Security
Issues
You
may have heard about computer fraud and read scare stories about credit
card numbers being intercepted and stolen. In practice, though, it's
safer to send your credit card details across the Internet in an open
email than it is to dictate them over the telephone to a box office:
You
cannot accidentally overhear an email or easily eavesdrop into it, Still,
it is advisable to take the maximum precautions available to you, so
you should be aware of security when Internet shopping.
Modern
web browsers handle the security issue with something called Secure
Sockets Layer, or SSL for short.
With
cryptographic techniques such as encryption and digital signature
SSL allows your PC and the WebSite you are browsing to communicate without
permitting anyone else to digitally eavesdrop on what you are doing.
What this means is that you can fill out an online order form with your
address and credit card details, and send them off across the internet
in the knowledge that they're thoroughly hidden from view by evil hackers.
Your
web browser is probably already set up to use SSL for secure online
transactions with internet shopping sites, if not, you might have to
make a few changes to the software Preferences or Options.
In
Netscape Navigator, you must click on the Security button in the toolbar,
find the Navigator link from the selection on the left-hand side and
click it - you'll see an Advanced Security (SSL) Configuration box in
which you should make sure any items labelled Enable SSL are ticked.
In
Internet Explorer, select Internet Options from the View menu and click
on the Advanced tab in the box that appears. In the Security section
of the list, make sure the SSL items are ticked.
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How
to Calculator Download Times for Different
Modems
The
optimal performance for a 14.4 modem; in the real world, download
performance is dependent more on network traffic than Internet
connection speed. Although there are not many 14.4 modems now
in use, we think it should still be a consideration when designing
your web site. If your connection is good you should get 1-2 KB
per second, including documents and graphics.
The
larger the document, the less likely readers are to wait, at Ark
Web Site Design we know the optimal times for your pages. Another
way to look at it is that one percent of readers will leave for
every kilobyte of document size.
Download
Times Table.
|
Size
in KB
|
9.6
Modem |
14.4
Modem |
28.8
Modem |
33.6
Modem |
56K
Modem |
| 2
|
3 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| 3 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| 4 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
| 5 |
5 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
| 6 |
6 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
| 8 |
9 |
6 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
| 10 |
11 |
7 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
| 12 |
13 |
9 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
| 15 |
16 |
11 |
5 |
5 |
3 |
| 20 |
21 |
14 |
7 |
6 |
4 |
| 25 |
27 |
18 |
9 |
8 |
5 |
| 30 |
32 |
21 |
11 |
9 |
6 |
| 40 |
43 |
29 |
14 |
13 |
8 |
| 50 |
53 |
36 |
18 |
16 |
9 |
| 60 |
69 |
43 |
21 |
19 |
11 |
| 80 |
75 |
57 |
29 |
25 |
14 |
Formatting and display time not
included!
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How
Email Works
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The
core protocol used to transfer email across the Net is the
Simple Mail Transport Protocol or SMTP The SMTP protocol
is only used for sending email. All it does is make sure
the sending machine identifies itself says who the message
is from and to and then transmits the message When SMTP
first came into being, systems were simple. Messages were
transferred across the Internet in plain (7-bit) ASCII.
Anyone who can see the message stream go past can read your
precious missives.
So
what happens when you send an email? We will track the passage
of an email from you@yourdomain.com to me@mydomain.com.
Compose the message in your mail application. When you click
on the Send button, your mail client sends the message to
your local mail server (mail.yourdomain.com). Once the message
is received by this mail server, your mail software breaks
your mail connection to the server.
It is
the job of your ISP's mail server to deliver the message
to the mail server that accepts incoming mail for the recipient's
domain (mydomain.com). It uses the Internet's Domain Name
Service (DNS) to find the address of the mail server for
mydomain.com - this is known as the MX record. While your
ISP's mail server is doing this, your message is sitting
on its hard disk. Once it's found the address of the mail
server for mydomain, the message is sent over the Internet
to this server, where the message then waits (on the mail
server's hard disk) for me to pick it up.
But
SMTP is only used to send email over the Net. Another protocol
- the Post Office Protocol (POP or POP3) is used by mail
clients to retrieve email. When I decide to pick up email,
my mail client makes a POP connection to my ISP's mail server
(maiL.mydomain.com) and then supplies my username and password
before retrieving my email. Just as with SMTP the email
then travels between my local mail server and my client
in plain text - readable by anyone who is watching.
As
far as security is concerned, there are two key points to
remember. For a start, all email travels over the Internet
in plain text and can easily be read. Second, your email
waits on the hard disk of your ISP's mail server and on
the hard disk of the recipient's ISP's mail server.
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Facts,
Figures &
News
More,
more, more
Internet in the UK
The
UK population is getting online in greater numbers and spending more
money on books and CDs once they there as well, according to new research
published by BMRB International. Nearly 7.5 million people, or 16 per
cent of the total population, have used the Internet in the past six
months.
This
compares to 5.4 million in the previous six months. Home use is higher
than work use and almost 1 million people shopped online spending an
average £195 and books replaced software as the most popular item.
UK Government pledges £105 million for Net access
UK
Government pledges £105 million for Net access in schools UK Education
Secretary David Blunkett is promising £105 million for schools to invest
in computers and modems to allow more pupils to gain access to the Internet.
The pledge came as part of a £500 million package aimed at
improving
the education sector in the UK. The minister also said that the government
would be investing more in the Microsoft-backed national grid for learning,
which is designed to provide information and assistance to teachers
through the Internet, and comes online later this year.
Secure
Sockets
Layer ( SSL)
Good
News
The
good news is that you do not have to do anything to use SSL from this
point onwards because it is entirely automatic. You'll know when you've
entered a secure area of a shopping site typically the ordering page
where you complete your personal details - as a security symbol will
have appeared at the bottom of your web browser window.
In
Netscape Navigator, it looks like a tiny golden key on a blue background;
in Internet Explorer, it is a tiny padlock in the locked position.
If
you don't see either of these symbols, any information you type into
the current web page you're looking at won't be secure when you click
on any subsequent Send or Order button on that page.
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