Texans for Economic Progress

Protect Yourself Online

Texans for Economic Progress is proud to continue its work with Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott who has some important tips to help keep Texans safe from robot networks, zombie armies, and botnets. Yep, these cyber threats are real. But you can protect yourself, your family and your business. Read on.

Being aware of cyber risks couldn't be more important these days as cyber fraud steals $239 million from consumers, according to the FBI. TEP is committed to bringing you the latest information about tools and resources to protect your family, your private information and your business.

Tips For Families

Consumer Alert: Parents Should Keep Children Away From new Video Chat Web Site Chatroulette.com
Office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, March 8, 2010

10 Things You Can Do Today to Protect Your Children on the Internet
download pdf from fosi.org

12 Tools to Keep Kids Safe Online
PC Magazine, March 4 2008

News

Consumers found vulnerable to e-mail threats
San Francisco Chronicle, February 20, 2010
Tens of millions of Web users in North America and Western Europe have clicked on spam at least once - and many of them did it on purpose - according to preliminary results of an online survey that are indicative of the widespread lack of consumer awareness of e-mail threats. Read more.

What CEOs Don't Know About Cybersecurity
Forbes, July 13, 2009
Being the chief executive has its privileges. And one of them may be a blissful ignorance of your company's data breach risks. According to a study to be released Tuesday by the privacy-focused Ponemon Institute, companies' chief executives tend to value cybersecurity just as--if not more--highly than their executive colleagues. But compared to lower-level execs, CEOs also tend to underestimate the frequency of cyberthreats their organization faces. Read more.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott warns Wacoans to beware of Internet sexual predators and scammers
Waco Tribune, June 12, 2009
The Internet provides remarkable benefits to society, but sexual predators and scammers who want to steal personal or business information make it a dangerous law-breaking tool. That’s what Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott told a crowd of about 100 during a stop in Waco on Thursday. Read more.

ID Theft Threat Grows With 1M Already Hit in '09
Internet News, March 2, 2009
Identity thefts soared in 2008, and now 2009 is shaping up to be another banner year for phishers, hackers and other ID thieves.

That’s what Irving resident Debbie Browning apparently landed when she received a call from someone who spotted her résumé. Read more.

The Watchdog: Looking for a job online? Watch for scams
Fort Worth Star Telegram, February 27, 2009
With the national unemployment rate projected to hit nearly 9 percent this year, many job seekers are casting their lines into the online job pool, hoping a company will bite. But beware: If you post your résumé on job boards, you could reel in a cybershark.

That’s what Irving resident Debbie Browning apparently landed when she received a call from someone who spotted her résumé. Read more.

When is it OK to spy on your kids online?
Associated Press, February 22, 2009
A report earlier this month that MySpace removed 90,000 sex offenders from its Web site had me wondering: Maybe all those moms who spy on their kids online are doing the right thing.

Yeah, that's right. Moms are spying. They're reading kids' text messages, hacking into their e-mail and checking what Web sites they've been visiting. Read more.

How Facebook is taking over our lives
Fortune Magazine, February 19, 2009
Facebook held no appeal for Peter Lichtenstein. The New Paltz, N.Y., resident had checked out so-called social networking sites before, and he wasn't impressed. ("MySpace," he recalls, "was ridiculous.")

A chiropractor and acupuncturist, Lichtenstein was already a member of a few professional web-based user groups. The last thing he needed was another message box to check. Then a buddy posted a link to photos from a trip to Thailand and India on his Facebook page and flatly refused to distribute them any other way. The friend's assumption: Duh - everyone's on Facebook. Read more.

No Easy Answer for Protecting Kids Online
Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2009
There is no simple technology solution to protect children from bullying, pornography, sexual predation and other online threats, a new study says.

The highly anticipated report -- results of a year-long study ordered by 49 state attorneys general -- found that "a combination of technologies, in concert with parental oversight, education, social services, law enforcement, and sound policies by social-network sites and service providers, may assist in addressing specific problems that minors face online," according to a draft of the report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The report also found that the risks that minors face on the Web -- notably bullying and harassment by peers -- aren't very different from those they face in the real world. Read more.

The Rough-and-Tumble Online Universe Traversed by Young Cybernauts
New York Times, January 22, 2008
A baby-faced eighth grader, viciously bullied online, hangs himself. With a click of her mouse, a young woman with anorexia uses cyberspace to find tips on starving. A high school student, with a world of plot outlines available on the Internet, admits that he cannot recall ever actually reading a book.

If 21st-century parenthood is not scary enough, “Growing Up Online,” a documentary to be broadcast on the “Frontline” program on most PBS stations on Tuesday night, uses those real-life stories to ask an increasingly important question: What does it mean to be part of the first generation coming of age steeped in a virtual world seemingly outside parental control? Read more.

Virginia Tries to Ensure Students' Safety in Cyberspace; State-Mandated Classes on Internet Take Shape
Washington Post, May 3 2008
Alan Portillo didn't think much, if at all, about his online vulnerability. Then the 15-year-old heard technology teacher Wendy Maitland list three pieces of information an online predator would need to find him. Birth date, she said. Alan's age was on his e-mail. Gender. His full name was also on his e-mail and topped his MySpace page. ZIP code. A photo on the page showed an area near his neighborhood, with "Arlington" emblazoned across one building. Read more.

Texas attorney general warns that Internet safety starts with user
Abilene Reporter News, April 23, 2008
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sounded the first warning, and other speakers repeated it, ensuring that everyone listening got the message: Cyberspace security begins with you. Read more.

Cyber bullying needs deleting
The Journal Times, May 28, 2008
Used to be that home was a safe haven from bullies. Not so since the rise of “cyber bullying.” The family of Megan Meier can testify to that. The Missouri teenager committed suicide after a “boy” she met on the social networking site MySpace rejected her. In fact, there was no such person. Read more.

'Cyber bullying' opens new legal vistas Technology aids harassers, but court case could change that
Royal Oak Daily Tribune, May 27. 2008
Twenty years ago, an image of a school bully might bring to mind a big kid shaking down a weaker student for lunch money. These days, however, technology has made harassment a whole new game, minus the wedgies and swirlies. With social networking Web sites such as MySpace, Facebook and numerous chat rooms, a bully doesn't even have to be in the same room to torment a victim. But a recent indictment against a woman, who allegedly partook in an online hoax that resulted in a teen suicide, could set a precedent for punishing cyber bullies. Read more.

More Family Resources

Childnet
www.childnet-int.org
Childnet is a non-profit organization working around the world to help make the internet a great place for children. They run projects in 4 key areas of Access, Awareness, Protection and Policy.

Childnet's Know It All
Childnet's Know It All guide will help you to understand the risks as well as giving you the practical advice and help you need to talk to your children and support them so they can use these new communication tools safely and responsibly.

Insafe
www.saferinternet.org
Delivers a rich assortment of internet safety-related information and serves as a coordination point for relevant activities in 16 countries.

Cybersmart Kids
www.cybersmartkids.com.au
A young person's guide to surfing the Net, using e-mail and chatrooms, the smart way. Have fun on the Internet and explore cool sites, but remember to always be cybersmart.

Susi: Safer Use of Services on the Internet
www.besafeonline.org
Advice and information about Internet safety for parents and teachers, plus opportunities to discuss problems and share solutions.

Research

A Call To Arms: The Case for More Research, Education and Resources to Improve Online Safety, Family Online Safety Institute, April 2008
download pdf

Rep. Bean’s “SAFER NET Act”: An Education-Based Approach to Online Child Safety, The Progress & Freedom Foundation, February 2007
download pdf

Two Sensible, Education-Based Legislative Approaches to Online Child Safety, The Progress & Freedom Foundation, September 2007
download pdf

Resources For Businesses:

Identity Theft a Huge Problem for Small Businesses
TheStreet.com, July 2, 2008
Identity theft is a multibillion-dollar problem affecting 8 million people a year. But experts say it isn't just a consumer issue. In the thousands of cases prosecuted by the U.S. Secret Service in the past six years, half of the time, it was businesses that provided the entry point for thieves, according to Sai Huda, CEO of Compliance Coach, makers of Web-based compliance tool CompliancePal. Read more.

Identity Theft: The ‘Business Bust-Out’
Business Week, July 23, 2007
A criminal rents space in the same building as your company. Then he applies for corporate credit cards using your firm's name. The application passes a credit check because the company name and address match, but the cards are delivered to the criminal's mailbox. He sells them on the street and vanishes before you discover your firm's credit is wrecked. Read more.

Security & Privacy - Made Simpler
Better Business Bureau, March 27, 2006
No matter what type of business you are in, you probably collect, store, and share information about your customers. Whether it is providing a necessary service, completing a financial transaction, or creating a mailing list, customer data has become a key currency of today’s information-based economy.

As a business owner, you make important strategic decisions that affect your bottom line. Each day, how you manage the security and privacy of the data you collect has become a core part of those strategic business decisions, because it can influence the success or failure of your business. Security & Privacy - Made Simpler is an identity theft and fraud prevention initiative. Targeting small business owners, it includes information about securing both customer and employee data. Read More.

Information Compromise and the Risk of Identity Theft: Guidance for Your Business
Federal Trade Commission, June 2004
These days, it is almost impossible to be in business and not collect or hold personally identifying information - names and addresses, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, or other account numbers - about your customers, employees, business partners, students, or patients. If this information falls into the wrong hands, it could put these individuals at risk for identity theft.

Still, not all personal information compromises result in identity theft, and the type of personal information compromised can significantly affect the degree of potential damage. What steps should you take and whom should you contact if personal information is compromised? Although the answers vary from case to case, the following guidance from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, can help you make smart, sound decisions. Read More.

A New Wrinkle in Crime: Corporate Identity Theft
Privacy & American Business, June/July 2003
Discussions about the dramatic rise in the number of identity theft incidents have so far focused on individual, consumer victims. Recently, however, fraud experts and analysts are starting to see a new victim emerge - companies themselves. Identity thieves have begun stealing company identities for payment, credit, goods and services. Although at the moment corporate identity theft does not occur as frequently as personal identity theft, analysts say it appears to be growing at an alarming rate. While already working to shield their customers from identity theft, this new wave of crime requires companies to devote additional time and resources to protect themselves from becoming victims. Read more.