racquathinkIt's Scam Awareness Week, and David Hall has some tips to keep you safe online.Phishing is essentially an online scam, and phishers are nothing more than tech-savvy con artists.Online scams constantly evolve to reflect popular events in the news. They're successful is because a scam is not about physically attacking a computer, rather fooling the user into clicking on a poisoned link. They use spam, malicious websites, email messages and instant messages to trick people into divulging sensitive information, such as bank and credit card accounts.According to the latest Norton Cybercrime Report, more than 868,206 New Zealanders fell victim to cybercrime in 2010, suffering $288.2 million in direct financial losses.Phishers may use email to request personal information and direct recipients to respond through malicious websites.Look out for phishers using emotional language, scare tactics or urgent requests to entice recipients to respond.Phishing sites can look remarkably legitimate, because they tend to use the copyrighted images from legitimate sites.Be on the lookout for requests for confidential information via email or instant message.Remember that fraudulent messages are often not personalised and poorly written.Lastly, think about any offer, any advertisement, any email, and website before you act on any request. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.Norton has several free and premium products that can help protect against online scams.
brad pitt on 13 Mar 12U.S. Senate Committee hearing on NASA budget and space program By Amanda Doyle, 12 March 2012 Neil deGrasse Tyson gives evidence to the U.S. Senate Committee March 7 2012 U.S. Senate Committee hears submissions on NASA's 2013 budget request & U.S. space program The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has been hearing submissions regarding NASA's 2013 budget request and on the priorities, plans and progress of the U.S. space program. Witnesses appearing before the Committee on March 7 included Charles F Bolden Jr, NASA's Administrator, and Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist and well known commentator on space exploration. Bolden, who flew on four space shuttle missions after a career in the Marine Corps, was appointed to lead NASA in 2009 after being nominated by President Obama. Administrator Bolden outlined the space agency's achievements in 2011 and updated the Committee on the status of current missions. His statement outlined how the requested budget of $17.7 billion for 2013 would be allocated and concluded by stating: "NASA's FY 2013 budget request of $17.7 billion represents a substantial investment in a balanced program of science, exploration, technology and aeronautics research. Despite the constrained budget environment facing the Nation, this request supports a robust space program that keeps us on a path to achieving a truly audacious set of goals. NASA is working to send humans to an asteroid and ultimately to Mars, to observe the first galaxies form, and to expand the productivity of humanity's only permanently-crewed space station. We are making air travel safer and more efficient, learning to live and work in space, and developing the critical technologies to achieve these goals. The coming year will include the first commercial cargo flights to the ISS, a nuclear powered robot the size of a small car landing on the surface of Mars, and the launch of the Nation's next land observing satellit
