NEW WORDS FOR THE NETIZENS...

A Netizen is a person who spends a lot of time on the Internet. The term Netizen is a blend of two other familiar words: Internet and citizen. A comparatively young word, Netizen came into English in the 1990s. Netizens spend the most of their time in social networking (on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc) and other forms of online communication.

Netizens are also referred to as cyber citizens. Both Netizen and cyber citizen were coined by Michael Hauben (1973-2001), an American computer specialist and author who was a pioneer in identifying the collaborative nature of the Internet and its effects on the global community.

And now, if you are reading this blog, probably you are a digital native. What does it mean? A digital native is a person born or brought up during the age of digital technology and so familiar with computers and the Internet from an early age. The Digital Age began in the late 1960s.

Then what word can best describe the people who were born before the Digital Age, yet adapted to the activities (Internet, social networking and so on) of the digital natives? Well, they are digital immigrants! Interesting, isn't it?

Dictionary attack! Time to change your PASSWORD!

Dictionary attack refers to a particular method of breaking into a password-protected computer or server. This is the easiest and most favourite method of attack used by hackers all over the world to steal the passwords. As the very name ‘dictionary attack’ suggests, dictionary is the weapon with which the hacker attacks your password-protected system or server. It is also used for stealing the passwords of your email ID or social networking site accounts.

Now, you might think how a dictionary can be used as a weapon to steal a password. It is an undeniable fact that the majority of the individuals and organizations with an email ID uses a dictionary word as their passwords; perhaps you too! The reason is that dictionary words are precise and easy to remember. In simple terms, dictionary attack is the method of trying every word in a dictionary as a possible password of your computer, server, email ID etc. Years ago this kind of attack was very boring and time consuming for the attackers as they had to guess the password by manually typing each dictionary word one by one. But now the situation has changed; expert hackers have developed computer programs which can automatically generate and try all the dictionary words within the blink of an eye.

Therefore, it is high time that you changed your easy-to-remember password which is found in a dictionary especially an English dictionary. You can, however, bypass the dictionary attack by keeping an alpha-numeric password i.e. a combination of words and numbers along with a few symbols which are difficult to guess. If you want to be highly immune to such attacks, try to personalize your password by using a long meaningless jumble of letters and numerals which cannot be found in any dictionary in the world.

An extra piece of advice: never use the names or nicknames of your dear and near ones as your password, nor the date of birth, telephone number, vehicle number or reversed spelling of your own name because, besides hackers, even those who are closer to you might guess your password simply out of curiosity to peep into your valuable and highly confidential personal data!