Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition 9780983711810, 098371181X

Citation preview

Catch Me If You Know How Travis Morgan

Ominous Light Publishing ominouslight.com © Ominous Light Publishing, 2011 A catalog record for this book is available from the following: U.S. Library of Congress British Library Australian Catalog ISBN-13: 978-0-9837118-1-0 ISBN-10: 0-983-71181-X LCCN: 20-11914964 Printed in the United States of America All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

iii

iv

About the Author Travis Morgan is an established Computer Specialist who has gained his knowledge through both professional and personal means. Travis’ detailed personality and drive to learn new and innovative technologies is his “niche”. In his 20 years of IT education and experience stemming from his own love for computers, he has been a successful entrepreneur and previously an Institutional Director of Information Technology and Vice President for a national college. His vast experience and education in Information Technology has afforded him the knowledge and experience to not only recognize personal behaviors and traits of subordinates and co-workers, but also the technical aspects of how abuses occur and the detection and tracking of those behaviors on personal, corporate and public computer systems.

v

Additionally, Travis has been exposed to technical and non-technical computer users in corporate, small business and residential environments. Various experiences and witnessing first hand the abusive nature of some people and the Internet, has led him to write this compelling book to help parents, teachers and anyone else who feels the need to understand how to track inappropriate behavior of users of the Internet. With our society relying more and more on technology, Travis recognizes the dire need to educate and promote understanding of the growing dilemma of protecting our children online, observing and reviewing internet behaviors and protecting their households. Travis is concerned with the technology that exposes our most sacred lives, our children, which is why he has become an advocate of this purpose. With all the horror stories we hear in our everyday lives regarding events attributed to internet use, it is Travis’ attempt to aid those closest to a potential problem to

vi

have the tools necessary to avert any harm that could possibly be in progress or have previously occurred, through use of the internet. Travis, who is now a deaf/blind man, lives in Temecula, CA, with his wife and two youngest children. P.S. Look for more books to come in the ‘Catch Me If You Know How’ series.

vii

viii

Credits

Cover Design & Layout by: Dragos Balasoiu - dragosb.com

Illustrations by: Ramy A. M. Fares - sautunnil.com

Edited by: Cecilia Burch Vicki Weirich

Contributions by: William J. Barden V Michael Garza

ix

x

Compliments & Kudos

“Wow!!! This is a must read for everyone. Education, Education, Education. I can’t stress it enough. There is information in this book I would never even think of, that is happening all over the world. Help your children, friends and loved ones by becoming knowledgeable about the World Wide Web.” Denise Brown Victim Advocate denisebrown.com

xi

“In clear, concise and easy-to-understand language, Travis Morgan provides guidance about the use and misuse of computers and helps us all protect kids (and the rest of us!) from being exposed to often harmful materials on-line. Let him walk you through these basics -- we’ll all be better off for it.” Pamela Pine, PhD, MPH Stop the Silence: Stop Child Sexual Abuse, Inc. stopcsa.org

“This book is an exceptionally clear and helpful computer forensics tool for the common layperson. As a pathologist in law enforcement, an educator, and a computer hobbyist, I cannot overstate the value of what this author is offering you.” Edward R. Friedlander M.D.

xii

“I would recommend this book for anyone who owns a computer. This is an easy-toread and helpful resource to help keep our families safe online.” Jo Marsden predators.tv

“I feel that Travis Morgan has created a book that is simple to read with a purpose and focus that is beneficial to all. I feel this book is an excellent resource for parents of any aged children. It shows how to actively monitor computer usage as well as tips for discussing certain issues/ behaviors with a child. Additionally, the book encourages an open communication between spouses regarding on-line behaviors. It is a particularly good read for anybody who is not computer savvy. As an educator and a parent, I would recommend this book as a great resource

xiii

for anybody wanting to learn how to monitor internet and on-line activity of your child.” Kevin E. Smisek High School Administrator & Former Head Coach

“A must read for all parents on how to keep your children safe on the internet. The How-to’s will give you the knowledge to investigate activity and websites that have been viewed on any computer and teach you how to block inappropriate sites. By doing a little research and monitoring your computer, you will ultimately keep your children and family safe on the internet.” Darlene Tarnoski Women Against Child Trafficking womenagainstchildtrafficking.org

xiv

xv

xvi

Acknowledgements

For the loving families who were there in my growing years: Sharmin Cassady, Steve James and Scot and Teresa Morgan. And to my father Rocky Rahija, who I proudly take after in almost every way. Although the following members of my family have passed away, I want to also acknowledge my grandmother Joanne Sheffield, my mother Sandy Morgan and my little brother Todd Morgan. A special place in my heart is here for my wife Laura. Without her, the trials and tribulations of life, dealing with my past and confronting it all would have been more difficult than it was, tenfold. Her unconditional love, her insights and her understanding me better than I understand myself have made me a better man. You will never be lonely, sweetheart. To my two little ones, Joshua Morgan and Cassie Morgan, who make life worth every

xvii

minute. It’s you who give me reason to smile even in the worst of times. To someone dear to my heart, my oldest son Chris Crabaugh. You will go on to be a strong, determined and ambitious man. You are capable of doing anything, and I have always and will always believe in you.

xviii

Dedication

There are countless people I would like to dedicate this book to, but I can only dedicate this book with a conscience to the one group of people who deserve it most, the countless child victims of yesterday, today and tomorrow. It is you who will stand up strong against those who have violated you emotionally, spiritually and physically and you will move forward with grace and pride knowing you can overcome anything. You will accomplish the things that everyone else says are impossible because it is not about everyone else, it’s about what you can do to make our world a better place to live.

xix

xx

About This Book & The Law This book was designed to help understand basic computer forensics by using humor while covering the serious topic of malicious behavior on the computer and internet. Although I write many topics with a joke and some laughter, it does not reflect the emotion and seriousness I feel and why this book had to be written, first and foremost. In many cases, if you own the computer, you have every right to search it. However, before you begin reading this book, you must understand that every local municipality, state, territory, and country has variations of laws and regulations pertaining to privacy and search procedures. Even if you reside in what is called a “community property” jurisdiction, where both spouses own the computer, there may still be laws restricting you from breach of privacy of the other party. Additionally, even if you have suspicion and confirmation of illegal activities, you

xxi

could possibly set a perpetrator or offender free from any liability and prosecution if you obtain the proof by breaking the law and making it inadmissable in a court of law. If your situation is serious enough to warrant a legal case, your best option is to consult with an attorney about your options, rights and course of actions. In any case, you need to understand your local or national laws before implementing any methods mentioned in this book.

xxii

Introduction

I am a computer professional. Like many people, life has taught me the terrible impact that people who are out-of-control have on others – especially vulnerable children. Yet there is no easy, basic guide to help parents and others prevent children from being victimized, or how to use computer forensics to discover people who are a danger to themselves or others. As an Information Technology (IT) professional, I am often amazed at how little knowledge people have on how to protect and help their children or even how to investigate the behaviors and activities of their children and those with whom they communicate. I was a childhood victim of sexual predators. I survived and am stronger and more caring as a result. Many are not so

xxiii

fortunate. Today, I have an obligation to share this information in the hope that it will protect other children from being harmed. If this book saves only a single child, it has been worth my time to write it. The huge number of registered sex offenders warns parents of the danger. This book tells you how to protect your child online. Further, if we each take the time to look after our own children and their relationships with others, and be the parents we are supposed to be, rather than expect our school systems to be parents, I believe we can prevent countless suicides, bullying, massacres, and so on. Although my greatest desire is to protect children from abuse, I also want to help good-hearted people reach out for help. Many people find it difficult to ask for help or do not realize they are seeking help. This book will also help you reach compulsive gamblers, persons considering

xxiv

violence against themselves or others, and even your own unhappy or wayward partner. You do not need to be tech savvy or even be an advanced or intermediate level computer user to learn from this book. This book was designed to educate you on both basic and advanced techniques to prevent personal disasters. You already have the tools. Whether you are a beginner or seasoned computer user, you will learn some unique and creative computer forensics techniques from this book. If this book helped you in any way, saved your child, saved your marriage, saved your home from a compulsive gambler, or even simply changed the feeling of security and safety in your home, I would love to hear from you. Send an email to author@ catchmeifyouknowhow.com.

xxv

Contents

1

The Different Internet Resources.........1 Web Browsing ................................................... 3 Emails (Programs & Web-Based)........................ 5 Social Media...................................................... 6 Chat & Instant Messaging.................................. 7 Peer To Peer File Sharing................................... 7 Other & Future Technologies............................. 8

2

Web Browsing....................................13 Favorites & Bookmarks.................................... 18 Browsing History............................................. 20 Cookies............................................................ 24 Cache Files...................................................... 28 Auto-Complete Forms ..................................... 30 Auto-Fill Profile ............................................... 32 Multiple Browsers............................................ 34 Stealth Modes.................................................. 35 Determining Guilt............................................ 37

3

Emails...............................................43 Desktop Email Applications............................. 46 Web-Based Email............................................ 49 Mobile Devices................................................. 50 Researching Email Addresses & Usernames..... 51

4

Social Media......................................57 Personal Privacy.............................................. 61 How to Track Someone.................................... 62 Can Everyone See You?................................... 64 Photo Tagging.................................................. 66 Access it Anywhere.......................................... 67 Going “Places”................................................. 68 You Can “Like” When They “Like”..................... 68 Multiple Accounts............................................ 69 Authoritive Influences...................................... 69 Facebook Security........................................... 70

5

Chat & Instant Messages....................77 It’s Really Instant............................................. 79 It’s THAT Convenient....................................... 80 More Than Text............................................... 81 Webcams - Audio and Video Chat.................... 82 Chat Logs........................................................ 84 Web Logs......................................................... 85 Screen Names & Usernames............................ 85

Multiple Screen Names & Usernames............... 86 Multiple Chat Applications............................... 87 Web-Based Chat.............................................. 88

6

File Sharing (Peer to Peer).................93 Peer to Peer Software Concept.......................... 95 More Than Copyrighted Music & Movies.......... 96 What Else Is There to Share?........................... 97 Look for Incomplete Files................................. 97 How They Get Caught...................................... 98 Efforts to Hide the Activity............................. 100

7

Advanced Tips.................................107 Dealing With an Expert.................................. 109 Recycle Bin, Trash & Deleted Items................ 110 Undo............................................................. 111 Paste from the Clipboard .............................. 111 Recent Searches............................................ 112 Advanced Searches........................................ 112 Recent History............................................... 114 Even More Recent History.............................. 114 Recent Windows............................................ 115 Advanced Google Research............................ 116 Today’s Lingo................................................. 119 Legal Issues................................................... 120 Instant Polaroid of Data................................. 121

8

Monitoring & Controlling Internet Access.............127 Children’s Rights of Privacy........................... 129 Monitoring Keystrokes via Key Loggers........... 131 Monitoring via Screenshots............................ 132 Monitoring via an Internet Router.................. 133 Monitoring Manually...................................... 134 Controlling Internet Use................................. 134 Controlling via Google Searches..................... 135 Controlling via Software Restrictions.............. 137 Controlling via a Remote Server..................... 139 Controlling via Installed Software................... 140 Controlling via an Internet Router.................. 141

1

Chapter The Different Internet Resources

Web Browsing ................................................... 3 Emails (Programs & Web-Based)........................ 5 Social Media...................................................... 6 Chat & Instant Messaging.................................. 7 Peer To Peer File Sharing................................... 7 Other & Future Technologies............................. 8

1

2

Chapter 1 | The Different Internet Resources

Web Browsing

note If you have never visited a website before or do not know what one is, please put this book down and return it to the store where you purchased it. If the store argues about a return policy, tell them the author told you to do it and show them this note. :)

The majority of the multi-billion dollar pornography industry that flourishes in today’s digital age is accessed via websites. Additionally, information regarding any topic, from innocent to bizzare, is quickly and easily available to anyone of any age. There are websites that give full descriptions of cruelty, bomb making, child exploitation, extreme fetishes, sexual deviancy of every kind, and even pictures and videos of actual murders. What is most troublesome is the ease of accessing this content. It is often found by pure accident. Your child may be doing 3

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition homework and simply searching for specific information related to their studies. Yet a search may result in numerous websites completely unacceptable for their viewing and knowledge. And it’s not just children either; all ages can be affected, including adults and seniors. There is a lot to see, and it is human nature to be curious. However, it is those who are fixated on the extreme content that should be stopped for their own good and the good of others. Additionally, exploiting people (be it children or adults) is unacceptable in a civilized society and will only bolster the already diminishing morals of our society, as a whole. If you are saying to yourself that this would never be you looking for this kind of material, ask yourself what you expect to see when driving by an accident on the side of a road or highway... a dead person slumped over the steering wheel, or something more grotesque? Everybody looks. Some people cannot stop looking. You can help.

4

Chapter 1 | The Different Internet Resources

Emails (Programs & Web-Based) Virtually all of us use email almost daily for business or personal reasons. Although we use a large variety of communication in our daily lives, such as text, social media messages, and even instant messaging, we still rely a great deal on email communication. Email has become our primary source of communication with friends, family, business associates and so on. It allows communication between individuals without causing them to stop in their busy day to answer calls, creating a multi-tasking environment. However, it is also an avenue for misuse and abuse by those with lessthan-honorable intentions. Email is also a great way to communicate with others to share files, programs, videos, pictures, etc., and although many do this for fun or work, there are people who use this method to bully other teenagers, conduct extramarital affairs, and do an endless list of immoral and/or illegal activities - to the point of having adults soliciting young children. One of the downsides of email communication is you cannot 5

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition always be certain that the person you are communicating with is who they say they are.

Social Media Social media has skyrocketed in recent years. With the advent of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo, Tagged, and other social network sites, maintaining and making new relationships locally or abroad is extremely easy. Unfortunately, it’s also an avenue for misuse and abuse. Keeping tabs on your minor children is essential to their safety, as well as your own. You may have read the news stories of teenagers boarding international flights to be with someone they have never met and have only known online, yet they truly believe in their heart they have found true love. Or the relationships that disintegrate (including politicians and celebrities) due to infidelity that originated with harmless online communications. Social media has as many vulnerabilities and downsides as it does upsides. Sometimes, finding an old high school sweetheart turns disastrous and 6

Chapter 1 | The Different Internet Resources sometimes it is reconfirmation of the right choices you have made in life.

Chat & Instant Messaging Instant messaging, also known as IM, messenger services, and chat can be a great way to keep in touch with others. However, they can also create a huge loss of productivity for employees and entrepreneurs, as well as disassociations with family and loved ones being neglected (i.e., parents not taking care of their young, loved ones not spending time together building their relationships, and so on).

Peer To Peer File Sharing Peer to peer file sharing, also known as P2P, is two or more computers that exchange files back and forth over the internet with the use of peer-to-peer file sharing software. You do not need to know who you are sharing the files with and, in many cases, you are file sharing with tens, if not hundreds, of people at once, with the same files. The goal 7

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition is to share the files you wish to let other anonymous people have and in exchange they share files with you and others, anonymously. Because these networks are so large and span the globe, you can download and share files with virtually anyone in the world, day and night, regardless of their language, computer type, or even the software they use. P2P file sharing has become a hotspot for legal pornography, as well as other illegal content and activities, such as sharing copyrighted music, movies and videos, images, sound files, child pornography, rape or murder videos, pirated and hacked versions of commercial applications, and so on.

Other & Future Technologies This book was written and published in 2011. It was started in 2005, and was placed on the back burner so that I could focus more on my career. When I picked up this project again in 2011, I was astounded by the amount of editing and revisions I needed 8

Chapter 1 | The Different Internet Resources to do, based on outdated technologies, as well as new technologies that have emerged. But the concept remained the same. So, as you read this book, understand that new technologies can and will emerge in the coming years, but you shouldn’t be concerned with the age of this book, as most concepts are the same. We are communicating and sharing information and conversations with one another. How we do this and where we do this is what may change. And as technology changes, so laws and law enforcement techniques will change, as well.

9

10

11

12

2

Chapter Web Browsing

Favorites & Bookmarks.................................... 18 Browsing History............................................. 20 Cookies............................................................ 24 Cache Files...................................................... 28 Auto-Complete Forms ..................................... 30 Auto-Fill Profile ............................................... 32 Multiple Browsers............................................ 34 Stealth Modes.................................................. 35 Determining Guilt............................................ 37

13

14

Chapter 2 | Web Browsing Surfing the web and visiting various websites is an invaluable resource, giving you unlimited resources to important information, news, and educational and entertaining things we all desire and often need in our lives. Unfortunately, there is an enormous number of sites that offer counter-productive topics which go beyond the acceptable “wasting time” concept, or entertainment that solely produces adverse results. Sites, such as those, post how to create bombs, provide adulterous encounters/affairs, pornography at all levels, and tastes from simple nudity and sexual acts to bizarre human fluid/ waste exchange and bestiality. You can even find pictures and movies of real people being murdered or killed. There are basically three ways to find indecent content on the internet using a web browser. 1. Someone sends you a link to a site; Someone you know (or may not know) sends you a link in your email, IM, or other method of communication.

15

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition 2. You visit a site and it has a link there to another site; Sites with perfectly legitimate and innocent topic matters may happen to have a link to somewhat risqué content and this risqué site may have mild or R-Rated links, which in turn may have links to even more indecent material. 3. You search for it using a search engine; The majority of the time, you will likely find indecent content by actually seeking it intentionally or accidentally, through search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN/Bing, etc.

note Do you feel that you know your spouse, children, or employee enough to know they wouldn’t be involved in the more bizarre tastes on the web? When addiction occurs, be it pornography, gambling, or something else, especially on the internet, what someone once thought was enticing to see, such as a simple 16

Chapter 2 | Web Browsing nudity photo or sexual act, may cause them to continue seeking more of it. However, just as with any other drug, the dose gets stronger or the quantity increases. With pornorgraphy, the number of uses and quantity relates to the kinkier the topic until one goes to the point of seeing just about everything a person can dream of and even exceed that in many cases, giving people things they would never have thought of on their own. Have you ever seen severe physical pain, diapers, body fluids, and other bizarre actions and items used for sexual purposes? Those are fetishes and can easily be found on the Internet in many places. Although addiction can progress in this fashion, it doesn’t necessarily mean they wish to live out these fantasies, but without getting help, it could lead to that or worse.

I personally remember the first time someone told me about a site that showed pictures of death and told me what the link was and out of curiosity, I went to look at it. It was the foulest thing I have ever seen in my life and 12 years later those images still haunt me.

17

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

Favorites & Bookmarks Virtually every web browser has a way to save a link to a webpage you have visited, so that you may return to it later. For the beginner, the person may save these links and simply looking at the saved links will give you an idea of what he/she has been looking at. Some may try to take an extra step and create folders within their favorites or bookmarks and store the indecent material in there out of plain view. However, a more seasoned computer user may also know how to change the names of these saved links, so they appear unrelated to the content that it really contains. Many web browsers allow you to change the name of the saved page so that you can better remember what that page’s content was (in case the author of the web page didn’t name the page appropriately). Those who are attempting to hide inappropriate sites or their pornography will often rename the saved web pages to something that is unrelated, so that others will not suspect anything (i.e. change the name of the pornography link to something related to computers and technology or the stock market). 18

Chapter 2 | Web Browsing If your web browser has this feature (which it likely does), simply roll your mouse over each bookmark or favorite link and see what the web address is of that item. Be sure to look within subfolders, as well. You can also randomly select various links and visit these sites to ensure the link is what the name makes it appear to be.

example Would you consider a favorite link titled, “How to Whittle With Your Knife” would send you to a site like http://www. HowToWiggleYourWife.com?

2-1a Firefox for Windows PC 19

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

2-1b Safari for Mac OS X You may also want to note that a list of favorite or bookmarked links can be saved to a file on a hard drive or personal webpage. Simply looking at the web browser’s favorites or bookmarks does not always confirm the person has no links saved elsewhere.

Browsing History Most web browsers save recently viewed websites, saved in a list for reference to go back to. The most common and most obvious is the “History” file or list of what sites the previous users have recently visited. Although this history can easily be deleted 20

Chapter 2 | Web Browsing to conceal the places they have visited, one way to tell if the person has something to hide is to see if there is a history at all. They may have deleted their history altogether to prevent detection of what sites they visited or they may have used a different web browser.

2-2a Firefox for Mac OS X

Many web browsers today have a stealth mode that forces the browser to not record any history. This is a privacy setting and has become quite common in most browsers. Each browser tends to name it differently, but the concept remains the same. 21

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

2-2b Google Chrome for Windows PC If there is no history at all (or very little history), then they may have done one of the following: A. Manually deleted all or a portion of the history after their viewing. B. Set their browser to the stealth mode mentioned previously. C. Set their browser to automatically delete the history at short intervals or after each use. 22

Chapter 2 | Web Browsing D. Have used a different browser to browse websites. E. Or simply have not used their browser much, if at all.

Most web browsers also have the option to delete only portions of their history, to show you the users were on websites, but not on those of inappropriate nature. By default, the history in most browsers is usually recorded for quite a few days, weeks, and sometimes longer before it expires and “auto-deletes.” Basically you can see what has been visited for at least the past few days and usually much longer. Someone who is trying to cover their tracks may set the preference of the history (or perform this manually) to an extremely low number, or possibly even to zero, so that no history will show. Simply select “properties” or “preferences” in the browser to locate these settings.

23

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

Cookies The purpose of cookies is to save a file in your browser so that the particular website you are visiting will remember who you are, what your preferences are, and any other information they deem necessary to preserve for you. This may sound like a serious privacy concern and sometimes hackers find ways to exploit this information (that’s one reason why viruses are created and spread). However, it is a good thing, as well, and a benefit which helps to reduce redundantly entering information. For example: A. Shopping sites like Amazon and eBay use cookies to remember what you searched for, and to help with recommendations. B. Your bank gives you a cookie in your browser to verify that you are who you say you are. Without the cookie, the bank assumes you could be a possible unauthorized person trying to login to someone else’s account. C. Custom profile pages or home pages like Yahoo!, AOL, iGoogle and so on keep track of the preferred information you wish to

24

Chapter 2 | Web Browsing view via a cookie (i.e., preferred news, entertainment, stocks, etc.). 2-3a Google Chrome for Windows PC

2-3b Safari for Mac OS X 25

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition Sometimes you can see what a person has been doing just by looking at the cookies on the browser. Most sites put their web address or company name as the cookie and many sites (pornography, gambling, etc.) want to know what other sites you have visited, as well as if you are a returning visitor. Simply go to the browser’s preferences or settings and “view cookies”.

2-4a Safari for Mac OS X

2-4b Internet Explorer for Windows PC

26

Chapter 2 | Web Browsing If the person using the web browser has no cookies, you may want to see what the preference or setting is set for (i.e., it may be set to not save cookies at all). A person can set the browser to decline all cookies, ask if the cookie is okay to be accepted at each site, or automatically accept cookies. Automatically accepting cookies is usually the default setting with most browsers, and if your subject is a novice, there could very well be a whole host of cookies from the time the computer was first set up, giving you an almost complete history of the sites the person has visited. On the other hand, just because it is set to another setting like, “ask before accepting cookies” or “never accept cookies,” it could be simply a desire for privacy and security. In fact, some programs that help with security and privacy to prevent identity theft will disable this option when you ask it to “secure your computer.”

27

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

Cache Files The cache is a list of files that contains all web pages and pictures that have been downloaded when surfing the internet. The purpose of this folder or directory is to store these pictures and web pages so that if you click the back button or revisit the same page a short while later, or even days later, it will display the contents of this page straight from your cache rather than redownload the page and images again from the website. Why a cache? If you have a site like Facebook, with billions of pages and files being served daily, the logos, backgrounds, images, and so on, would be better loaded from your previous visit than to re-download the files again, causing Facebook to have to serve more information, which could take it down. It’s an efficient method of downloading files you have already downloaded by simply reloading previously downloaded files from the same site. One disadvantage is that one can spy on what you have been viewing recently. Much like the history, there is a preference set that you tell your browser how much space or amount of files that you want saved to your cache. Now, to view these images and 28

Chapter 2 | Web Browsing pages, simply go to the directory or folder on your hard drive and double click each image to see what it is and each web page will probably open in your web browser.

tip

2-5 Cache Files in Mac OS X

For a list of various locations of cache files for each web browser and operarting systems, visit www.catchmeifyouknowhow.com

29

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

Auto-Complete Forms

(Not to be confused with Auto-Fill) The auto-complete option is a convenience to those of us who hate typing a full web address of sites we visit regularly. Many web browsers will automatically fill in the web address as you type. Try typing a letter or two of a website and notice that it begins filling in the first known instance with those letters and will often give you additional sites with similar names. For example, if I typed “appl”, apple.com may be the first suggested site and then if I type a “y” applyforsexpass. com may show up next. Why am I telling you this? Well as you may have guessed, we can possibly view certain sites the person has visited by trying a few auto-fill words like porn, hardcore, poker, online casino, bombs, etc. (See list of suggested word searches at http://www.catchmeifyouknowhow.com) The auto-complete feature may get its automatic web address-filling feature from three different methods: 1. It may look in your favorites or bookmarks to suggest links as it auto-fills, so an address that auto-fills could actually already be a Favorite or Bookmark. 30

Chapter 2 | Web Browsing 2. Next, it may try and auto-fill from your history of sites you have recently visited. 3. Lastly, many web browsers today autofill a web address based on the popularity of common or popular websites if it does not find anything in your Favorites/ Bookmarks or in your history. 2-6a Internet Explorer for Windows PC

2-6b Internet Explorer for Windows PC

31

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition So if you want a quick look at possible sites the person has visited, just start typing a letter or two. Again, this is a feature that is usually on by default but can be turned off if someone is trying to prevent someone else from seeing what sites they have saved or visited.

Auto-Fill Profile

(Not to be confused with Auto-Complete) Auto-fill is slightly different from autocomplete. It is used when a person visits a site and fills in a name, address, phone number, email, and any other information that is commonly asked when subscribing to a service or product like a newsletter, contact form, and so on. This auto-fill information is stored on your computer (or in some cases, a Google profile) and is also how some viruses and spyware on your computer obtain your information. However, my point of bringing this up is for you to look at the browser’s auto-fill profiles and see just what name, address, phone, or email the person is using. This will give you an insight into whether or not the person is 32

Chapter 2 | Web Browsing using an unknown mailing address or a fake name or even an email address you were not previously aware of.

2-7a Google Chrome for Windows PC

2-7b Safari for Mac OS X

33

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

Multiple Browsers After learning about all of the places you must look to track someone’s internet behavior, you may find that some people were deceptive enough to do all of their inappropriate internet usage by using a different browser than the one they normally use. For example, a Windows PC user may have Internet Explorer as the default browser and they use this browser for all internet related activities, but when you are not around, they may launch Firefox, Google Chrome, or some other browser and do their illicit activities, adding to the favorites or bookmarks, creating cookies and caches and so on. If you find more than one web browser on the computer, do your research on each browser; you just may find more than you thought you would. For an up-to-date list of well-known browsers, visit http://www.catchmeifyouknowhow.com.

34

Chapter 2 | Web Browsing

Stealth Modes Many browsers today have a “stealth” mode. A stealth mode is setting your browser so that it will not record any history, retain any cache files, will not record auto-complete or auto-fill information, and will not store a bookmark or favorite, even if you try. Although this setting helps in protecting private information on public computers and/or prevents others from coming behind you to view private information (i.e., your banking information while on a lunch break at work or a local library), it is an obvious avenue for abuse and misuse. If you suspect the use of a stealth mode, it is quite simple to confirm this. • Randomly check at regular intervals to see if the stealth mode is on. • If you see the person is on the computer for a short or long period of time, look and see if there is any history. “No history” may indicate that they used the stealth mode. • Ask the person. :) 35

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

2-8a Google Chrome for Mac OS X

2-8b Safari for Mac OS X

note Although the majority of the information you can find on a computer is described here, please understand that this is not the only place to record such information. For example, if you are on a corporate owned computer or even a home internet connection and you perform illegal or inappropriate activities, this information can be stored by other machines and devices on the network that are designed to simply sit and “listen” or watch your activities and record the information. You will never know the difference, since the 36

Chapter 2 | Web Browsing information-gathering machine or device is in a completely different location. If you were using it for illicit reasons, you could hear about it immediately or even months or years later when someone is sifting through the logs.

Determining Guilt If you find any cookies, cache files, history, or browsers that you are not familiar with, I highly suggest you visit the sites before jumping to conclusions. The site may actually be innocent in nature or had been visited accidentally. Additionally, if the history, cookies, autocomplete, auto-fill and cache files do contain inappropriate material, give the person the benefit of the doubt in that he/she may not be viewing inappropriate material intentionally. For example, I was once asked by one of my staff members to unlock a Microsoft Excel document she had protected with a password because she had forgotten it. I performed an internet search for password-unlocking techniques. I found a site that may have had what I needed, since 37

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition it was labeled “Password Unlocking Tools and Secrets” and when I clicked on that link, a web page opened telling me I had found the key to unlocking many pornography sites with passwords. As I went to close that window, there was a script on that page that opened up several more pornography sites and as I closed those, it opened a multitude of pornography sites until it looked like I had probably opened a good 50 pornography pages. Now, if someone was to snoop up behind me, they would probably find a ton of cookies, cache files and history in my browser, making it look like this is all I had been doing that afternoon, when in fact, all of it happened within a minute, when I was trying to help the person unlock her Excel file. Meanwhile, don’t fool yourself into thinking a person may have done this intentionally or unintentionally just because you see inappropriate sites. Use your own judgment and, in my experience, it is usually best to ask before making an accusation.

38

39

40

41

42

3

Chapter Emails

Desktop Email Applications............................. 46 Web-Based Email............................................ 49 Mobile Devices................................................. 50 Researching Email Addresses & Usernames..... 51

43

44

Chapter 3 | Emails Emails are a part of almost everyone’s lives - young, old, professional, student, and so on. One of the major benefits of email is it can be a time saver by allowing two or more people to communicate without the need for them both to stop their daily lives to verbally communicate or schedule the time to discuss matters. While a major convenience, this is also another method to hide ongoing communications and waiting until others are not around. With that said, there are basically four ways to send and receive emails. 1. One or more desktop email applications. 2. One or more web-based email accounts. 3. Social media sites like Facebook and Google+ which give you an email address. 4. A mobile device (cell phone, tablet, etc.) with email and/or web capabilities.

45

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

Desktop Email Applications While it is easy to figure out how to open an email and look at visible emails right there on the computer screen, you will be surprised at what one can hide right in front of your eyes. The most obvious ways to look at email communications are to view the Inbox, Sent, Deleted or Trashed emails, as well as stored emails in various folders. You can also review the address book for entries of people who are unknown to you, look suspicious, or flat out are individuals that are not appropriate or approved. But there’s more than meets the eye. You can start by using the search function to look for various words you suspect to be an issue (i.e. naked, bar, bomb, casino, pot, party, etc.). Most email applications have a search feature that allow you to search for virtually anything sent or received. You can also open a new email window and begin typing a “To:” address and see most commonly used emails. Most email applications auto-complete based on previous email addresses (to or from), emails received, and email addresses stored in the address book. So this is a great way to “see” 46

Chapter 3 | Emails email addresses that are not in any folders or stored in the address book, since the autocomplete keeps a database of most recently used email addresses.

3-1a Entourage for Mac OS X

3-1b Windows Live Mail for Windows PC

47

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition Next, check to see if the email application has a “Profile” feature. Some email applications allow for you to setup multiple profiles so that two or more people can use the same email program without getting their emails mixed up. See where this is going? A nifty way to create a “hidden” email account without you ever seeing it. Additionally, even if the email application does not have a multiple profile feature, you should also consider that multiple computer logins could have different email addresses set up. Next, consider looking for multiple email programs. Just because one email application looks clean and innocent, it doesn’t mean that is the only email program on the computer. Be sure to implement the same investigation procedures with every email application (and every computer login) since each email application stores its own information for each computer login. It is not system-wide, so checking one email program will not provide auto-complete or other information for other email applications and computer logins.

48

Chapter 3 | Emails

Web-Based Email Web-based email is one of the most popular email methods today, whether it be a corporate/business email, personal email, or a group membership email. It is also how social media sites allow their members to use email. Web-based email providers include Gmail, Yahoo!, AOL, MSN/ Bing, Live, etc., and are sometimes specific to a website like http://mail. mycorporatewebsite.com.

3-2 Gmail in Google Chrome for Mac OS X

As mentioned in the previous chapter on Websites, web browsers have auto-complete and auto-fill features, as well as cookies, to help aid in reducing repetitive tasks, such as typing in your email username and password everytime you wish to login into your web-based email. Take advantage of this. Visit mail.yahoo.com, mail.live.com, gmail.com and the rest, to see if an email gets auto-filled into the username field. Also try typing one character to see if it auto-fills another address. This is a dead give-away 49

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition if you see an email you do not recognize. Whether it be a friend or family member that was over or someone attempting to “hack” into an email address which doesn’t belong to the person, if you are seeing an email address as the login name, you can be certain that this email address was or was attempted to be logged into on that browser at some point by someone. Visit http:// www.catchmeifyouknowhow.com for a list of most commonly known web-based email providers.

tip Try each web-based email provider’s site, on each browser used on the computer, as well as each computer login.

Mobile Devices Devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops are another avenue to look at webbased emails and email applications. The procedures mentioned above work in the same ways for mobile devices but not as fluidly or in the same manner. Perform a Google search for instructions on the device 50

Chapter 3 | Emails you wish to analyze or wait for the ‘Mobile Edition’ of this book.

Researching Email Addresses & Usernames More often than not, a person who decides to use an alternate email address will often use the same or similar username and email to post to various message boards or other publicly accessible (and searchable) internet locations. Do an internet search for the partial or full email address, but also do a search for the username portion of the email. An email like ‘[email protected]’ may come up with little or no information, but a search for ‘chiefereal’ may actually prove useful and even expose things like new email addresses of [email protected] or [email protected].

tip

Go ahead, research the username of ‘chiefereal’ and see what I may have been up to.

51

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition If you are unable to find any information during this research, it may be that the person does not post to forums, bulletin boards or other public internet locations.

52

53

54

55

56

4

Chapter Social Media

Personal Privacy.............................................. 61 How to Track Someone.................................... 62 Can Everyone See You?................................... 64 Photo Tagging.................................................. 66 Access it Anywhere.......................................... 67 Going “Places”................................................. 68 You Can “Like” When They “Like”..................... 68 Multiple Accounts............................................ 69 Authoritive Influences...................................... 69 Facebook Security........................................... 70

57

58

Chapter 4 | Social Media Social media is today’s hottest trend, like it or not. Even if you don’t have a Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Google+ or other social media account, or even if you have no computer at all, it is possible you are on the social media sites through your family and friends. It allows us to connect and stay in touch with family, friends, and coworkers and reconnect with old friends and even old lovers. Facebook has been arguably the pioneer of social media. Although this chapter is based on social media in general, we will be using Facebook for the majority of the examples since this is the most commonly used social media site at the time of this writing. However, Google+ seems to be changing the game. Facebook is also a way for exposing yourself, your children, your family and friends, to greater dangers than just a simple online profile, even if they themselves do not participate on Facebook or other social media sites. Because your Facebook page has you tied to the very intimate details of your life (personal and family photos, friends and family posts, historical information, job, age, birthdate, education, relationship status, etc.), once 59

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition someone can access your profile, you have given up a great deal of information and privacy. And if your profile can be accessed without restrictions, you have given a stranger better access to you than handing over your wallet or purse to a complete stranger on the street. Although there is a lot of talk and newsworthy information about real life stories (inspirational, as well as tragic) about privacy methods that social media sites implement to help protect you, there is only a small handful of options at this point to help you investigate and/or proactively (rather than reactively) protect your children and loved ones.

tip

Are you friends on Facebook with your boss or subordinate employees? Sometimes that’s okay, but remember that if you post during business hours, your boss or subordinates may see this, and viceversa.

60

Chapter 4 | Social Media

Personal Privacy Privacy is a good thing; it protects your personal information from people you do not want knowing personal details, whether they are complete strangers or if you have known them a lifetime. Unfortunately, sites like Facebook cannot easily determine who is a stranger and who is a trusted individual. So, although you may be a spouse, parent, sibling, guardian, or whatever the situation may be; you are relying on the other person to not reveal any sensitive information, which you view as private. This is especially hard when it comes to children, who are generally trusting and want to share their grief and happiness with friends and the world. Ask yourself these simple questions and if you cannot answer any of them, you have some research to do: 1. Is your profile listed as private or public? 2. Is your phone number or email listed on your profile? 3. Do you know all of your friends?

61

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition 4. Do your family and friends have people they do not know on their friends lists?

tip Repeat the above questions for each family member.

How to Track Someone Since sites like Facebook offer privacy options and if you wish to track a person, especially your children, how do you see what they are up to? The first and most obvious step is to consider signing up for a Facebook account yourself. By doing this, you not only become familiar with its capabilities and offerings, you can request that you be added as a “Friend”. When you become their friend, you are essentially able to see all “public” updates and communications they have with others. However, if they are sending private

62

Chapter 4 | Social Media messages, this information is not shared with you as a friend. It may be best to stay silent on social media sites when it involves your children, even on issues you do not agree with or find that it is unnacceptable behavior or forbidden relationships. It is often difficult not to speak up immediately when you see something your child posts on a social media site that you do not approve of, but try being the parent in private and offline just as you wouldn’t take your child into public before scolding or punishing them. By speaking up online and publicly humiliating your child with their peers, you may end up forcing them to use private messages more often or worse, cause their peers to tease or even stop communicating with your child.

tip You can be friends with someone and they can still hide some details from you and other friends, which include posts to their wall. So you may not be seeing “all” of their activities, just the activities they want you and others to see. This is yet another Facebook privacy setting. 63

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

Can Everyone See You? Letting anyone and everyone see your profile and details is a dangerous thing. Whether it be your child, spouse, or simply someone you know, love, or trust, they should not have their profile open for the public to view, except those who they know. The guy down the street or on the opposite side of the globe will have all of the intimate details of your life without ever asking for it.

4-1a Facebook Security Settings 64

Chapter 4 | Social Media

4-1b Facebook Security Settings

4-1c Facebook Security Settings

Having your profile open and not secured with privacy settings is like you filling out a long and personally focused application and then posting that application on the street corners for every stranger to view.

65

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

Photo Tagging Tagging someone in a photo on Facebook is the method of creating a link of a person on an image to their Facebook profile. Basically, if you have been tagged in a photo, anyone viewing that photo can hover their mouse pointer over your face or body and your name will appear, so that you can be identified. This is great for those who forget names, but isn’t so great for those who wish to remain anonymous.

4-2 Facebook Photo Tagging of Travis Morgans Image

66

Chapter 4 | Social Media

note

There are companies providing services to search for tagged photos to see who has you tagged, or you can do this search yourself on Facebook in the advanced search options. See our website at http://www. catchmeifyouknowhow.com for a list of companies that provide this service.

tip

If you do not want to be tagged in other people’s photos that are uploaded, simply turn this feature off in your security settings on Facebook.

Access it Anywhere Social media is available everywhere, including your pocket. It’s not difficult to keep your social media interactions on the go. Most smartphones today have social media apps that allow you to stay in constant contact with your friends and family. There are even apps and technologies that use your

67

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition phone’s GPS (Global Positioning System) services to track where you are and post the information based on your location (See ‘Going “Places”’ below).

Going “Places” Facebook has a feature called “Places”. This can be done with a smartphone and basically it can use a GPS coordinate to see nearby places you are visiting, so other friends can possibly meet up with you if you are both in the same location or nearby. What’s great about this is you can see where these people are physically. It also allows for “tagging” friends with you. So if you don’t have a smartphone, one of your friends can tag you with them. Now you not only know where someone is, but also who they are with.

You Can “Like” When They “Like” You almost cannot get away with a single website visit and not see the “Like” button somewhere on the pages. If you are seeing someone “Like” a page, take a look at that 68

Chapter 4 | Social Media page; it may be on a site you don’t approve of.

Multiple Accounts Some people, even children, will hide certain “lifestyles” of their life between multiple accounts on the same site or even different sites. While you may be aware of their primary Facebook account, which you are a friend on and can see most of their activities and relationships with friends and family, you may be surprised to learn another account is used for a different purpose, such as sexual relationships, friends that the parents do not permit their child to befriend, discussion of forbidden topics, etc.

Authoritive Influences Many teachers, employers, religious figures, and other individuals have some type of authority or interest in your child, family member, or friends. Sometimes these influences can deter malicious, rude, and unacceptable behavior, and sometimes 69

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

they are the source of it, as well. It’s a good idea for you to keep a watchful eye on all behaviors from your child (or others) and the authoritive figure themselves. I am sure you have heard of the athletic coaches, church clergy, boy scout leaders, etc., who were great influences but ended up molesting one or more of their students. There could be some signs displayed online in social media sites that show something that might be worth looking into.

tip

Friend the authoritive person to keep tabs on their demeanor, traits, and patterns, as well.

Facebook Security In October 2010, Eric Butler created an application/plugin named Firesheep in the name of privacy and security. It was developed to force companies like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and other social media sites to use stronger and better privacy and security measures with their users. This 70

Chapter 4 | Social Media application “points out” the simple insecure nature of how Firesheep allows someone to be on the same network or wireless point as you (school, work, coffee shop, library, etc.), and to be able to hijack your account by logging into your social media account undetected by you. Firesheep became widely available for virtually any type of computer and is easy to use and install for virtually any level of computer user. All you need to do is download and install a plugin (almost completely automated) into your browser and start scanning for people on the same network as you that are accessing a social media site. It wasn’t until February 2011 (4 months after Firesheep was released) that Facebook and other social media sites began rolling out a security fix for this vulnerability. The purpose of mentioning this flaw in security implemented by social media sites, is to point out that social media sites have had a history of ignoring security flaws until they are forced to resolve them. So if you depend on the social media sites to protect your privacy on their own, you will be sorely 71

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition disappointed. Be proactive and stay on top of your own privacy and security and verify that new security feature actually works.

72

73

74

75

76

5

Chapter Chat & Instant Messages

It’s Really Instant............................................. 79 It’s THAT Convenient....................................... 80 More Than Text............................................... 81 Webcams - Audio and Video Chat.................... 82 Chat Logs........................................................ 84 Web Logs......................................................... 85 Screen Names & Usernames............................ 85 Multiple Screen Names & Usernames............... 86 Multiple Chat Applications............................... 87 Web-Based Chat.............................................. 88

77

78

Chapter 5 | Chat & Instant Messages

It’s Really Instant Personal messaging (aka instant messaging, text, social media posts, etc.) has become so popular, it is now arguably the number one method of communication between family and friends of all ages. You even have a chat option available in most social media accounts. It’s instant communication with people in real time without any local, national or international borders to consider. Instant messaging and text messaging are even popular on cell phones, so you can communicate back and forth between cell phone users and computer users. Since chat is instant in nature, it therefore gets immediate results for those who are impatient or enjoy instant gratification. It is also a way for you to quickly meet new people with similar interests. This can be both positive and negative. Chat is used to communicate with friends, family, and, in some cases, employers, coworkers, customers and vendors. The nice thing about instant messaging is that it is instant, it is free (no long distance phone calls), it allows a person to multi-task and do other things while the conversation is ongoing and, in many cases, it gives people 79

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition access to others who they would not normally have access to. Again, both a positive and negative aspect of the technology.

tip Some chat applications allow you to watch when they are online and offline if you are setup as a buddy and they are not hiding. Stay hidden yourself if you want, so they don’t know you are watching when they come online or go offline.

It’s THAT Convenient With the many advantages that come with instant messaging, it can also be destructive, in many ways. Children are approached by adults who seek minors for relationships or sexual encounters without ever making a phone call or approaching your child in public. Married or committed men and women begin flirting with others on the internet. Illegal or immoral behaviors often surface with those who would otherwise not normally behave this way, because of its sense of anonymity. 80

Chapter 5 | Chat & Instant Messages However, there are downsides to instant messaging, as with many things on the internet. Employees often abuse instant messaging and chat for hours rather than work, and often the supervisor will assume work is being done because the employee is eagerly working at their computer. Children will chat with someone they believe is a person of their own age, getting to know them in another city, state, or even their own town, when in fact it may be a sexual predator getting as much information as they can from your child. Your spouse may not have considered cheating until someone who “seems” perfect comes along and chats with him/her.

More Than Text Some of the methods used for instant messaging are not just text exchange. You can have audio and/or video conferencing via a webcam or just a microphone to see and/or hear one another. There are also chat rooms to speak in a group setting, private rooms to chat with just one other person, etc. If you don’t have a webcam, many of today’s standard home video cameras can be 81

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition hooked up to your computer and be used as a webcam. If you have a laptop, most laptops now come with a camera built in to the top of the display as a standard feature.

Webcams - Audio & Video Chat Webcams allow you to see and hear the other party. It gives that personal feel to your conversation, since it is almost as if you are there in person, carrying on your conversation. Most chat programs today support webcam features, so you can communicate with your chat partner via video at no charge. You 82

5-1 Yahoo! Instant Messenger for Mac OS X

Chapter 5 | Chat & Instant Messages can even make this a one way video if the other party does not have a camera. Webcams work on many web-based applications, as well. Log in, view others, or share yourself with people who you may or may not know. One particular type of website allows anonymous strangers to see and talk to one another. Chatroulette, Omegle, PeopleShuffle, etc. are all anonymous webcam chat sites that require no login and therefore no identifying information is collected. There have been celebrities known to visit such sites, as well as everyone from every age. This can be both entertaining and disturbing. The entertainment often comes from seeing people use funny faces, masks, videos, or messages, as well as an occasional celebrity sighting. But the other end of the spectrum is disturbing. A quick visit to these sites will often show you school-aged children looking for some fun activities, while a quick scan of more individuals shows you adults who are looking for something far more sinister. These children and nude adults often run across one another and there’s no forewarning on what they are about to see.

83

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

tip

Don’t believe everything you see on a video chat. Video feeds from a pre-recorded video file on a computer are rather easy to stream to the other party, with additional plugins and software that is freely available. See a crime in progress or an “out of this world” handsome man or beautiful woman wanting to chat with you? It could be pre-recorded.

Chat Logs Many IM programs provide logging of all chat activity that happens. Some require that you enable the activity log, as it is disabled by default while others have it enabled from day one, and some do not have this option at all. Follow the instructions provided in the help files or do a simple Google search for your specific chat program to find out how it is done. You will be surprised at how much information can be obtained from chat logs.

84

Chapter 5 | Chat & Instant Messages

Web Logs If there is web-based chat and webcam activity, review the chapter on “Web Browsing” to see how you can determine which sites were visited.

Screen Names & Usernames Screen names and usernames (including email addresses) are a great way of researching a person’s activities online. If they use a unique screen name (i.e. my faux screen name of Chiefereal), try doing an online search for that username. You may be surprised at what you find on other sites like forums, profiles and so on. Google the real name or pseudonyms of the person’s names and screen names they use in chats. You can also search their email addresses used with those accounts.

tip Make sure to read the “Advanced Google Research” tips and tricks on narrowing your Google searches if you get too many results. 85

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

Multiple Screen Names & Usernames Look for account settings or preferences and see if there is more than one account setup. With someone who has an identity to hide, often times they will have multiple screen names or usernames within the same chat application in addition to their known primary account. Make sure to check this in each chat application found on the subject’s computer.

5-2 Multiple Accounts in Adium for Mac OS X 86

Chapter 5 | Chat & Instant Messages Look for multiple accounts on the same chat application. Most chat applications have a feature to add multiple screen names and users. What appears to be a single chat program can easily have multiple chat profiles for different purposes and speaking with different people, even those people that do not want you knowing who they chat with.

Multiple Chat Applications Look for multiple chat applications. Simply finding one chat program does not mean that is the only program being used. In fact, do not rely on looking for the most popular named chat applications, either. Yahoo! Chat, MSN Chat, AOL Instant Messenger, Gtalk, etc., are all common chat programs by their respective developers/chat providers. However, there are many chat programs available from other developers with a multitude of names and these chat programs are capable of providing chat for the popular chat services. So if you think a Yahoo! chat account can only work with Yahoo! Instant Messenger, this is false.

87

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

Web-Based Chat Just because you do not see any activity on chat programs doesn’t always mean there are no chats happening. Many chat services offer web-based access, also. So if you have a Yahoo! account and use Yahoo! Instant Messenger on your computer, you can also sign into your Yahoo! account via the website at yahoo.com and chat via a website that does not require a chat application to be installed on that computer.

88

89

90

91

92

6

Chapter

File Sharing (Peer to Peer)

Peer to Peer Software Concept.......................... 95 More Than Copyrighted Music & Movies.......... 96 What Else Is There to Share?........................... 97 Look for Incomplete Files................................. 97 How They Get Caught...................................... 98 Efforts to Hide the Activity............................. 100

93

94

Chapter 6 | File Sharing (Peer to Peer)

Peer to Peer Software Concept Ever heard of Limewire, Bearshare, Kazaa, Torrents, Hotfiles, etc.? These are peer to peer technology/software (or person to person, computer to computer) and are basically any software that permits file transfers between two or more computers. In the original context of this technology, you had to seek out what others have on their computer or request specific files you are seeking and then locate who may be sharing those for you to download. With the advancements and refinements of this technology, all you need to do now is type in keywords and search for items based on file names, topics, and even words within the files you seek. What’s even more surprising is that it is no longer one peer to another peer file sharing. Files that are in process of downloading begin to share that file even as it is being downloaded (i.e. if you have only downloaded ten percent of the file so far, that ten percent is already being shared with others who are seeking the same files). Additionally, you are downloading from many other peers (people/computers) rather than just one person, which means the file that takes several hours to download from one person to another is now done within 95

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition minutes from tens and even hundreds of other people sharing or downloading that file at that moment. Talk about quickly disseminating information in today’s digital age!

More Than Copyrighted Music & Movies Peer to peer software and technologies have been around for quite some time. The majority of people view these as where to go for downloading copyrighted music and movies. I am sure you have heard about the movie and music industry going after anyone and everyone they can prove were downloading and/or sharing their copyrighted materials. However, what few know, unless they are guilty of this or are professionals themselves, is there are a lot more sinister materials to be found than just copyrighted material.

96

Chapter 6 | File Sharing (Peer to Peer)

What Else Is There to Share? Peer to peer software allows you to download anything that is a file on a computer. Be it pirated software, eBooks (hopefully not this book, lol), movies, music, audio files, and so on. This is all information that can be stored on a computer, and information can be entertainment, educational, propaganda, and more. Unfortunately, this is also how we can find files that help us understand, promote, and share deviancy, hate, and malicious instructions (militia, bomb manufacturing, suicidal methods and procedures, murder instructions, fake identities, credit fraud, insurance fraud, drug manufacturing, how to disappear, etc.).

Look for Incomplete Files If you locate the download folder/directory that is being used by the file sharing application, you will often see an incomplete list of files that were either attempted to be downloaded or have been partially downloaded, which is normally separate than the files that were successfully and fully downloaded. This is true even if the 97

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition completed files downloaded have been removed or deleted. The names of these files can sometimes give you all of the information you need. You may be able to open the downloaded portion of the file also, to see the partial contents. Why is this method effective? Sometimes the person downloading a large number of files forgets that some files did not complete the download and/or they did not realize the file that never started downloading left an empty file in this folder/ directory with an incriminating file name. This location is often named “Incomplete” if you wish to search your computer for these files.

How They Get Caught When you share files across the internet with other people, it isn’t difficult for law enforcement to track your location and activities. People often misunderstand that anonymous web activity is not as anonymous as they thought. Yes, you are anonymous when you browse the internet, to a degree, and most remain anonymous, as the sites you visit do not know who you are or how to get a hold of you (this does not take into 98

Chapter 6 | File Sharing (Peer to Peer) account cookies, viruses, trojan horses, and malware, in general). If someone’s internet behavior involves illegal activity, such as downloading and sharing files that are illegal in nature, they could be picked up on law enforcement’s radar. Then authorities may begin monitoring this person’s internet activity, once authorities are aware of the potential suspect and their activities. This is how most people are caught. For example, downloading illegal material via peer to peer sharing software isn’t the only thing that can get someone caught. Most peer to peer software actually begins sharing the file as it is being downloaded, which means that during the download process of the first few seconds, you are already sharing the same files on the internet for others to download from you, including law enforcement. Once you start sharing or downloading files to and from law enforcement computers, they have your IP (Internet Protocol) address and can simply contact your internet provider and ask who used that IP address at a specific date and time. Trust me, your internet provider likely knows who was using what IP address at any given time; it’s standard IT logging and security procedure. 99

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

Efforts to Hide the Activity Often, someone with questionable internet behavior will go to great lengths to conceal their behavior, both on the computer as well as the internet itself, to try and be truly anonymous, so they cannot be tracked by law enforcement. There are internet anonymizers that allow you to “mask” or pretend your activities are originating from another physical location, which keeps your real location and identity hidden.

tip These anonymizers are also used to bypass internet filtering and monitoring in home routers and corporate networks.

100

Chapter 6 | File Sharing (Peer to Peer)

note

Some people are very concerned about their privacy and, in fact, are not hiding anything, except the fact that they don’t feel comfortable that someone has the ability to track their behaviors. Keep this in mind if you discover anonymity software located on a computer. It doesn’t always point to foul play. However, internet activity can still be traced by a number of different methods, regardless if you attempt to use anonymous software or other methods. For the purpose of this book, being a book for novices, I will not get into this advanced discussion, but rest assured that any activity that uses your internet connection is traceable in one form or another. I am only aware of one method that is capable of truly hiding your identity and even with that method, it requires advanced knowledge, cumbersome setup, and carefully tracking your behavior and the knowledge to erase your tracks. This method also assumes your activities are not so severe that they warrant the world experts hired by governments in tracking you (i.e. if you break into government computers, electrical 101

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition grids, and so on, the resources that are put forth into your capture go well beyond simply tracking your internet activity). Any slipups, even by a seasoned advanced computer hacker, will leave you traceable. This is why you often hear of hackers who end up being discovered and are traced worldwide.

102

103

104

105

106

7

Chapter Advanced Tips

Dealing With an Expert.................................. 109 Recycle Bin, Trash & Deleted Items................ 110 Undo............................................................. 111 Paste from the Clipboard .............................. 111 Recent Searches............................................ 112 Advanced Searches........................................ 112 Recent History............................................... 114 Even More Recent History.............................. 114 Recent Windows............................................ 115 Advanced Google Research............................ 116 Today’s Lingo................................................. 119 Legal Issues................................................... 120 Instant Polaroid of Data................................. 121

107

108

Chapter 7 | Advanced Tips The following tips will help you deal with someone who may be a computer expert, as well as some advanced tips for the beginning/intermediate users, enabling you to take this book one step further should you desire. What I consider an expert in the context of this book is someone with some advanced computer knowledge, like a web developer, computer tech, or anything related to the IT field as a profession, or even just an experienced computer hobbyist.

Dealing With an Expert Is your subject person a savvy computer person? Keep in mind that if your subject is a savvy computer user, he/she may be able to see some of the activity you perform, as well, during your research. So when you are opening files and programs when they are not around, they may be able to see what you have been doing on their computer, just as you are doing to them.

109

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

tip

If you would like an exact copy of the computer’s hard drive for researching, have a professional IT consultant image the hard disk so you will have a duplicate of their data without detection.

Recycle Bin, Trash & Deleted Items Even advanced computer users get careless and forget to “permanently” delete files they intended to. Take a look in the Recycle Bin, Trash or Deleted Items periodically. You might be surprised at what you find. You may have noticed that “permanently” was placed in quotations. This is because, to a normal computer user, deleted files are no longer available or recoverable. However, advanced computer techs and forensics professionals can easily recover deleted files using special software to retrieve what was thought to be “permanently” removed.

110

Chapter 7 | Advanced Tips

Undo Try doing an “Undo” (under the “Edit” menu) in many software applications and even the system itself. For example, a shortcut key on a Windows PC and Mac OS X computer allows for deleting a file or folder that is selected. Simply selecting “Undo” under the “Edit” menu will move that file or folder back to its original location.

Paste from the Clipboard Yes, another item often forgotten, overlooked and not thought of. Select “Paste” (from under the “Edit” menu) into a text editor (like Microsoft Word, WordPad, TextEdit), as well as an image application (like Paint, Photoshop, Preview) and you may be surprised at what you find. Pasting into a text editor will result in information that is text-based while pasting into a image application will show images that were copied. Do this at random intervals or times of suspicion and you may get an eye full. You may even find some files that were copied recently.

111

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

Recent Searches Look at the system search feature and see if you can see any recent searches by your subject. Someone trying to cover their tracks manually will often search their own computer and delete files that were created during their inappropriate use from the search window. If you see the last search, or even a list of recent searches, this will give you some insight as to what they are looking for, as well. Kind of like the dog leading you to its own mess.

Advanced Searches Do an advanced search for file size, recent date (modified, opened, or created dates) and file extensions/types. Also search for keywords (bomb, sex, porn, poker, etc.) and if you can, search the contents of files, as well, since a file named mydocument.txt may be a file full of words (or website links) you would have missed otherwise. You can also perform a search based on a combination of these, to narrow down your

112

Chapter 7 | Advanced Tips searches even more. For example, perform a search on the following critera: “file size” = greater than 2mb “is type” = movie “last opened” = past month or; following criteria: “is type” = image “date created” = past year 7-1a Search Files in Mac OS X

7-1b Search Files in Windows PC

113

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

Recent History Look at the computer’s “Recent History” in the system menu (Start Menu for Windows, Apple Menu for Macs) and you will see recent files opened. If this list is empty, you have reason to suspect someone has something to hide. What you see in the list is most recent (i.e., the last 10-20 files and applications).

7-2 Recent Files in Mac OS X

Even More Recent History Look at each application’s “Recent History” or the application’s “Recent Files” submenu, if it has one. This is separate from your 114

Chapter 7 | Advanced Tips system’s recent files or recent items. Bring up suspect programs like text editors, image viewers, audio/video viewers, and so on. Under the “Recent Files” or “Recent Items” menu item (usually under “File” menu), it will show you all of the recent files opened only within that application.

tip

Perform a recent history search on each login of the computer.

Recent Windows There is a shortcut key for closing windows. On a Windows PC, this is Ctrl + W while on a Macintosh, it is Cmd + W. Watch the finger position and use of quickly closing a window. Use “Open Recent Window” under the file or Edit menus of many applications to see what was just closed.

115

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

Advanced Google Research Google searches are much more powerful than most users realize. Try quote marks, hyphens, colons, plus signs, etc., and get a wealth of information within seconds, instead of dragging out a long drawn out research. Many people do not realize that Google has these advanced search features. You have probably searched your name, or someone else’s, and found too much information with identical and/or similar names (both exact and partial) and way too many pages to sift through to investigate thoroughly. Well, there’s an easier way to get straight to the information you seek.

tip If you are uncomfortable trying this on your own, or wish to have a quick method of performing these advanced searches, visit http://www.catchmeifyouknowhow.com for an easy to use advanced search tool.

116

Chapter 7 | Advanced Tips Quote Marks: Searching for Travis Morgan with no quote marks will provide you with websites containing Travis and Morgan. So your results may show many links to country singer Travis Tritt as well as Captain Morgan Rum and Morgan Horses. However, searching for “Travis Morgan” using quote marks will only show you pages that have the two words next to one another in that order. Example: “travis morgan” Hyphens: You can use hyphens in your searches to eliminate words from your search criteria. For example, when you search for “Travis Morgan”, you will get results with my name and hundreds of other Travis Morgans in this world who have some type of online presence. There are one or more musicians named Travis Morgan, so a search with a hyphen to eliminate those would be: Example: “travis morgan” –music

Now, to narrow it down even further, I may want to type the following:

117

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition Example: ”travis morgan” –music –band -singer

There is also a Travis Morgan who writes comics so in order to narrow this down even further, I will actually search for the following. Example: “travis morgan” –comic –music –band –singer

The same works for adding a plus sign. This option will only give you results for all Travis Morgans with the word author also on the page. Example: “travis morgan” +author

tip Visit www.catchmeifyouknowhow.com to see more search examples.

118

Chapter 7 | Advanced Tips

Today’s Lingo Kids today understand so many acronyms and lingo often used in text messages, online chat and emails. Despite the fact that this new method of communicating seems to be against everything we learn in our English classes, it is quite an efficient method to relay the same information in a fraction of the time it does to use proper English. If you are a tech savvy person, you probably have an understanding of this lingo already and may even use it regularly. However, if you do not understand things like LOL, ROFL, IDK, etc., don’t worry, there are hundreds of websites that explain what each of these mean. Simply do a Google search for the words or acronyms you don’t understand.

tip If you want to be a cool parent, or at the very least have something that you and your child can do together and have a connection, start using this lingo with them when you communicate with them digitally.

119

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

Legal Issues There is a wealth of “ifs, ands, and buts” when it comes to forensics. The procedures outlined in this book are merely “homegrown” efforts to do some research of activities on the computer. However, if the subject computer is required for legal purposes, such as divorce proceedings, criminal activities, and even health and safety issues, these methods are not merely enough to solidify a case against someone, and in fact will likely compromise it. To hold a concrete case that is capable of being upheld in a court of law, one must prove the contents of the hard drive without changing anything on the hard drive. Simply opening a window or performing a search of the hard drive changes the state of the hard drive and can be dismissed as evidence in court due to chain of custody and contaminating evidence. How does this work with a hard drive? If I am able to access your hard drive and make changes, what proof do I have that you or I did not place the illegal materials on the computer to frame the defendant?

120

Chapter 7 | Advanced Tips So if you suspect that there will be a legal issue arising from what you discover, your best bet is to use a professional computer forensics lab, which will create an image of the drive for you, and record a hash code, all without tampering with the evidence. It can be proven that the hard disk that was imaged is the exact same hard drive provided as evidence at the trial. Without this image and hash information, you may as well have someone else’s hard drive.

tip See our website at www.catchmeifyouknowhow.com for a list of known forensics labs.

Instant Polaroid of Data One of the secrets of law enforcement’s ability to prove what you had done on your computer during a “bust” with a search warrant is to catch a “polaroid” of your computer at the time of the search. Imagine someone walking into the room and you are frozen in time, as well as your computer, 121

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition and they can see everything you have done up to that very second. If you were given the opportunity to shut down the computer, some of your history may be unrecoverable. The method to instantly freeze a picture of your computer (aka a “Polaroid”) is to unplug the power to your computer, immediately. This creates a “frozen” state of your hard drive as no other activity can occur without electrical power. By doing this, they can actually pinpoint down to the second what you were downloading, sending/receiving, and what applications and files you had open. For someone committing a crime, this is very damning information. For someone who is a victim, this is damning evidence against the criminal. So, worst-case scenario - if you need to prove your case of some serious crimes, get law enforcement involved first. If your circumstances do not allow it, simply unplug the power from the computer and get it to a forensics lab to preserve its data and analyze it.

122

123

124

125

126

8

Chapter Monitoring & Controlling Internet Access

Children’s Rights of Privacy........................... 129 Monitoring Keystrokes via Key Loggers........... 131 Monitoring via Screenshots............................ 132 Monitoring via an Internet Router.................. 133 Monitoring Manually...................................... 134 Controlling Internet Use................................. 134 Controlling via Google Searches..................... 135 Controlling via Software Restrictions.............. 137 Controlling via a Remote Server..................... 139 Controlling via Installed Software................... 140 Controlling via an Internet Router.................. 141

127

128

Chapter 8 | Monitoring & Controlling Internet Access

Children’s Rights of Privacy COPPA, the “Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act” (http://www.coppa.org) outlines many laws, regulations and policies for websites in the United States that collect information about children under the age of eighteen. This is obviously to protect our children. However, where does the law stand between a child’s right to privacy versus the parents’ right to oversee a child’s behavior and activities? Although the law is very specific about what information can be obtained and maintained about its visitors, it can also punish those who share that information. Fortunately, as a parent/guardian/custodian, you have the right to require these sites to disclose all identifiable information regarding your child’s activities. Simply contact the site owner or staff and explain that you are a parent/guardian/custodian of a child and you need access to the information they have stored on your child. You will need to provide proof in some manner to them that you are the child’s parent/guardian/custodian, and they are required to present this information to you before deleting the account or the information. If your child has reached the 129

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition age of 18, you may no longer have this right under most circumstances. Exceptions may include adult children with disabilities. But what if your child is under the age of 13? Although the law stipulates that no information may be accumulated from a child under 13 years of age, many children will lie about their age to gain access to a site or there is someone else who may have set it up for them, not knowing an age limit is imposed (i.e. a mischievious peer, an older sibling, a misinformed parent and so on). When this occurs, identifiable information has likely been obtained from the child under the age of 13, at no fault to the site administrators or owners, due to the child’s violation of the site’s policies. There are two pieces of good news about this. First, you as a parent, still have the right to request all information about your child, regardless of their age as a minor. Just because an account was set up illegally and information was collected illegally, it does not mean your request to access this information is illegal. Second, once you have the information you need, you can have their account deleted.

130

Chapter 8 | Monitoring & Controlling Internet Access

note

Monitoring a computer’s use can be a proactive or reactive measure. In the proactive method, you are actively on top of what is going on and can take immediate steps to resolve issues that may arise. Reactive monitoring allows for you to see what has been going on, but only after damage may have been done.

Monitoring Keystrokes via Key Loggers Keystroke loggers can be in the form of software or hardware. If you are concerned about the child deleting or disabling software, you may want to choose a hardware solution. What a keystroke logger does is record every key pressed during its recording time. You can record usernames, emails, passwords, websites, chat conversations, social media posts, and so on, all from simply recording what they type.

131

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

tip

If you choose to use a software-based keystroke logger, some key loggers come with the ability to take screenshots of your computer also.

Monitoring via Screenshots Screenshots are a snapshot of what is on your computer screen at any given moment, just like the examples in this book. There are many screenshot monitoring applications out there. You can set up the software to automatically take snapshots at a specified interval (every few minutes or every 10, 30, 60 minutes or more), as well. Some of these applications simply leave the snapshot on the computer’s hard drive for later viewing, some email them to you, while others upload to a website for you to view. There are even applications that will use the webcam (if one is installed) to take a picture of the person sitting at the keyboard at the time of the snapshot.

132

Chapter 8 | Monitoring & Controlling Internet Access

tip

Visit our website at www.catchmeifyouknowhow.com for a list of known monitoring software and hardware available.

Monitoring via an Internet Router Most broadband routers today have a logging feature. Some routers allow you to simply log into your router and set up the logs to be emailed to you at a certain time of day, or in other routers, every time the router log file has reached a certain size or number of entries. This is a great way to “look over their shoulder” with little to no effort. Are you worried about what is going on while at work? Worry no more. However, these logs are generally only for websites visited and do not show actual content of the sites, chat transcripts, or any other software, like peer to peer file sharing and online games.

133

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

Monitoring Manually This is a reactive approach rather than a proactive one, but you can always just check the computer manually. Most of this book is based on reactive monitoring by looking at the activities that have already occurred.

Controlling Internet Use Controlling (also known as filtering) internet use is a proactive step that limits the abilities of a person to do certain things. These restrictions can involve completely eliminating all internet use (games, email, web browsing, peer to peer file sharing, etc.) or can be designed to limit the abilities of each technology. There are many software and hardware solutions with varying benefits to choose from, and are described in this book as well as the resources listed at http://www.catchmeifyouknowhow.com.

134

Chapter 8 | Monitoring & Controlling Internet Access

Controlling via Google Searches You can control a lot of “would be” questionable content by using Google’s builtin SafeSearch and restricting it to the level you wish. By making Google the default search engine for your browsers, as well as the default page to load for your child, they can have an extra-added benefit of not stumbling across bad sites. Some of the other search engines, like Yahoo!, MSN/Bing, etc., also provide content filtering to some degree.

8-1 Google Strict Filtering

135

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition

tip

If you use Google and really want to expand your monitoring of the internet use, you can log in with a Google account for your child and head to the settings and enable logging of all searches and websites visited. This will log all web activity from any computer they log into with their Google account.

8-2 Google History

136

Chapter 8 | Monitoring & Controlling Internet Access

Controlling via Software Restrictions You can control internet use with some web browsers and operating systems. Apple’s Mac OS X and Safari web browser is a prime example of this. You can 8-3 Parental Controls of lock down the Websites in Mac OS X child’s account and limit not only what applications can be opened, but also what sites can be visited, using parental controls. This isn’t always foolproof, nor 100% convenient, since it may block legitimate sites needed for homework research and other things. However, with some patience and fine tuning, you can permit certain sites to be included in the allowable lists of sites visited, even if by default that site is banned under the 137

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition parental controls. The fact that it is banned doesn’t necessarily mean it is malicious or is known to be “adult related”, it just may simply be too complex and dynamic to be listed as “Safe” and is up to the parent to decide if it is safe for their child.

8-4 Time Restrictions in Mac OS X However, if you create exclusions and allow your child to visit certain sites, be sure to investigate those sites thoroughly. A site as simple as a game site can be harmful to children who cannot understand or have not been exposed to games involving racism, drugs, gangs, prostitution, murders, etc. Many game websites at first glance may 138

Chapter 8 | Monitoring & Controlling Internet Access look like a great children’s site for online games, but after some looking, you may find many games available on these sites that are obviously not appropriate for younger children.

8-4 Time Restrictions on Windows PC

Controlling via a Remote Server You can control one or more computers’ internet use with a DNS (Domain Name Server) server. Many DNS servers and services can be free or low cost and require little computer knowledge to implement. The great thing about this feature is that it can be applied to an individual computer instead of on the router, which will affect all computers on your home or office network. 139

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition Visit our website for a complete list of known DNS servers available.

tip Need help finding an affordable and reputable tech in your area to set up a DNS Server? Visit www.catchmeifyouknowhow. com for a list of technicians available in your area.

Controlling via Installed Software Parental software applications like SafeEyes can be installed on your Apple Macintosh or Windows PC to restrict questionable sites and software. There are many applications available with many levels of restrictions. Many will even email you a log and/or alert you of the activity via other communication methods. One of the beauties of most software is that instead of specifying a specific time of day that is allowed internet access, you can use software to limit the number of minutes or hours per day that it is being used. This 140

Chapter 8 | Monitoring & Controlling Internet Access is useful if you don’t mind when a child is accessing the internet, as long as it isn’t more than a specified amount of time you have designated. The more sophisticated the software, the better fine tuning is usually available. Visit http://www. catchmeifyouknowhow.com for links and information on the wide range of parental software available.

Controlling via an Internet Router Setting up your router in your home or office might sound like a difficult task and it is for many people. However, you can hire an inexpensive “tech” that could even be your neighbor’s teenager or a family member or friend to set it up for you. Or you can get a professional tech, which is often inexpensive, as well. Many routers today come with easy to use instructions and as many automated configurations as possible. Routers are fairly inexpensive, so if you don’t have one, know that you can get them from many high speed internet providers (sometimes for free), many online stores, and even brick and mortar stores. Used ones can be as little as $10-$20 and new ones can begin 141

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition around $35-$40 and go up from there. If you would like to see what we recommend, visit www.catchmeifyouknowhow.com for more information. In any case, if you already have a router set up or are having the router set up for the first time, you will want to make sure the router you have or will be purchasing has parental controls. Some of the parental controls can be creative and well worth its configurations, with the time and/or money spent purchasing and setting it up. Here are some basic features some routers provide with their parental controls:

8-5 Time Restrictions on CISCO Router 142

Chapter 8 | Monitoring & Controlling Internet Access Day/Time Restrictions Restrict what days of the week and what times of the day a particular computer, multiple computers, or even all computers in your home or office can access the internet. Great feature for those children sneaking out of bed after you are asleep or ensuring that they are not on the computer in their room for all hours of the night. Maybe you want one or more days a week of no internet and decide to block it for the entire day of Sunday which may be your designated family day.

Website Restrictions You can set up a banned list of a handful of sites you do not want visited or, if that is not enough, you can ban all sites and only allow a certain list you have decided were acceptable. This is a great way to restrict to only a handful of sites you want to allow or ban. However, if you want to broaden this to all sites with specific content, this will be a tedious method, since there are millions of sites out there and it would simply be better

143

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition to use a parental control application to narrow it down by topic. Application Restrictions Do you want to allow your child to play online games via their Xbox, Wii, Playstation, etc., but not visit websites? Do you want to restrict to only visiting websites, but not chat programs? What if you allow all access except no Peer to Peer software, where there’s an endless supply of viruses, pornography, and illegal materials, such as pirated software, games, movies, and music? This can be done by setting up certain application types to be allowed and denied internet access on most routers.

Keyword Restrictions If you would like to fine tune your restrictions even further, some of these routers also provide keyword restrictions that basically will not load a page if the web address or search phrase contains these words. You can restrict this based on a number of words, but if you choose to use this option, be forewarned that banning some 144

Chapter 8 | Monitoring & Controlling Internet Access words can actually hinder internet use. For example, if you ban “sex” as a word that can be used, then a site like Groceries Express or Wessex (grocerieSEXpress.com or wesSEX. com) will be banned, as well.

tip For very customized or nearly bulletproof parental controls, employ two or more of the above technologies and you will have even less chance of an accidental breach to your rules of internet use.

145

146

You’re Awesome!

Thanks sooooo much for reading this book and helping me donate to charities who help at risk and victimized children. If you would like to know how much has been donated, please check http://www. catchmeifyouknowhow.com for more up to date information. I truly hope this book has brought you peace of mind and a new level of confidence in discovery of computer users. As I mentioned at the front of this book, please email me and let me know if this book has helped you in any way as I hope it will. Send me an email to [email protected]. P.S. Don’t forget to research your local and national laws regarding privacy before attempting to perform any of the tasks mentioned in this book. Even if you own the computer in question, make sure you understand the law before proceeding. A consultation with an attorney will be your best choice of action.

147

148

Conclusion

Before you spend a good deal of time doing any of the procedures and methods mentioned in this book, you may want to try the easiest step first. Ask the person for their password. Whether it be your child, spouse, employee or someone else you share your life with in some manner. They may refuse to share their password because of distrust. That distrust may be towards you or they themselves are being secretive to hide something from you. I have found that honest, open and forthcoming admissions and discussions more often than not actually build relationships that endure. It is time for our society to return to a more moral environment and it is my hope that this book will assist us in this in some way. In my opinion, we are all responsible for some malice and immorality at some point in our lives and in varying degrees. There are also habitual liars and individuals with malicious intent all around us. So accountability is paramount, in my opinion, to cleaning up this mess all of us have contributed to making. 149

Regardless of your religion, race, past transgressions or any other circumstances, I would like to close this with love, respect and hopes for your family from ours.

150

151

152

Glossary For additional glossary terms, explanations, and lists of software and hardware, see http://www.catchmeifyouknowhow.com

Anonymizers Slang for anonymity software. See “Anonymity Software”

Anonymity Software Software that uses an online service to hide or fake your location so that websites and law enforcement cannot easily track your internet activity. Can also be used for bypassing corporate firewalls.

Applications Software that is installed on a computer or device that serves a function or purpose. In this book, it refers to software that allows you to interact with people and servers, as well as find information, other software and media on the internet. 153

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition Audio Chat The process of having an audio conversation with someone else over the internet, which may or may not include video.

Audio Conferencing The same as audio chat, but with a group of people.

Auto-Complete The automatic entering or completing of information such as a web address or email address being typed in real time.

Auto-Fill Browsers can optionally store personal information such as name, address, and phone number to fill in subscription or signup forms for you to reduce repetitive tasks of re-entering the same information.

154

Glossary Auto-Fill Profile The collection of Auto-Fill information (see Auto-Fill) such as name, address, and phone number for each person using the browser.

Bookmarks A shortcut or saved link in a browser so that you may easily revisit a web page or website at a later time. Also see “Favorites”

Browser An application or program which displays websites and web pages on your computer with an internet connection.

Cache Files that are downloaded to your computer for viewing web pages and images. These files are often used to reload the same page without the need to download them again from the same site.

155

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition Chat Applications Programs or applications that allow you to communicate and interact with others over the internet through text, audio or video communications.

Chat Logs The recording of date, time, usernames and text of chat communications normally stored on your computer’s hard drive.

Chiefereal A cute nickname for the author of this book for the purpose of research experience.

Clipboard A temporary storage of information during the copy, cut and paste operations in any application or program on your computer.

156

Glossary Computer Forensics The research and analysis of historical activities performed on a computer.

Computer Logins The different screen names or usernames of each person set up to use a computer to log into it for use that is separated from other accounts on the same computer.

Cookies A stored piece of information in your web browser that helps identify your computer or your user account with various websites. It is used to grant access to websites that require authentication with a username and password as well as tracking your behavior to propose new services or products you may want based on your previous habits. It is also what Cookie Monster eats.

157

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition COPPA Acronym for “Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act” which is a US law that was passed in 1998 to protect children from being contacted or tracked for the purpose of marketing or information collection. See http://www.coppa.org

Desktop The area of your computer screen in which you navigate to find programs and files located on your computer. It is also the short name for a desktop computer or personal computer.

DNS Servers Acronym for “Domain Name Server” which is a server or computer that helps all other computers on the internet translate a numerical IP address from a human understandable name such as www.google. com to 216.239.51.99. These servers also control the ability to locate other computers and servers on the internet. An analogy

158

Glossary would be a traffic cop who also knows everyone’s name and address.

Email A letter sent to one or more people in electronic format.

Email Programs A program or application that enables you to send and receive emails.

Favorites A shortcut or saved link in a browser so that you may easily revisit a web page or website at a later time. Also see “Bookmarks”

Fetish The habitual fixation on objects or situations that cause sexual arousal. 159

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition File Sharing To send and/or receive files from one computer to another over the internet.

Forensics See “Computer Forensics”

Friend The action used to associate your social media account with another social media account to communicate with one another.

Google Profile The information stored on your Google account, which can optionally store your online activities if your web browser is used to log into your Google account.

160

Glossary Google Search Performing a search for information on the internet using http://www.google.com.

GPS Coordinate Acronym for “Global Positioning System”. The physical location you are at any given time while a device equipped with GPS technology that communicates with satellites and can be used to determine your exact location. This is used in many smartphones today.

Hackers Individuals who perform hacking. See “Hacking”

Hacking The act of gaining unauthorized access or performing unauthorized actions on another computer, server or applications/programs without authority.

161

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition Hard Drive/Hard Disk Also simply known as drive or disk. It is the component of your computer that stores all of your information for retrieval and storage for later use.

Installed Software Applications or programs that have been downloaded into your computer for your use.

Instant Messages Real time textual messages sent over the internet to other people.

Internet Router The device located in your home or business which enables you to gain internet access which is normally used with high speed internet.

162

Glossary IP Address Acronym for “Internet Protocol”. The temporary or permanent numerical numbers assigned to your computer by your internet service provider for identification purposes each time you connect to the internet.

Key Loggers A software or hardware device that records all keys pressed on the keyboard. Used for recording usernames, passwords and gathering information which may otherwise be deleted or not recorded by your computer or the user.

Keystrokes The action of pressing a key on the keyboard. Also see “Key Loggers”.

163

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition Like A feature of Facebook which enables you to show your “Friends” websites and webpages which you liked viewing and want to share with them.

Lingo Acronyms and slang for computer terms used by those savvy with computers for the purpose of speeding up conversation with reduced characters required to be typed. Can also be used to encrypt conversations from those less savvy with acronyms and slang.

Login The act of using a unique username and password to access a computer, website or an account.

164

Glossary Malware Software designed by hackers for the purpose of wreaking havoc on a computer or server. May be a virus, trojan, spyware or other malicious software.

Messengers The application or programs that enable you to use “Instant Messaging” over the internet.

Mobile Devices Laptops, tablets, smartphones and other technological devices that can be used while on the go. These devices usually have a wireless internet connection for an almost always-on communication.

Network A group of computers or internet users sharing resources or communications between one another.

165

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition P2P An acronym. See “Peer to Peer”

Peer to Peer A process in which two or more computers with an internet connection share files with one another usually through specially designed software for this purpose.

Photo Tagging The action of identifying social media users as being in the contents of a photo. Used to associate pictures with people on social media sites.

Places A Facebook feature which enables users to identify a physical location that they are visiting to be shared on their social media account.

166

Glossary Plugin A small piece of software that enables a larger piece of software to have additional features that are not available by the larger software by itself.

Preferences Settings of a computer or application/ program which enable you to define personally desired behaviors of that application or program.

Recent History A list of activities, applications and files that were recently recorded by the computer or an application/program.

Remote Server A server that exists outside of your location. Also see “Server”

167

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition Router See “Internet Router”

Screen Name See “Username”

Screenshots The process of taking a “photo” or “snapshot” of what is being displayed on a computer screen at any given moment.

Search Engine A website which catalogs virtually all other websites enabling you to search for other websites, services, media and information on the internet that you seek.

168

Glossary Server A computer which is typically not for personal use, but serves a purpose of a service or special software for other computers to access information or services on it. Virtually all websites and emails exist on servers.

Settings See “Preferences”

Social Media Specially designed interactive website that allows you to share information, communications and media with other people.

Social Network Utility See “Social Media”

169

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition Spyware Software designed by hackers for the purpose of gathering information about your internet use, personal information or other identifiable information to be used for malicious purposes.

Stealth See “Stealth Mode”

Stealth Mode The switching of a preference in your internet browser that changes it to a state of no recording or logging of information or activities.

Surfing the Web Viewing of various internet websites for entertainment or informational purposes.

170

Glossary Tagging The action of identifying a social media user as being in the contents of a photo, video or place where they are located. Used to associate events with people on social media.

Travis Morgan The guy writing this boring glossary.

Trojan Horses Software designed by hackers for the purpose of giving you a working application, utility or game while it has a second purpose of infecting your computer with spyware, viruses or other malware.

171

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition Username A unique name or abbreviation used to identify you or someone else. It is usually in conjunction with an internet service like websites, email and social media.

Video Chat The process of sharing a video of yourself with someone else over the internet which may or may not include audio.

Video Conferencing The same as video chat, but with a group of people.

Video Feeds To display a pre-recorded or live video over the internet for others to view.

172

Glossary Virus Software designed by hackers for the purpose of wreaking havoc for their own entertainment purposes and bragging rights. Also used to obtain personally identifiable information and monetary gain.

Web-Based Applications An application or program that is used on a website and typically requires no installation of any software on your computer’s hard drive.

Web-Based Chat A chat application/program that is used on a website and typically requires no installation of software on your hard drive.

173

Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition Web-Based Email An email application/program that is used on a website and typically requires no installation of software on your hard drive.

Web Browser An application or program installed on your computer’s hard drive that enables you to view websites and web pages.

Web Browsing See “Web Browser”

Web Cams A video device connected to your computer for the purpose of displaying live video of yourself over the internet, usually for video chat.

174

Glossary Web History The recording of date, time and web addresses of websites visited which is normally stored on your computer’s hard drive.

Web Pages An electronic document maintained on a web server, often with text, images and sometimes video and audio for information and entertainment purposes.

175

176

177

178