourself while using the internet in addition to the step I mentioned last week, another essential precaution people should take is using a safe authentic password for all of your internet account (Facebook, Myspace, email, ect.)

When creating a password for something online think carefully before doing so. Do not use your username as your password. It is a good idea to include numbers, letters, and characters in your password. For example, think of something personal not your hometown or the high school you went to; a good one to think of is the name of your first pet.  Say the name of your first pet was Peter, maybe your password could be, !Peter!. It is also a good idea to replace letters with numbers, !P3t3r!, this way it makes it even harder for someone to get into your email or even your online banking information.

• Spam

Many people do not understand the potential threat that spam mail poses. I’m sure all of you have gotten a spam email one time or another, these spam emails may contain malicious software that can be released if replied to. So what’s the best thing to do when you get a spam email? NOTHING! Do not reply, just ignore it, if you reply or even open a spam email you may become susceptible to a form of internet theft, internet fraud, or even identity theft. I use Gmail as my email provider, Gmail allows you to mark emails as spam, and I’m sure many other email providers offer the same type of thing. Personally I don’t even mess with the spam marker; I simply delete any email that I see as spam or an advertisement.

Keep in mind that the tips and tools I have provided you with over the past few blogs will by no means ensure your online safety 100%, but it is a step in the right direction. Until next week, keep it safe, and keep it real!

Post Spring Break

This Week

Welcome back, or should I say welcoming myself back! In preparing for this weeks blog I went to one of my favorite places for surf on the internet, YouTube. I was searching for helpful videos that would enhance your blogging experience. However the majority of the tutorial style blogging videos were like the one i posted last week, long and….well boring. So I figured most people wouldn’t actually watch the entire video  unless it was somewhat entertaining. But…here is a little clip I found slightly entertaining.

So now that we have covered the majority of the basics of blogging: how to create a blog, the visual presentation of your blog, how to tag your blog posts, and how to post videos, music clips, and hyperlinks; whats next? Lately I have been doing a descent amount of research on internet safety and how to effectively utilize the internet while protecting your personal information from online predators. So now I will begin to shift the focus of this blog from how to create a blog to how to protect yourself from the many dangers of using the internet.

• Protecting your identity

Many of you have heard stories of people getting into trouble in chat rooms, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and even Youtube. Because these internet programs allow you to stay anonymous, these sites have been known to often attract predators who are interested in more than just a friendly conversation. They will ask for personal information which should NOT be given out. Your personal information when exposed can be used to conduct illegal activity which can harm you and even put your family and friends in danger. The internet can be used for just about anything and everything today and there’s nothing wrong with that. But the key is to protect you and others while on the internet.

• How to protect yourself online

People who use the internet on a regular basis need to practice what’s called “Smart Surfing”. Smart Surfing means that a person should remain as anonymous as possible.  This is done by keeping your private information, private. As mentioned above here are some, but not all, things that you should never make available on the internet: full name, home address, phone number, social security number, passwords, names of relatives or family members, and credit card numbers.  Any person or company with legitimate credentials will NEVER ask you for any of this information online. If you find yourself in this position this should immediately put up a red flag and know that whoever it may be asking you for this personal information is probably up to no good.

Another potential threat to internet protection are cookies. I’m sure many of you have heard of these “cookies” but what are they exactly, and why should we be concerned about these cookies? Well cookies are small pieces of data that are stored on your hard drive by your browser.  This is done so your browser can remember something specific when you revisit a website again. Many people will tell you that cookies are nothing to worry about because they only store preferences and are not made to retrieve information from your computer that may exploit you. Certain cookies can contain your name and your interests, this personal information can be accessed by your web browser to better adapt to your preferences. Many internet hackers and online predators can manipulate the internet and find this personal information through your cookies that are saved every time you access a web page or submit information online. So is it possible to disable your cookies, and if so, how? The answer is yes, you can delete or disable your cookies. Disabling or monitoring your cookies will be different depending on which web browser you use. You can easily look up online depending on which web browser you are using to find step by step instructions on how to disable your cookies. Regularly deleting your cookies is just another step towards protection your identity and personal information.

The web can be an invaluable asset if used correctly, however if not aware of the risks one can become susceptible to and not knowing how to properly protect oneself from these threats, the internet can become an immeasurable danger. I Hope this article has made you more knowledgeable of just how many risk there are when using the internet, and some precautions that should be taken when using the internet to ensure your safety. It is absolutely essential that everyone takes the correct measures for internet protections. The internet is booming; more and more people are using the internet and if we don’t know how to protect ourselves while utilizing the internet it could lead to even higher rate of online theft.

Make sure when you are adding content to your blog that you keep your personal information out of it. Being safe while using the internet is an easy thing all you have to do it apply to correct precautions.

Next Week

I am still brainstorming ideas for next week. However, I know I will include some more information on internet safety; but  you’ll have to wait next week to see whats in store.  Hope you found my safety tips helpful!

Videos, Images, and Hyperlinks

This Week

Hello everyone. Again I want to apologize for last weeks blog, and make it up to you by showing you how to add videos and images to your blog posts and blog page this week! Adding these components to your blog will spice it up and give your readers a variety of things they can do besides reading your posts.

• Adding Videos and Images
  

Adding videos and images I found, is not that hard to do. Now there are a few ways to add these things to your blog.  First, you can choose to add a video or an image to one of your blog posts; or second, you can choose to create a page separate from your blog posts that your viewers can access on your main page.  As you will see this week I put a tutorial video of how to create a blog compliments of WordPress.com in this blog post. I also created a page called “Videos” that you can access from my home page at the top next to the “Home” and “About” tabs where you can access this video as well.

Now how to do this. When in the editing section of a blog post above the customization options you will notice the words “Upload/Insert” next to those words you will see several symbols.  The first symbol is where you can upload an image, the second where you can upload a video. Whether you want to post a picture or video the steps are basically identical. So for example: click on the “Add Video” then choose “From URL” then you simply copy and paste the videos URL, and there you have it.  As you can see below I have posted a tutorial video. Additionally, I was thinking of a picture I could post on my blog, so I decided to Google myself and sure enough there was my high school senior picture! The only significant difference between posting a video and a picture I find worth mentioning is that you have the option to customize the position of your image on our post.  So I would spend a few minutes an mess around with your images positioning.

• Next Week

I am happy to say and with no regrets, next week will be my spring break. Therefore there will not be a post next week. However, considering today’s discussion on videos and images I hope to still have enough motivation to at least post a useful video or two under my Videos page. I hope my videos might be able to explain blogging in a different way then I do. So with no further a due, Happy Spring Break!!

Tagging your Blog Posts

This week

So for me, this week and next are my midterms. So naturally I haven’t had much time to gather my thought for this weeks blog.  However, one thing my teacher mentioned to me was that I needed to “Tag” my blogs.  So after browsing through my Dashboard and talking with another student in the class, I figured out how to “Tag” my blogs.  So instead if trying to cram in a blog about more customization, I thought posting a short discussion about blog tags would be beneficial to both myself and my readers who would like to continue progressing in their blog experience.

• Tagging your blog posts

Some of you might be asking yourselves what exactly does tagging a blog post mean, good question.  Tagging your blog posts will allow you to “tag” specific words, phrases, or topics in your blog so that when people are searching the internet for things that you have tagged, your blog will show up in the search. For example, one of the words or phrases I will tag in this blog will be “Tagging your blog posts” so when someone is searching for topics related to tagging their blog posts, my post will show up in their search.

• How to create tags

In order to create specific tags for your blog posts you will want to open up your Posts in your Dashboard. Once you have opened up your Posts tab, choose the post that you would like to create tags for.  If you scroll down on the right hand side you will see the box titled “Post Tags.” There you will be able to enter in a word or phrase that you would like to tag in your blog.  Doing this will make your blog and your specific posts show up under a search someone does using a related word or phrase you have tagged. It’s that easy!

• Next Week

Again, I apologize for not not discussing how to include hyperlinks, videos, or movies in your blog this week, but grades come first! I’m hoping to be done with all my midterms by next Thursday which will allow me some time to create a post discussing in detail how to include those things in your blog. I hope you found how to create tags as useful as I did. Have a great week everyone!

Moving Along

Hello again

So I’ve been thinking about my first post, and realized that I forgot to mention the specifics on how to actually create a blog, and considering this is “Blogging for Dummies” it’s only right that I include instructions on how to actually create your own unique blog before moving into the customization of your blog.  So here is some brief instructions on how to actually create your blog.

• Creating a wordpress.com account

You can set up a wordpress account by going to their home page http://wordpress.com. On the right hand side of their web page you can click the “Sign up now” button there you will be able to create a unique blog address as well as a user name.  Once you have done this then you will be able to start your blogging experience

• Moving along

Picking back up where we left off last week.  Now you should know how to create a unique blog page, choose a template, create an about page and customize the visual presentation of your posts.  This week I want to talk about how to create links.  I will discuss and show how to create and add links to your blog that viewers can access which may help them obtain additional information about your topic, or as you may see in my blog I have linked some of my favorite and most used web sites.

• Links

Personally, I had some trouble figuring out how to create links on my blog page, some of you might have the same issue.  In order to create a link that your viewers can go to you will need to locate the “Links” bar in your Dashboard.  Once you click on “Links” you will notice that you already have several links which wordpress has provided for you already. You can click on the Links box and then click on “new” here you will be able to paste the URL of a desired web site you want your users able to access.  However, that’s not what I found to be the challenging part.  Once you have created a link, you will want to create a link category which will separate your links from the links already provided by wordpress.  Now when you go to the Links tab in your Dashboard you can click on the link you have just created and scroll down to “Categories” there you will be able to check the box for your newly created category so your link appears there and not with the linked already provided by wordpress.  Now the tricky part.  When I went to view my blog I noticed that my links were not visible,  in order to make your Links category visible you will need to navigate to your “Widgets” in your Dashboard.  Your widgets tab is located in your “Appearance” tab.  Once you have found the ‘Widgets” tab you will notice several available widgets which have been provided by wordpress.  There you will need to locate your “Links” widget and drag it to the right hand side where you will see a couple different blog positioning categories.  Depending on which template you have chosen  you will want to place your “Links” in the appropriate positioning (you might want to mess around with the positioning a few times to make it ideal for your viewers to see.)  Once you have made your links visible on your blog you will be able to add additional links as well as widgets that you might think your readers will find useful.

• Next Week

Next week I hope to discuss more details about the customization of your blog page such as: adding pages to your blog (i.e your About page) as well as how to include videos, hyperlinks, and even audio clips in your posts that your viewers can watch, listen, and access with the click of a button.  So until next week, I hope you found this information useful and easy to follow.  If you have any questions or comments about my blog or your personal blog feel free to leave a comment and I will get back to you as soon as possible, see you next week!