Every time you use the Internet, you are using a cyber infrastructure. By actively educating ourselves and others about cyber safety, we will lower our vulnerabilities to computer failures and potential interruptions to our personal and business infrastructures. By protecting yourself on the Internet, you also protect others.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security indicates there are some basic practices you can follow to protect yourself.
- Install anti-virus and anti-sypware ware programs and keep them up-to-date.
- Install a firewall and keep it properly configured.
- Regularly install updates and patches for your computer's operating system.
Making cyber safety a habit will help you protect your information and prevent your computer from being used to launch an attack.
For Additional Information
- Cyber Security Preparedness
- Cyber Security R&D Center
- National Cyber Security Division
- Internet Hoaxes and Urban Legends
- Hoaxes attempt to trick or defraud users. A hoax could be malicious, instructing users to delete a file necessary to the operating system by claiming it is a virus. It could also be a scam that convinces users to send money or personal information.
- Urban legends are designed to be redistributed and usually warn users of a threat or claim to be notifying them of important or urgent information. E-mails that promise users monetary rewards for forwarding the message or suggest that they are signing something that will be submitted to a particular group are another common form of urban legend. Urban legends usually have no negative effect aside from wasted bandwidth and time.
FBI Kids Page is a Web site for kindergarten to 5th grade containing cyber safety information.
The mission of the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) is to provide a common mechanism for raising the level of cyber security readiness and response in each state and with local governments. The MS-ISAC provides a central resource for gathering information on cyber threats to critical infrastructure from the states and providing two-way sharing of information between and among the states and with local government. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has officially recognized the MS-ISAC as the national center for the states to coordinate cyber readiness and response.
The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) is a partnership between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the public and private sectors. US-CERT coordinates defense against and responses to cyber attacks across the nation.
US-CERT is responsible for
- analyzing and reducing cyber threats and vulnerabilities,
- disseminating cyber threat warning information, and
- coordinating incident response activities.
US-CERT provides a way for citizens, businesses, and other institutions to communicate and coordinate directly with the United States government about cyber security.
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![[State of Illinois - Ready Illinois]](../images/soi_v2_5f.gif)
