Letting Your SME Users Access the Internet
By Kerry Anders
Once you've got your Internet connection, what can you use it for? Most of us use it
to access Internet services, including:
1. Web browsing Probably the greatest current use of the Internet. The "Web" (or the
World-Wide Web to give it its full name) is a data service that allows users to access and
display information contained on devices elsewhere in the world. It uses software called "Web
Browsers" which take the data, format and display it, mostly in the form of text and graphics,
although audio and video are increasingly used. The two most popular browsers are Internet
Explorer ® and Firefox ®. There are many others.
The Web is also one of the greatest sources of "malware" (viruses, trojans etc) which
will attempt to invade your computer and make it do what the malware writer wants it to.
There is no such thing as a fully-secure Web browser, although some are better than others,
and the "browser war" continues as browser writers try to out-develop the malware writers
and each other.
You should never attempt to browse the web unless your computer has a current anti-malware
system installed and kept up-to-date. Once you've been infected with malware, then your data
is no longer secure, your computer can be hi-jacked to perform illegal acts and you could be
held responsible... Learn how to secure your computer against web-vectored malware.
2. Textual communication - Ongoing developments have tended to merge email, SMS texting
and Instant Messaging⁄Chat, so I will consider them as a single item. Although the mechanisms
vary, the characteristic of all these services is that they are bi-directional. You use "client"
applications on your computer to send messages to other Internet users and they send messages
to you.
In each case, these are passed through devices (called "servers") that are connected
to the Internet. You create your message and dispatch it to one of these servers. The server
then relays your message to the recipient. Some of these are store-and-forward services, where
you have little or no control over when the message is passed on, and others are more-or-less
instant, although there is often a significant delay built in (unlike telephone services, where
any significant delay disrupts the service).
Convergence has now made it possible for you to send SMS messages using an email service
and convert Instant Messages into emails (or vice-versa). There is a wide variety of applications
available for each of these services, and many now support most or all of them. All these services
can be used as vectors to pass on malware. Of these, email is the most common, often in
conjunction with an embedded Web link, but both IM and SMS have got their own malware...
Again, don't use these services without an up-to-date anti-malware application installed on
your computer.
3. Audio-visual data - Originally, the download of audio-visual content was an adjunct
to the Web's content provision, but it rapidly became a separate entity and is, currently,
the rising star of Internet use. Many types of A/V content can be handled by the various web
browsers, normally by means of proprietary 'add-on' services. More recently, commercial services,
such as iTunes ® and Internet TV from mainstream content providers have become available and
tend to use proprietary end-user applications to support download of their services.
These allow the content provider much greater control over the use of the downloaded
information as well as supporting content charging. Such services are fairly safe to use.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of general A⁄V content downloaded using a
web browser, as these can contain mechanisms to allow infection by malware. Of particular
concern are the distributed download services popularly known a "torrents". These allow
peer-to-peer sharing of A⁄V data and many of them have no mechanism to prevent the
download of infected content.
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