Several years ago, when I was the computer teacher at St. Demetrius High School in Astoria, FBI agents came into my computer lab and asked to see one of my students. I pointed out the student whose name they had given me and they promptly went to him. After a short, whispered, conversation they turned the boy around, and handcuffed him.
As they led my student out of my lab in tears I asked one of the agents what this 14-year-old-boy had done and they told me that he had hacked (broken into) the computers at the Pentagon!
I wanted to teach ethics and respect for the law besides computers so, I discussed this with all my classes. I thought this would also be a good lead in to a lesson on computer security I was planning.
As I started my lesson, I discussed that on the web HTTP meant Hyper Text Transfer Protocol and that if you were buying something or transferring important information you would want to look for an “S” after HTTP or HTTPS. That “S” standing for “secure” and to look for an icon of a little “lock” on a bar on the lower right hand screen.
I told them about encryption and passwords. I told them how the passwords appeared in asterisks (stars) instead of the words and that was for protecting those letters. When one of my favorite students, George, raised his hand and said “Mr. D, I can get to see the letters easily.” I told him to show me after class.
George pulled out a floppy disk and asked my permission to install a little program on a lab computer. I approved. Then he told me to go to any program that required a hidden password and I complied.
George then left clicked the newly installed program icon and the encircled crosshairs, like those of a riflescope appeared on screen. He placed the crosshairs over each box with an asterisk in it and with one mouse click the letters of the secret password appeared.
With software like this, it would take a cheat or thief under one minute to steal your secret password or PIN (personal identification number). At that point, you might be in deep trouble! Your email or on-line banking could have persons other than yourself with access!
Software providers recommend you change your password regularly to foil intruders. You can never keep computer spies out completely but you can make it difficult for them and they will go somewhere else where entry is easier.
I recall a line in a western movie I once saw where an old geezer like Gabby Hayes said: “I ain’t never seen a horse that can’t be rode and never saw a cowboy that can’t been throwed!” To me that means that as computer and data security improves so does the skill and knowledge of the criminal rise to cheat that system - it is a vicious circle.
For security reasons, I recommend keeping two checking/Visa/MasterCard whatever accounts. In one, I keep just enough money or credit to use for a small or specific purchase whether on-line or at a cash register - that reduces your risk. If the thief is not deterred by such a small amount he, if successful, just ends up with a little, “chump change!” Be careful with your information and personal data, avoid becoming a “chump” yourself.
P.S., I told that student who had shown me how to reveal hidden passwords to take the program off the computer by deleting it. He deleted it and left the old professor at the computer. However, in leaving, he forgot to do one thing! Can you guess what that one thing was?
He, like most kids and many husbands, forgot to empty the trash!
Sam Di Bernardo is a retired computer teacher.
