THOSE of us, who use the Internet or need it badly, like I do, as I am in the information technology field, must monitor what we have on the Web. This is especially true for those of us who own and operate websites.

Take your simple email account. It is not really a good idea to read and follow the instructions of every email that you may get. I usually get about five or six emails every day telling me that I have won some huge jackpot, or that I a have inherited some fortune (usually from Nigeria or some African country), or that some sexy Russian girl wants to get “acquainted” with me, or that I must click on this “link” to get this “award”, or some such email. Some of these emails aren’t even in English. I even get some in Chinese and Arabic.

Needless to say, I wouldn’t urge people to take too much note of mail like these, especially the ones that ask for private information or those that ask you to click on some link. Some of these links are traps that can cause serious harm to your computer if clicked. What I would recommend is that strange emails should be deleted immediately — which is what I do.

Unfortunately, even our best efforts may not be enough. If you have any important data in your web space, it would be a good idea to backup your data. I learned that the hard way — a few years ago someone managed to get into my email and deleted everything!

If you manage and/or are the creator of a website, like I do with the schools that are on www.schoolmanagerja.com, caution becomes even more important. Everything must be done to protect important data that users need.

If you are in charge of a site, never do root access at just any place. If you do, the login information that you use could be “captured” by specialised programmes of which you would be unaware. Such login information can then be passed on to devious persons with very devious intentions which could be disastrous to your site. It’s better to do so from a secured location.

Always check if modifications have been done to the files on your site. I always check mine regularly; and in the past have noticed attempts by unauthorised person to alter the functions of mine. For example, if the last modification date on a script is out, then there is a good chance that someone has been fooling around.

Hackers have been getting better at illegally getting into people’s web space. When I was a victim of such an attack, a few years ago, I considered reporting it. However, as the intruder was most likely far overseas, I didn’t see any point in going to our local authorities. My best option was (and still is) to be as secure as possible when doing my root access.

Never take the security of your web space for granted. Whether it’s your own website, a simple email account or some account on a social site — take note of what you have on the Web.

michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com