Before getting into the technical stuff, I would first like to introduce what basically the internet is. The Internet is just a network, a huge network of devices that all are somehow connected. These devices include web servers, file servers, Personal computers, and many other things. We will keep our focus on PCs in this text. All These are connected through cables or satellites. Now, we know that when things are connected, data sharing is possible. That’s the sole job on the internet. Data is being transferred from one place to another all the time. Now, we come to the dark side of data transferred.

The problem here is that there is so much data that every bit of data can not be checked and where it is going. Who is accessing this? Whether he is the right person to have this data or not. Unfortunately, we don’t have any effective method to check this. I believe someday we would have some way to control this and restrict malicious people from accessing data they are not supposed to access. I am now listing all the possible negative consequences of the internet then I would try to explain them and share possible solutions.

1. Hacking
2. Cybercrimes.
3. Loss of privacy.
4. Data Corruption.
5. Adult material (not suitable for children).
6. Forbidden Knowledge.
7. Plagiarism.
8. Time wastage.
9. Health Hazards.

Hacking:

Many of us, in fact, I think everyone of us is aware of this term and knows what this means. It is unauthorized access to anything. Today, hacking has victimized many ordinary people, companies, and even computer firms in the entire world. This is something which can be done any level. As there is a saying, “if you can make it, then you can break it”.

Today, billions of people have accounts on many free email sites, social networking sites, and others, and tons of them have lost their accounts with some important personal data inside. Those who have experienced this thing know how scary this is, and those who have not, believe me, it can be your worst nightmare.

Now, coming to the technical side. There are a number of types of hacking. We will only concentrate ourselves to internet hacking which involves ordinary people. What has an ordinary person on the internet? Two things: Email accounts and social networking sites profiles. He has most personal data in these two places and that’s where his privacy becomes vulnerable. If he, unfortunately, has some acquaintance who is not a good person and possesses sound knowledge of the internet, then that person might face the consequences somewhere in the future.

Hackers use the number of ways to get access to the victim’s data. On the internet, “social engineering” is the easiest and an effective way to do so. Hackers develop the relationship with the victims and then exploit it. One way is that they send the email which has some link to another website. When you open the link, it asks the user to enter the username and password, and when they do so, it goes to the hacker and the user

with some kind of error message. The irony of the situation is that the victim would never know what has just happened to him. This is called “Phishing”. Only people having god knowledge of programming can do this. One can get away from such a trick if he gets a little careful, does not open emails from unknown people, and does not enter any passwords when asked if he has come to that website from an indirect link.

Another way is that they install software that keeps on making a log of whatever activity is being done on a computer with all the data entered and on which website that data is entered. So, this can also happen if you are using a university, school, workplace, or public computer. So, always keep that thing in your mind: where you are sitting and what information you are trying to access. Avoid using your personal accounts from public computers as much as you can because you never know who is watching you.

Instant messengers can also be used to get the work done. Hackers can send you some links that may cause the loss of your email account. Do not follow any irrelevant-looking links even if someone really close to you has sent that because you do not know who is using that account. Hacker does use people’s accounts to get access to their friends.

Your secret questions can also sometimes lead to your destruction. Many people do not recognize the importance of the secret question, and they write things which are really obvious to their friends and people around them. Therefore, never use something predictable as your security question because if some friend, colleague, or acquaintance gets to guess it correctly, he is in your account. And this goes for passwords as well. Try to make passwords complex and difficult to guess. Many people use their birth dates, cell phone numbers, and some obvious words like “password” as their password. This makes hackers workpiece of cake. So, for your own sake, don’t do that.

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