This section is made for beginners who have only little knowledge about the functionality and the dangers of the Internet. The articles contain basic information and use an easy style. For better understanding the information is not complete to all detail and some parts are described easier than the correct experts knowledge.

The dangers in the Internet are quite similiar to those occuring in the real life. Anyone who leaves the house in the morning might become the victim of an accident or a crime. But our experience allows us to avoid dangerous situations. This means that we surely check the traffic before crossing a road and we would not trust our credit card to a stranger who offers us an unrequested special offer. This section will give you a rough overview of possibly dangerous situations in the Internet. It is not complete nor can it give you absolute security even in case you follow the information given. But it will help you detect possible threats and therefore makes it easier for you to be cautious and avoid harm. If you are seeking deeper information you can find it on many websites in the Internet which have specialized on Internet security.

Anyone is allowed to create a website in the Internet and to make it accessible for other users. There are very few of those who do so who are planning a fraud. But alone by the gigantic number of people there will always be a rotten apple among them. Your best weapon against those black sheep is your common sense. Please always bear in mind that no matter how professional and reputable a website might look like you do not know the person(s) who are behind it. You should be able to recognize the following threats (or be careful in case you are not sure):

False information: Everybody could spread his opinions or points of view in the Internet. Like in real life lots of such information is opinion, partial or even blatant lie. This fact should not surprise nor threaten you too much as by your experiences in real life you know that already. The promises in the ads often fail to give a differentiated evaluation of the offered product. Two political parties tend to have different opinions on the same event and the story your neighbour told you about his last fishing sounded a bit overstated as well.
Don't be impressed just by the fact that it is in writing but use your common sense as well. In doubt try to gather information from further sources.

Spam-Sites: The expression "spam" has been derived of a sketch of the British comedians "Monthy Python" and means a mass spreading of useless information. This phenomenon is well-known from emails where it provides useless information on drugs, software and people who "really" want to meet you.
As websites could not be mailed spamsites try to mislead as much users as possible to visit this website. This is done by using content and layout in a way it is providing useless information but possibly able to trick the ranking of a search engine and the first impression of its visitors. Those visitors, disappointed on the lack of information when taking a second view, are often supposed to click onto one of the offered advertisements to gain at least some information for themselves (and a small fee for the owner of the spamsite). Even though only a fraction of users will be tricked that way and generate a revenue for the spamsite owner it is profitable for those who have thousands of such spamsites tricking masses of users each day.
So after all spamsites might not be dangerous but obscuring the way to good information and therefore spoiling the Internet for the rest of the users.

Malware, dangerous software: With each visit of a website your computer gets in contact with another computer. In very few cases this contact is used by a criminal website to gain access to your computer by installing a program onto it. Such tries are a very seriuos threat to your computer and therefore for yourself as well. That is because if a program succeeds in being installed to your computer the harm it could do is mainly limited by the criminal intention of it's programmer. Such a program could for example:

• Read all files on your computer
  This might be photos, CVs, financial data, private letters, lists of passwords or other stuff you definitely not meant for the eyes of some intruder.
  
  
• Delete all files on your computer
  In normal cases those files could not be retrieved by normal users. This means they are lost forever in case you haven't at least generated a backup copy of them.
  
  
• Reading your keyboard entries
  This is especially arkward when you are entering the secret pass to your online bank account.
  
  
• Make your computer unusable
  Even though the hardware of your computer will not be damaged such programs might destroy other programs (especially the Operating System) on your computer that it will become impossible to even start your computer. In most cases you can make your computer reusable by reinstalling it. But this will consume an amount of time on the one hand and will result in the loss of data stored on the computer on the other hand (lots of people in that situation condemn themselves for not having made a backup copy).

A try like this can maybe be compared with a stranger breaking into your house and beeing able to do harm at will once he is in. Fortunally like your house your computer has some security measures to deny the intruding of other persons. So in normal cases your computer will only install programs after it requested your explicit allowance to do so. In most cases a small window with a description (made by the programmer - so not necessarily true) of the program which seeks installation will appear and ask you whether you acknowledge or deny the installation. It is like the program ringing at your door, introducing itself and asking you to let it in. Thus unwanted programs have two ways of getting to your computer:

1) program bugs: Like a burglar searching for weak spots to gain access to your house and getting unexpectedly in through the chimney or the unlocked backdoor it is possibly that your internet browser might contain such weak spots and security leaks which allow the installing of programs from the outside without knowledge of the user. Such program bugs make it possible for specially prepared websites to get a program installed on your computer without even causing a request or notice to you. Such program bugs are not impossible even though they are detected quickly in most cases. The manufacturers of the browser software are soon offering updates which close the known security leaks. You can minimize the threat of such program bugs when you regularly seek for such updates for your internet browsers and for all other programs you use to keep those programs up to date. In most cases those updates are offered free of charge on the website of the manufacturers of those programs. Additionally the thread will be reduces a great deal if you would avoid visiting suspicious websites.

2) Carelessness: Like you would not let all strangers into your house which claim the need to get in, you should not do so with unrequested computer programs. Unlike a stranger it could not use brute force to get in but needs your acknowledgement on it's request to get installed. Like a criminal stranger an evil computer program would nevertheless try all sort of tricks to get this acknowledgement. Please keep in mind the description text of the request is generated by the requesting program itself. It is not difficult for it to claim to be an urgent update, a cool computergame or something else. It is like the burglar pretending to be the plumber to get in. In case you do not perfectly trust the website you are visiting you should deny the installation of software or at least gather further information about the website and the offered file.

Services with costs: In most cases all services and information is available in the Internet for free. This is because there are so many authors who offer stuff for amiability, conviction or for the wish of gaining money by displaying advertises. You may take this site as an example for information which costs you nothing. The quality of those free offers range from rather poor to excellent quality - but so does the quality of stuff you have to pay for. In most cases free information is as good or even better then some you have to pay for.
Nevertheless some sites want payment for being used. Many of them just do so inspite there a free offers as well - they gladly take the money of those who do not know better. You should first try to find a free source before using one with payment. Above the fact that free offers are free it is in the nature of many sites charging payment that you can not evaluate their content until you have paid.
In some cases you would not find a better free site. This is often the case when running the service causes high costs or copyrights are involved. If you are for example seeking for a website to download the newest No1-Hit as an mp3-file normally there is no legal way to do so than to pay for it.
In all cases you use a service offered in the Internet (with or without costs) you should read the terms of use and check for hidden contracts that might be connected with it. There were cases when using a service the owner claimed a contract for a subscription or other extra services has been made. If you are confronted with such claims you should immediately secure any evidence like making screenshots of the website in question or gather witnesses. Even though the legal situation would depend on the country you life in it seems unlikely that you are bound to pay for something that was not obviously stated before you used it.

Illegal Sites: The Internet also offers information that is illegal. That might be obscene or extreme material which you are neither allowed to spread in print in the real world. When visiting such sites you might make yourself suspicious and especially by frequent and active usage you might even incur a penalty.
As well of course it is not allowed to gather material protected by a copyright without a licence to use it. A good guideline is that everything forbidden in real life ought to be so in the Internet as well.

Phishing: A phishing website tries to simulate the look of some other website. They do so good that even experts would have problems to distinguish the copy from the original. Once a user was mislead to the phishing site (e.g. by following a link in a spam email it is only a small step to enter secret data to that website. This might be something like the login data to the online banking account - which in fact is likely when the phishing website simulates a banking website the tricked user would think that it actually is the homepage of his bank. But the secret data would not reach to original website but the fraud website and it's owner are very quick to use such data in their favour (like transferring money from the bank account). Phishing as well is a mass phenomenon which works because of the carelessness or even foolishness of users. Phishing is done at a venture. Lets imagine a phisher sending a mass email to a million of recipients saying something urgent makes it necessary to visit the homepage of Bank XYZ. If you assume that Bank XYZ is a large bank at least 10% would really be customers of that bank (the others would be likely to ignore the mail). Let only 1% of those be stupid or curios enough to visit the phishing address named in that mail that would be still 1,000 possible victims which are only one step beyond giving away their password. So you should never visit a bank's or other important homepage by following a link in an email or on a website. When entering the Internet address manually be careful to avoid typos. Once you entered the correct address manually and reached the website you could save it in the favorites of your browser and use that link in future.

Data harvester: You are often asked to register to a service in the Internet and to give some data like you postal or email address along with that. In some cases that is easily understandable as e.g. an online shop needs your address to deliver the goods you have ordered. If you choose to pay by credit card you wouold need to give away the information necessary to do so. Subscribing to a newsletter would be useless in case you would not state your email adress.
Nevertheless you should be careful with your personal data and should not share it if it makes no obvious sense. Otherwise you might not only be target of a stream of advertisement coming to your postal and email address. The data you left in the Internet might be connected by other data of you which possibly makes a very good profile of you. And again - would you give your personal data to any stranger who asks you so in real life?



Subsumption:

In case you act with the same caution in the Internet as you would do in real life you could expect to get about the same security. First of all the Internet is a form of communication such as normal mail or telephone. In most cases your communication partner would be liable but like in any other form of communication there could be cheaters or criminals which intend to trick you. In the end it does not really matter whether you are tricked by a forget letter or a faked phone call or by a phishing internet site. In all cases the best protection against it is your common sense.

Two important rules you should never forget are never to install software you do not completely trust and never to state your access passwords at a website you do not completely trust.

On the other hand too much distrust is not useful as well. In case you suspect everyone you meet on your street to be a fraud or a mass murder, in case you believe the baker around the corner is selling poisoned rolls you might prefer staying at home, closing the windows blinds and talk with nobody. And when you are doing so don't forget to unplug all Internet connections of your computer, because that would be a 100% protection from all threats: not being connected to it.

The following dangers or threads might occur in the Internet. Different dangers might of course also occur in a combined form:

Problem	Commonness	Danger	Counter measure
False information	often	more indirectly	Question the information giving using the common sense and comparing it with information from other sources
Spam sites	seldom	annoying	Leave a website the moment you notice it contains no useful information
Dangerous software	seldom	extremely dangerous	Keep operating system, browser and other software up-to-date. Install Anti-Virus-software and other measures of protection. Never allow to install a program you do not trust. Avoid visiting suspicious websites.
Services with costs	seldom	unwanted costs or even legal arguments	Try to find other legal sites with a free offer. Before using an offer make sure to read the terms of usage and check for hidden costs.
Illegal Sites	seldom	legal arguments	Check for the liability of offers using your common sense. Avoid all actions you would have legal objections against in real life.
Phishing	seldom	Strangers might act in your name e.g. in word or in financial transactions.	Enter the address to websites that require your password manually or use the favorites of your browser.
Data harvester	seldom	mass mailing of advertisement or even trials of fraud	Leave your data only on websites you trust and which really need this data to provide the service you requested.