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CNN Sunday Morning
Interview With Kim Komando
Aired October 27, 2002 - 10:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: If you have e-mail, you may be getting frustrated with the increasing number of junk e-mails cluttering up your inbox, also known as spam. Filters can help, but spammers often find ways to bypass them. So how can you avoid these unwanted e-mails?
Kim Komando is here with that and details on this week's Internet attack.
Kim, thanks for joining us this morning.
KIM KOMANDO, HOST, THE KIM KOMANDO SHOW: My pleasure.
SAN MIGUEL: You know, we've been asking for e-mails concerning this segment. I hope we didn't get spammed here at CNN, while we were doing this.
But here's one of the e-mails that we did get from one of our viewers. And it says -- It's from Kim in Toronto, Canada. "I have approximately 100 junk e-mails coming into me a day. Every time I delete them, they keep coming back. I was told by the cable company," so she's obviously, that's her provider, "open the e-mails individually, click on the message menu and use the 'block sender.' Is there a better way to get rid of all the junk e-mail in one shot? Help."
KOMANDO: Boy, 100 spam e-mails a day. That's a tremendous amount.
Basically, it's a good idea to go ahead and block the sender. But it does get tedious. And there are software programs that can help.
Like for example, you can use "I Hate Spam" or "MailWasher." And basically, it will wash the mail before you get it, so she may want to look into that.
SAN MIGUEL: Also, another one here from Heidi. She's also, "Help. We regularly receive really disgusting, unsolicited porn e- mails. I've read somewhere or heard that if you reply to their 'don't send me these,' that you are actually providing them with a valid e- mail address and that it will only get worse. So I don't do anything but delete them."
Is she going about this the right way? KOMANDO: Well, you know what? That's the truth, that when you reply to the address, number one, it might bounce back. But if it does get through, you can go to the top of another list that says, 'Wow, Heidi, this is a great address. And so we're going to sell you.'
So that's right; you never want to unsubscribe to a porno or spam e-mail.
SAN MIGUEL: Because they'll know exactly where it's coming from.
Another e-mail from Hirsch (ph), "My oldest child is 8-years-old. I want him to be able to use the Internet to play games, do his homework and communicate with his friends. But I'm worried about all the child-unfriendly sites and inappropriate spam e-mails he's already getting. I basically have to read his e-mail before he does, just in case there is something inappropriate. What are your recommendations for parents trying to protect their children, yet allow them to make use of this wonderful tool?"
What a great question.
KOMANDO: You know what? And this is a big problem for parents. And that's why the new versions of AOL version 8 and MSN version 8 are perfect for parents that have kids, say, between the ages of 7 and 17, that want to control it. Because they have all of these built-in parental controls, including ways to eliminate spam.
SAN MIGUEL: Is there a new kind of spam out there that looks like something else? That looks like it may be somebody sending you a greeting card or something? And then it sends you to a porn site or something?
KOMANDO: Yes. Well, here's what happens, is that so many people are used to getting greeting cards online, from American Greetings or Hallmark. And what the spammers have created is a new type of spam. So you get a message that says, "Wow, you've got an electric greeting card" and then it looks real because it's going to send you to a site called FriendGreetings.com.
But when you click that link, what happens, it's going to install almost like a virus inside your computer and then send that to everybody in your Outlook address book. And then you're going to get put on the list to get all these pop-up porno e-mails. And so you have to be sure that when you click on a link, you really read the URL or the licensing agreement, and you know where it came from.
SAN MIGUEL: How sneaky is that? I'm telling you.
KOMANDO: It's terrible.
SAN MIGUEL: Greg in North Carolina: "How do you avoid random instant messages on AOL," the parent company of this network, "from unknown recipients that are nothing but porn ads and messages to porn links? I must get at least 15 every time I sign online. I've tried blocking each screen name as they go, but that's a pain in the butt. HELP, please."
KOMANDO: You know it is. It is a pain, and especially when it starts hitting our children. It's inappropriate.
And so that's why on AOL, again, you want to go into the parental controls. And if you haven't upgraded, I strongly encourage you to do that, because version 8 has tremendous tools available for parents.
SAN MIGUEL: OK. And that's something that they do need to know about.
Let me change topics here for just a second. This Internet attack that happened last Monday, involving the root servers on the Internet. These are like the traffic cops, if you will, the way stations that manage all of the traffic on the Internet.
Nine of the 13 of these supposedly were attacked with denial of service attacks, bombarded with information from a million computers. You know, we've heard a lot of talk about this. This was the most serious attack yet on the Internet. How serious was it?
KOMANDO: Well, it was serious from the point that this could be a test. Our nation is at war. And so the cyber terrorists could be trying to figure out a way to do a cyber attack, in conjunction with a physical attack.
But the Internet, by nature, is call-distributed. So that means it's going to be really difficult for one attack to bring down the entire Internet.
SAN MIGUEL: The idea here is that it's also because it was a distributed denial of service attack, it's going to be hard to find exactly who did this. Because sometimes -- you know, my computer could have been used in that attack. Could have been taken over and used as a zombie computer, from what I understand.
KOMANDO: Well, you can do that. Exactly. And that's what some viruses and some programs, and that's why it's important that you always use your anti-virus software. Keep it updated. And also get a firewall and be sure you have that installed, too.
SAN MIGUEL: OK. I believe your web site is Komando.com. K-O-M- A-N-D-O?
KOMANDO: Yes.
SAN MIGUEL: All right. Kim Komando, talk show host, thanks so much for joining us and for the insight there.
KOMANDO: You got it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 27, 2002 - 10:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: If you have e-mail, you may be getting frustrated with the increasing number of junk e-mails cluttering up your inbox, also known as spam. Filters can help, but spammers often find ways to bypass them. So how can you avoid these unwanted e-mails?
Kim Komando is here with that and details on this week's Internet attack.
Kim, thanks for joining us this morning.
KIM KOMANDO, HOST, THE KIM KOMANDO SHOW: My pleasure.
SAN MIGUEL: You know, we've been asking for e-mails concerning this segment. I hope we didn't get spammed here at CNN, while we were doing this.
But here's one of the e-mails that we did get from one of our viewers. And it says -- It's from Kim in Toronto, Canada. "I have approximately 100 junk e-mails coming into me a day. Every time I delete them, they keep coming back. I was told by the cable company," so she's obviously, that's her provider, "open the e-mails individually, click on the message menu and use the 'block sender.' Is there a better way to get rid of all the junk e-mail in one shot? Help."
KOMANDO: Boy, 100 spam e-mails a day. That's a tremendous amount.
Basically, it's a good idea to go ahead and block the sender. But it does get tedious. And there are software programs that can help.
Like for example, you can use "I Hate Spam" or "MailWasher." And basically, it will wash the mail before you get it, so she may want to look into that.
SAN MIGUEL: Also, another one here from Heidi. She's also, "Help. We regularly receive really disgusting, unsolicited porn e- mails. I've read somewhere or heard that if you reply to their 'don't send me these,' that you are actually providing them with a valid e- mail address and that it will only get worse. So I don't do anything but delete them."
Is she going about this the right way? KOMANDO: Well, you know what? That's the truth, that when you reply to the address, number one, it might bounce back. But if it does get through, you can go to the top of another list that says, 'Wow, Heidi, this is a great address. And so we're going to sell you.'
So that's right; you never want to unsubscribe to a porno or spam e-mail.
SAN MIGUEL: Because they'll know exactly where it's coming from.
Another e-mail from Hirsch (ph), "My oldest child is 8-years-old. I want him to be able to use the Internet to play games, do his homework and communicate with his friends. But I'm worried about all the child-unfriendly sites and inappropriate spam e-mails he's already getting. I basically have to read his e-mail before he does, just in case there is something inappropriate. What are your recommendations for parents trying to protect their children, yet allow them to make use of this wonderful tool?"
What a great question.
KOMANDO: You know what? And this is a big problem for parents. And that's why the new versions of AOL version 8 and MSN version 8 are perfect for parents that have kids, say, between the ages of 7 and 17, that want to control it. Because they have all of these built-in parental controls, including ways to eliminate spam.
SAN MIGUEL: Is there a new kind of spam out there that looks like something else? That looks like it may be somebody sending you a greeting card or something? And then it sends you to a porn site or something?
KOMANDO: Yes. Well, here's what happens, is that so many people are used to getting greeting cards online, from American Greetings or Hallmark. And what the spammers have created is a new type of spam. So you get a message that says, "Wow, you've got an electric greeting card" and then it looks real because it's going to send you to a site called FriendGreetings.com.
But when you click that link, what happens, it's going to install almost like a virus inside your computer and then send that to everybody in your Outlook address book. And then you're going to get put on the list to get all these pop-up porno e-mails. And so you have to be sure that when you click on a link, you really read the URL or the licensing agreement, and you know where it came from.
SAN MIGUEL: How sneaky is that? I'm telling you.
KOMANDO: It's terrible.
SAN MIGUEL: Greg in North Carolina: "How do you avoid random instant messages on AOL," the parent company of this network, "from unknown recipients that are nothing but porn ads and messages to porn links? I must get at least 15 every time I sign online. I've tried blocking each screen name as they go, but that's a pain in the butt. HELP, please."
KOMANDO: You know it is. It is a pain, and especially when it starts hitting our children. It's inappropriate.
And so that's why on AOL, again, you want to go into the parental controls. And if you haven't upgraded, I strongly encourage you to do that, because version 8 has tremendous tools available for parents.
SAN MIGUEL: OK. And that's something that they do need to know about.
Let me change topics here for just a second. This Internet attack that happened last Monday, involving the root servers on the Internet. These are like the traffic cops, if you will, the way stations that manage all of the traffic on the Internet.
Nine of the 13 of these supposedly were attacked with denial of service attacks, bombarded with information from a million computers. You know, we've heard a lot of talk about this. This was the most serious attack yet on the Internet. How serious was it?
KOMANDO: Well, it was serious from the point that this could be a test. Our nation is at war. And so the cyber terrorists could be trying to figure out a way to do a cyber attack, in conjunction with a physical attack.
But the Internet, by nature, is call-distributed. So that means it's going to be really difficult for one attack to bring down the entire Internet.
SAN MIGUEL: The idea here is that it's also because it was a distributed denial of service attack, it's going to be hard to find exactly who did this. Because sometimes -- you know, my computer could have been used in that attack. Could have been taken over and used as a zombie computer, from what I understand.
KOMANDO: Well, you can do that. Exactly. And that's what some viruses and some programs, and that's why it's important that you always use your anti-virus software. Keep it updated. And also get a firewall and be sure you have that installed, too.
SAN MIGUEL: OK. I believe your web site is Komando.com. K-O-M- A-N-D-O?
KOMANDO: Yes.
SAN MIGUEL: All right. Kim Komando, talk show host, thanks so much for joining us and for the insight there.
KOMANDO: You got it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
