Martine Rolls: Scamming crims are after our info

Internet security has never concerned me all that much, to be honest.

I work on my computer every day, all day, and at home I simply put up with basic virus software.

I upgrade it every now and again when it's free, change my passwords from time to time, and hope for the best.

I know the basics of spam and phishing protection, and I make sure I'm on a secure page first before I enter my credit card details to make an online payment.

Messages that offer me tax refunds, inheritance payouts and lotto wins get deleted right away, and I don't click on random links in emails.

Of course I know that computer technology is ever-advancing and I'm well aware that scamming criminals could target me as easily as anyone else.

Bank accounts, credit card details, addresses, medical records, IRD numbers, and drivers' licences, they are all at risk to get stolen through a computer on the other side of the world.

I read in a story on nzherald.co.nz that according to security experts, it's impossible to know how many cyber-attacks occur in New Zealand.

Figures released by the Inland Revenue Department show that more than 5000 "phishing"attempts have been reported since the first in September 2010.

Phishing is an attempt to gain private information such as usernames, passwords and bank or credit card details by pretending to be a trustworthy source, such as a bank or social networking site.

Phishing emails may contain links to websites that are infected with malware.

Malware, which is short for malicious software, can disrupt computer operation, gather sensitive information or gain access to private information.

The IRD brand was used in 103 different phishing scams and each one promised a tax refund to attempt to obtain either online banking login details or credit card information, according to the documents released under the Official Information Act.

I received one a while ago and it looked quite genuine, but I figured it was unlikely that the IRD would get in touch with me via email to notify me of a refund, as I never requested any correspondence and the last time I checked, they still favoured using good old NZ Post.

Most of the country was attacked this week by spammers as the Yahoo Xtra email service had been hacked.

Hundreds of people, including me, received spam mail.

The security breach, which began on Saturday morning, saw emails sent to everyone on users' contact lists, asking them to click on a link directing them to an online advertisement.

Telecom revealed on Monday that they were dealing with two attacks at the same time.

One of them allowed hackers to access email contacts without the user being aware of it. That's scary stuff.

My children, who are both still in primary school, are computer savvy but also still quite young.

They are fervent users of Club Penguin, Moshi Monsters and YouTube. Basically, they click on anything they think will show them something interesting.

I try my best to monitor their usage, but have to admit that sometimes they are just too quick.

Thanks to their rigorous clicking, I have the strangest ads popping up on my screen at any given moment.

When I started my laptop up after taking them to bed the other night, I was looking at a completely different browser.

I quite like using Chrome after having a play with it and I think this will be a keeper, but how my kids managed to download it and overwrite Explorer in the time it took me to take the laundry in, I have no idea.

Now I have finally done a little research on the potential damage that hacking, spamming and phishing can cause, I think it's time to book in a good local IT guy or girl to give my machine at home a good check over.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if it's bursting with viruses, worms, trojans, spyware and adware.