Why Phishing works

A recent study published by Rachna Dhamija of Harvard University, and J. D. Tygar and Marti Hearst of UC Berkeley addressed the question of why phishing works.

For the uninformed, phishing attempts to direct unsuspecting individuals to fraudulent websites in hopes of getting them to divulge personal information such as passwords, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, drivers license numbers, or social security numbers. Typically an email informs a potential victim that they have to update their information, or that someone has attempted to make unauthorized charges on a credit card. A sense of urgency is created by the scammers telling the intended victim that an immediate response is required to prevent further fraudulent charges. A hyperlink in the email directs the victim to a bogus website set up to look like a legitimate bank or business.

Here are a couple of sample phishing scams documented by Snopes.com:
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/bestbuy.asp
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/paypal.asp

According to the published paper:

Data suggest that some phishing attacks have convinced
up to 5% of their recipients to provide sensitive information
to spoofed websites. About two million users gave information to spoofed websites resulting in direct losses of $1.2 billion for U.S. banks and card issuers in 2003.

The authors recently conducted a study involving 22 subjects who each viewed 20 websites and had to determine if the websites were authentic or fraudulent. The “best” phishing websites fooled 90% of the participants, and on average the group of subjects was fooled 40% of the time!

I have received many such emails, and the best ones really do look legit! How can you tell the difference?

My strategy is to search http://www.snopes.com/ . Type in the name of the business or bank in the search box, and watch what happens. Often times you’ll find the exact text of the email you received cited on the Snopes website along with an explanation of why it's a hoax.

A relatively new resource, the Anti-Phishing Working Group has posted a list of common phishing scams on their website at: http://www.antiphishing.org/phishing_archive.html

The Federal Trade Commission has some very helpful information on phishing and other online commerce topics at: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menu-internet.htm

The Christian Science Monitor has a very informative article about phishing here.

Take me out to the ballgame!

My absolute favorite thing (outside of family and work of course) is BASEBALL! And with opening day just a few days away, I wanted to share with you a very long list of lesson plan ideas on Education World that have something to do with the greatest sport in the world.

http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson107.shtml

NOTE: I found this error in the list (maybe there are others?): the link for the "Bat-o-matic Fantasy Baseball" should be: http://fantasy.sikids.com/baseball/index.asp

You'll find lesson suggestions for Science, Math, Language Arts, Social Studies... you get the idea.

As a former band director, I used baseball team names to help teach sixteenth note rhythms to my sixth graders. I would have students chant the team names rhythmically to a steady beat, then figure out the underlying rhythmic notation. And with the FREE Finale NotePad software, students could even use the computer to notate and listen to the rhythms.

Work smarter, not harder!

My wife recently heard this story, and after sharing it with me I had to track it down on the Internet. What would I do without Google???

Working Smarter, Not Harder? A Story told by Dale Carnegie . . . (from http://www.pdkintl.org/newskit/misc.htm)

Once upon a time, two men were chopping wood.
One man worked all day, took no breaks, and stopped for lunch only briefly.
The other man took numerous breaks throughout the day, and even enjoyed a nap after lunch.
At day's end, the fellow who had taken no breaks was upset to find that the "break-taker" had chopped far more wood than he had.
"I simply don't understand it," said the first guy. "Every time I looked up, there you were, sitting down."
The other fellow replied, "Well, I guess you didn't notice -- every time I took a break to sit down, I sharpened my ax."

"What does this have to do with technology?" you might ask. Well, it seems like 90% of the teachers I come in contact with have NO TIME to learn about and/or use technology in the classroom. Believe me, I totally understand how demanding the teaching profession is! I was one for 20 years, my wife still is, and her parents are both retired teachers. But here's my point: if these teachers would invest some time now, it would pay HUGE dividends in the future! I believe their teaching (and consequently their classroom) would be ENERGIZED, and they could accomplish more than ever before.

OK, I'll get off my soapbox now. Thanks for allowing me to vent.

Streaming video- Total eclipse of the sun, March 29, 2006

The Exploratorium has a website devoted to the solar eclipse at: http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/2006/index.html

There's lots of information about eclipses, and links to archived streaming video of the actual eclipse. You can view the webcast with narration here (Windows media format): http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/exploratorium/eclipse_2006/program_300k.wvx

If you'd prefer to see the telescope images only click here: http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/exploratorium/eclipse_2006/telescope_300k.wvx

FYI: The New York Times has a great article about the Exploratorium on their website.

Visit animusic.com to see incredible computer animation

I saw part of an amazing DVD called Animusic today-- unbelievably complex and gorgeous computer animation of musical instruments set to spectacular music! Truly state of the art! Click the Odeo player below to listen to a short excerpt that can be downloaded from the Animusic website www.animusic.com

More Dynamic Images

Three more fun sites for creating dynamic images (and no problem allowing students to access these).

www.warninglabelgenerator.com
www.streetsigngenerator.com
www.churchsigngenerator.com

Create FREE dynamic images

There are some really fun websites for teachers that will allow you to create dynamic images like these at www.hetemeel.com. (Caution: I wouldn't recommend sending your students there because others have saved some rather "adult" captions on the website)