While we are developing the IPRI E-Consumer Education Center, we will be posting here a selection of articles that you may find useful. Should you have suggestions or articles for our center, please write education@internet-psychology.org.

> Attention Internet Explorer Users: You Need a New Patch!
> Online Profiling: Your Convenience or Something Totally Different?
> E-volving Selves: What Makes Role Playing Games Addictive?
> Be Careful Before clicking "yes" to Anything on the Web
> CNET Virus Center
> How to trace hackers

Attention Internet Explorer Users: You Need a New Patch!

Following an earlier announcement that six new flaws had been found in its Web browser, Microsoft urged Windows users to download a fix for Internet Explorer. The 2MB download includes all the old repairs for Internet Explorer 5.01, 5.5 and 6.0, plus patches for the latest six holes as well. Microsoft Windows XP users will automatically be prompted to install the update by the operating system.

According to CNET News, only three of the flaws are critical. "Two of them are critical because of the possibility of information disclosure," said Christopher Budd, security program manager for the Microsoft security response team. Another flaw, a cross-site scripting error that affects only Internet Explorer 6.0, could allow an attacker or a worm to run a program on the victim's computer.

To read Microsoft releases monster IE patch, of May 15, 2002 by Robert Lemos, Staff Writer, CNET News.com, click here

To Download the IE patch of May 15, 2002, click here.

Online Profiling: Your Convenience or Something Totally Different?

Want to sign up for an account to access services such as Hotmail and MSN Messenger? You need a Passport, Microsoft says. Not to be outdone, AOL requires its users to get Screen Name for Web-based access to My AOL service, e-mail, or calendar features. Both giants have been touting their online authentication systems as a great convenience to the customer. However, according to the CNET News.com review of a new Gartner study customers do not trust the Microsoft and AOL online IDs. Only 3% of customers signed up for Passport because they were curious about the service, only 2% did the same to avoid multiple IDs and passwords. Likewise, only 3% of the surveyed decided to use Passport so as not to re-enter credit cards data.

How many do you think went for their Passports because they were required to do so to use certain services? 84%. Yes, eighty four percent. This jibes well with Microsoft's intention to create "the largest and most extensive database of profiles on the planet." However, it does not look like Microsoft went out of its way to make the user aware of their ownership of Passport. "Study findings, made available to CNET News.com, also show that the majority of consumers with identity or authentication service accounts were unaware they had them ..."

To read Study: Customers wary of online IDs by Joe Wilcox
click here.

E-volving Selves: What Makes Role Playing Games Addictive?

From D&D to Baulder's Gate, role-playing games or RPG's (as they are commonly referred to) get a bad rap. Gamers gather at all hours in stores and homes where costume-clad and caped crusaders battle nightly for victory in mythical realms and parallel universes. These mythic quests, for some, become more real than reality. Add the layer of online computerized gaming, and the obsessiveness can overwhelm players.

Everquest, an online RPG with almost half-a-million followers, has been blamed for more than lost sleep and making nerds out of teenagers nationwide; Everquest has been blamed for several suicides and deaths.

Care to comment on this story? Follow this link to read the full text of a report on CNET news, and come back to IPRI's discussion board to post your comments.

Be Careful Before clicking "yes" to Anything on the Web.

May end up with pop-up add downloads "containing a virus that automatically redirects them to adult-related sites. Such downloads also have been known to install new dial-up programs replacing the existing accounts. The Federal Trade Commission recently brought a case against people who were using such tactics to install a dial-up account for expensive 1-900 numbers"
To read more of the Article "Web surfers brace for pop-up downloads" By Stefanie Olsen click here.

CNET Virus Center

Visit CNET Virus Center to stay abrest the latest virus vandals productions and anti-virus software updates.

How to trace hackers

Symantec has just updated its site to include a free listing of IP addresses. Symantec security check will geographically trace the origin of the potential hacker. Try it...