Cyber Criminal

Identity theft is a crime in which unscrupulous individuals obtain another individual’s personal information such as driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers etc. and then use this sensitive information for any number of dubious acts. The crimes that one can commit with someone else’s information vary widely. The identity thieves may open accounts in your name and run up bills that will never be paid. They may apply for credit in your name, open up cell phone accounts, or even open checking accounts with the intention of acquiring blank checks. Your identity may also be used by these thieves to obtain false identification. In the worst-case scenarios the criminals will use your identity in the commission of other crimes resulting a warrant for your arrest.

As you can see identity theft can range from irritating to life shattering. So, what is our government doing to protect us? It wasn’t until 1998 that identity theft first became a federal crime. Various other laws have been passed since then to try to prevent identity theft as well as punish those committing the crime.

In 2001 the federal banking agencies implemented an act that was meant to establish standards for safeguarding customer information.

In 2003 the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act was passed. This bill set up appropriate standards for the disposal of sensitive credit report information as well as creating guidelines for recognizing patterns and specific forms of identity theft in an effort to prevent identity theft from happening.

In 2004 the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act was signed into law. This law increase the penalties for the people that committed these crimes.

The identity theft act which makes identity theft a federal crime carries penalties of up to 15 years in prison and a maximum fine of up to $250,000. This law also enables the Secret Service, the FBI, and other law enforcement agencies to fight identity theft.

Even with all the laws that have been passed over the years identity theft is still an ever increasing problem. It seems no amount of laws or penalties will deter people from committing this crime. The best thing you can possibly do to protect yourself is to learn how to prevent identity theft from ever happening to you in the first place.

In a highly unusual use of a federal law in which legal experts describe as “creative” and “aggressive,” a St. Louis, Missouri woman has been indicted in what may be the country’s first case of cyber-bullying. Federal prosecutors say Lori Drew, 49, and others created an account on the social networking site MySpace pretending to be a 16-year-old boy to fool her neighbor, 13-year-old Megan Meier.

According to prosecutors, Drew used the MySpace account to establish a relationship with Meier, acting for weeks to be a boy interested in forming a romantic relationship her. A short time later, Drew suddenly ended the relationship, taunting Meier and telling her the world would be better off without her. Consequently, a distraught Meier committed suicide by hanging herself.

Drew is Arrested and Charged with a Crime

The federal indictment, which was delivered in Los Angeles after state prosecutors in Missouri declined to bring charges, is unprecedented, and legal commentators believe it may seriously stretch the federal statute on which it was based. The indictment charged that in violation of MySpace terms of service, “Drew and co-conspirators knowingly and agreed with each other to intentionally access a computer … to further a tortious act, namely, intentional infliction of emotion distress.” According to the prosecution, Drew violated MySpace’s terms by using a fictitious name, among other things, and thus had no authority to access the MySpace service.

“This adult woman allegedly used the Internet to target a young teenage girl, with horrendous ramifications,” said United States Attorney Thomas O’Brien. “Any adult who uses the Internet or a social-gathering website to harass or bully another person, particularly a young girl, must realize their actions can have serious consequences.”

The Unprecedented Charges may Create a New Realm of Cases

The case presents a new wrinkle in the interpretation of federal law. Legal experts warned that such an interpretation could criminalize routine behavior on the internet. After all, people regularly create accounts or post information under aliases for many legitimate reasons, including avoiding spam and a desire to maintain their privacy online.

This new interpretation also gives a business contract the force of a law: violations of a web site’s terms of service could now lead to criminal sanctions, instead of just civil lawsuits or ejection from a site.

“I think the danger of applying a statute in this way is that it could have unintended consequences,” said John Palfrey, a Harvard law professor. “An application of a general statute like this might result in chilling a great deal of online speech and other freedom.” Drew is scheduled to be arraigned in St. Louis but the trial will be held in Los Angeles were MySpace is headquartered. If convicted of the charges, Drew faces up to 20 years in prison.

The nature of job seeking has changed tremendously over the years. While the conventional method of job searching that involves resume deposit with job recruitment agencies and through classified newspaper advertisements, no one can disregard the power of online job searching.

In the last 2 years, internet users in Malaysia has quadrupled and this is expected to continue to increase with the major infrastructure being upgraded and incentives put in place for more internet uptake among the citizens in both rural and urban areas. This landscape has affected job searching and recruitment to a large extend that, it has increased the online job search market 4 times.

The shift in online job seeking has since moved on to other new media like mobile phone job applications which are more convenient and easy for both job seekers and employers. Job matching sites are now offering SMS based job subscription as value added services for job seekers where applications can be made through the mobile network. Research has shown that jobseekers have been very receptive to innovative services like these due to its convenience and confidentiality.

On the other hand, job sites provide the same convenience to employers as they no longer need to go through immense screening process or resume reviews. Matching engines in the sites would do the work for them. Online job recruitment are convenient and would be able to look for all types of jobs in all levels from Executives to C Level positions.

The job seeking industry had often been a dynamic and fast paced sector. As one of the leading job sites in the country, Portal Jawatan Kosong has been in this area of expertise to help both job seekers and job employers in finding their matches. The convenience of job application online are no longer something in the future and is now part and parcel of a common lifestyle provided for in this site. People are now enjoying the comfort of applying jobs from the computers and mobile phones.

In a highly unusual use of a federal law in which legal experts describe as “creative” and “aggressive,” a St. Louis, Missouri woman has been indicted in what may be the country’s first case of cyber-bullying. Federal prosecutors say Lori Drew, 49, and others created an account on the social networking site MySpace pretending to be a 16-year-old boy to fool her neighbor, 13-year-old Megan Meier.

According to prosecutors, Drew used the MySpace account to establish a relationship with Meier, acting for weeks to be a boy interested in forming a romantic relationship her. A short time later, Drew suddenly ended the relationship, taunting Meier and telling her the world would be better off without her. Consequently, a distraught Meier committed suicide by hanging herself.

Drew is Arrested and Charged with a Crime

The federal indictment, which was delivered in Los Angeles after state prosecutors in Missouri declined to bring charges, is unprecedented, and legal commentators believe it may seriously stretch the federal statute on which it was based. The indictment charged that in violation of MySpace terms of service, “Drew and co-conspirators knowingly and agreed with each other to intentionally access a computer … to further a tortious act, namely, intentional infliction of emotion distress.” According to the prosecution, Drew violated MySpace’s terms by using a fictitious name, among other things, and thus had no authority to access the MySpace service.

“This adult woman allegedly used the Internet to target a young teenage girl, with horrendous ramifications,” said United States Attorney Thomas O’Brien. “Any adult who uses the Internet or a social-gathering website to harass or bully another person, particularly a young girl, must realize their actions can have serious consequences.”

The Unprecedented Charges may Create a New Realm of Cases

The case presents a new wrinkle in the interpretation of federal law. Legal experts warned that such an interpretation could criminalize routine behavior on the internet. After all, people regularly create accounts or post information under aliases for many legitimate reasons, including avoiding spam and a desire to maintain their privacy online.

This new interpretation also gives a business contract the force of a law: violations of a web site’s terms of service could now lead to criminal sanctions, instead of just civil lawsuits or ejection from a site.

“I think the danger of applying a statute in this way is that it could have unintended consequences,” said John Palfrey, a Harvard law professor. “An application of a general statute like this might result in chilling a great deal of online speech and other freedom.” Drew is scheduled to be arraigned in St. Louis but the trial will be held in Los Angeles were MySpace is headquartered. If convicted of the charges, Drew faces up to 20 years in prison.

All the computer users must have felt the need for anti virus software tools by now. It is nothing new of a software especially for those using the internet. When people download various softwares from the internet they usually forget that they have opened new ways for the unwanted ‘materials’ in their computers. Till date the one and only ‘medicine’ developed for this ‘virus disease’ is the anti virus software tools.

A virus is something which comes with a sole purpose of ruling over your computer system by deleting the files and folders and almost everything which holds importance to you. And all of this happens without even you knowing it. These viruses are even more dangerous than the spywares and adwares. They just monitor all your internet actions. But if your computer is infected from viruses then you have to live over their whims and wishes. These viruses gain access to your computer whenever you download any virus infected software. There is only one mentor which can save you from this virus attack i.e. anti virus software tools. The good news is they are available for free on the web.

The next problem occurs for the computer users who have still not encountered with the virus infections. They do not know when their computer is infected with the unwanted viruses. So, how to detect the viruses? It is simple. When your computer starts to work very slow, task manager does not appear, unwanted pop-ups, your browser homepage changes automatically, program files delete on their own and so on.

These are some conditions which point towards your computer infected with virus. Do not panic, this is not the time to do so. Install the latest version of anti virus software tools. Get them for free if you run out of money. There are many anti virus software tools available on the web. Then scan your computer with the same. There is no guarantee that all your viruses will be removed. Upgrade your computer with the latest versions of anti virus software tools regularly as prevention is better than cure.

In a highly unusual use of a federal law in which legal experts describe as “creative” and “aggressive,” a St. Louis, Missouri woman has been indicted in what may be the country’s first case of cyber-bullying. Federal prosecutors say Lori Drew, 49, and others created an account on the social networking site MySpace pretending to be a 16-year-old boy to fool her neighbor, 13-year-old Megan Meier.

According to prosecutors, Drew used the MySpace account to establish a relationship with Meier, acting for weeks to be a boy interested in forming a romantic relationship her. A short time later, Drew suddenly ended the relationship, taunting Meier and telling her the world would be better off without her. Consequently, a distraught Meier committed suicide by hanging herself.

Drew is Arrested and Charged with a Crime

The federal indictment, which was delivered in Los Angeles after state prosecutors in Missouri declined to bring charges, is unprecedented, and legal commentators believe it may seriously stretch the federal statute on which it was based. The indictment charged that in violation of MySpace terms of service, “Drew and co-conspirators knowingly and agreed with each other to intentionally access a computer … to further a tortious act, namely, intentional infliction of emotion distress.” According to the prosecution, Drew violated MySpace’s terms by using a fictitious name, among other things, and thus had no authority to access the MySpace service.

“This adult woman allegedly used the Internet to target a young teenage girl, with horrendous ramifications,” said United States Attorney Thomas O’Brien. “Any adult who uses the Internet or a social-gathering website to harass or bully another person, particularly a young girl, must realize their actions can have serious consequences.”

The Unprecedented Charges may Create a New Realm of Cases

The case presents a new wrinkle in the interpretation of federal law. Legal experts warned that such an interpretation could criminalize routine behavior on the internet. After all, people regularly create accounts or post information under aliases for many legitimate reasons, including avoiding spam and a desire to maintain their privacy online.

This new interpretation also gives a business contract the force of a law: violations of a web site’s terms of service could now lead to criminal sanctions, instead of just civil lawsuits or ejection from a site.

“I think the danger of applying a statute in this way is that it could have unintended consequences,” said John Palfrey, a Harvard law professor. “An application of a general statute like this might result in chilling a great deal of online speech and other freedom.” Drew is scheduled to be arraigned in St. Louis but the trial will be held in Los Angeles were MySpace is headquartered. If convicted of the charges, Drew faces up to 20 years in prison.

I’ve talked to many women over the past years that wanted to be a stay at home mom.

The story is normally the same. Normally the kids are young, pre-kindergarten in many cases. It pains her greatly to take the kids to day care everyday. However, while her husband works and normally has a good income, it simply is not enough to pay the bills without her providing a second income.

Does that story sound familiar to you?

They know that if they want to be a stay at home mom, there are two choices. Choice one, disconnect the phone and electricity, learn to walk ANYWHERE you want to go, and change the family diet to 100% Ramen Noodles. Choice two, work from home.

Strangely enough, I’ve yet to meet a woman who liked option 1.

Yes, most realize that they need to work from home if they are to be a stay at home mom. However, before you can work from home, you need to know how to work from home.

Simply stated, you can find a job that will allow you to work from home, or you can start a business that you run out of your home. Each has its strengths and weaknesses and what’s right for you may not be right for someone else.

For those who want to find a job, the road ahead is rocky. The truth is that there are few choices when it comes to having a JOB that you do from home. The choices that you do have normally provide very low salaries. On top of that, you may have a rigorous schedule just like if you went to the office. You may be physically at home, but you may lack the freedom that you need to really be a stay at home mom.

For most, the best option is to start a business that is run from home. This option allows you to earn a large amount of money AND have the time flexibility to be a stay at home mom.

As before, there are some drawbacks. Starting the business normally takes some upfront money. This could be a small or large amount depending on the nature of the business. Also, you receive no money unless your business is producing.

Of course, if you can clear those first two hurdles, you can enjoy freedom like you never imagined. You’ll be a stay at home mom AND have the money to enjoy that time with your children.

Close your eyes for a minute and imagine what that would feel like.

So, if you’re going to be a stay at home mom and you want to do it by having a home based business, how to you overcome those issues?

First, don’t quit your day job just yet. Your business will probably not produce a full time income on day one. If you have never run a business before, there will be things you need to learn that can only be learned through experience. Keep your full time job and start your business part time. Yes, I understand this will make things harder in the short term. However, when you are at home full time with your children, it will all be worth it.

Second, if you have little to no start up money, consider partnering with an existing company. While buying a franchise like McDonalds can cost a fortune, there are many stay at home mom’s business opportunities that can be started for less than your monthly food budget. What’s more is that they normally have many of the logistics already in place for you that would normally cost you thousands of dollars to set up.

You should also look for one that has a minimal overhead to run. If you partner with one that teaches you internet marketing, your overhead can be almost nothing. In fact, the overhead can be so small that the money you save on taxes for your business is MORE than the cost of running your business. In other words, the government pays the operating expense of your business…not a bad deal.

While starting a stay at home mom’s business opportunity can be done by any mom who chooses to, sadly, most never take action. Wanting to be a stay at home mom will never accomplish anything. You must take action if it is to happen.

Is it easy? What in life is. I think the better question to ask is, are my little ones worth it?