Watch out for internet pop up

Think back to when the internet was new. All those people floating around web pages to look at whatever interested them. What if you could talk to those people? Advertise to them? As you can imagine, it didn’t take long for people to catch on and ride the internet wave. The marketing industry was no exception. One of their more diabolical schemes invented to drive business to their web pages was the pop up. Click on a web page and all of a sudden, fifty more pages pop open, advertising things from new shoes to natural male enhancement.And from there, the fire spread to those among the populace that would stoop even lower. Past just simple pop ups and into the realm malicious programs. At first, just stealing a simple email address was enough. It was easy to hijack a computer and turn it into the internet equivalent of an auto-dialer.

But why stop at stealing just email addresses and hope people buy what you’re spamming, when you can cut out the middle man and just take a person’s bank log-in information, passwords and even entire financial documents? This is where things like trojans and viruses come from. And though the kind of malicious application may be different, the modus operandi is still they same. They need to get the bad stuff onto your computer.

In the early days of the internet, malicious programs spread in this way were very polite in asking if they could invade your computer. But people have learned a great deal about how to design a pop up around this. Remember, hackers can display anything they want on your computer. Who’s to say that the “no” button you just clicked wasn’t just a cleverly disguised “yes I do want to give you my email address and list of 300 business contacts so you can spam them with offers about cheap prescription drugs.”

Fortunately, the good guys have developed pop up blockers for just this kind of thing. Also, remember never to wander off the beaten path while on the internet. Stay with websites you can trust and that are verified safe. And if you do stumble on a pop up that’s asking you a question, the easiest thing to do is close your browser immediately. It’s the only way you can be absolutely sure you’re telling these guys “no.”