Are you really safe on the Internet?

free to mingle, roam and chat carelessly anonymously.
Can your identity really be hidden when you are online (surfing the Internet). Who can really follow up on you and how? Can your future boss know more than what you have typed on your curriculum vitae, is it possible for your parents to follow up on what you have been doing on the internet. Does it really take somebody geeky to know who is who on the net and who has been doing what? Well, personally I would tell you that anyone who wants to track you can, depending on the motive and a little expertise.
You are never anonymous whenever you connect on the Internet, in fact it is virtually impossible unless you are really witty, yes you can be but the question is to whom and for how long. Many softwares today are written to try and hide one’s identity or rather (ip address) which might seem to work but the same software can be used to blow your cover. I’m not trying to instill fear to the reader but I’m merely getting you informed.
Computer systems today are very safe and robust true, but we are not shocked when we hear that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been hacked down yet it employs the best of computer security personal be it black or white hackers. This is not so puzzling to also hear that the same bad guys or crackers have been traced down and arrested, so how naive is one to think that you can hide under the cover of the Internet cloud and go unnoticed.
On June 12 this year, Italian hackers named Lulz defaced the US Senate website and they bragged that the intrusion was “just-for-kicks”.
How can your boss, partner, or parent know more than the obvious information you have presented in black and white? Google has done so much good and damage by making sure that all information we carelessly post on the net can be easily searched and stored to haunt us for the rest of our lives especially after one has turned over a new leaf. Whatever Google or search engines stores or indexes cannot be easily deleted, I will put so much emphasis on search engines and Google on my next articles.
So are we really unsafe on the net, is it much of a wolf in a sheep’s skin? Well, definitely not, basically we are safe and sound. The net has vastly improved to be much safer and reliable than it used to be, but after analysis the question should be what is one really trying to be safe from. A very good example is when one tries to be anonymous when making a phone call by hiding your number, a common practice in Zimbabwe, which can also be easily achieved by first dialling #31# then the desired number, voila!
By so doing we have all at one point managed to call whomever we wish and successfully kept the other side guessing, but there is a catch. It was successful because the other end really doesn’t care or know how to unmask that private caller otherwise you could be unmasked way before you started lying, save that for the next articles.
Simply because safety on the Internet includes but not limited to privacy, and confidentiality, most web users or bloggers naively believe that they are in their own world where they cannot be traced back. The big question is can I be traced back and how? Well accessing the Internet from whatever device and whichever location one may use is hierarchical, whether one is in a public cafe or private connection at home or work. Accessing the Internet uses a technology called IP addressing and Mac address which uniquely identifies your computer or device to your local Internet service provider (ISP) which will also be forwarded to go through the Internet Access Provider (IAP) before it finally passes it on the Internet cloud.
Since it is impossible to connect to the Internet direct without any service provider it simply means it is also possible to trace one back all the way from Facebook to the actual computer used. This is easily achieved by the hierarchical design of the Internet and if there is enough motive and finance, of course, anyone can be tracked down easily to the host. Every device be it a laptop or smartphone will have to use an IP address to connect to the Internet. Whenever you join a computer network, you are automatically or dynamically given an IP address, this is a unique number you get like a phone number per that session simply meaning that no one else can have or share your phone number. This is your IP address until you close your session, then someone else may have it thereafter. Although it might be tedious when your network is using a technology called NAT, deciphering will be imminent.
This will obviously mean that your ISP knows who was requesting what during which time before it passes over the request to its IAP from IAP to the Internet. Whether your ISP has the right to divulge information about your sessions is frankly an issue of company policy and it’s wise to know the terms and conditions of what your ISP can guarantee or not, this should help you sue them before you even think you can. So after all this, does it mean there is someone always trying to sniff around what you are doing on the net, honestly not, it will be impossible for anyone or institution to try and find out what, who is doing that or not. No one can monitor the whole Internet for just an hour before his/her own computer crushes, so frankly no one is monitoring everyone online unless of of course there is a motive to do so.
To help your data to be more safer and private such that it cannot be intercepted or rather easily, it is advised you use secure connections such as VPN, SSH, https, strong passwords and leased lines. This goes a way in ensuring privacy and anti-sniffers. They encrypt your data when it travels through the public Internet. I will talk much about data security in my next articles. Cisco network engineers and network security companies have done and are doing a tremendous job to make the net safe, secure fast and reliable. It is the mandate of your computer network administrator to make sure that your network is robust and secure.
l Toneo Ndebele Rutsito is a compTia hardware, Cisco-certified network engineer and Linux administrator.