(This is the Online column, written for The Southland Times)
With all the reports of worms, hackers and internet banking fraud lately, the average punter could be forgiven for thinking the net is a hotbed of nasties.
However, before we get into that how about something to make you smile? New Jersey amateur videographer Gary Brolsma made a clip of himself chair dancing to a rather catchy Romanian pop song.
Mr Brolsma then followed that up by putting the footage of him performing the self-titled Numa Numa Dance on the net. The worldwide fame that has ensued has left Mr Brolsma feeling somewhat embarrassed but the clip’s a classic. Point your browser here and I dare you not to smile.
Right, back to the not-so-pleasant stuff. All the talk of net banking fraud has many users feeling a bit rattled and the Bank of New Zealand has been quick to try to smooth things over, saying the risk is tiny.
In fact, the bank also says you have more chance of being hit by a car than hit by net banking fraud despite having to block about 1000 of its customers from online banking this week because of spyware problems related to another company.
Compared with the number of people banking online, I’m sure the number being ripped off is tiny — for now. However, Kiwis are huge fans of net banking and anything that can be done to reduce the risk should be done.
One of the suggested solutions is a two-step password, where a temporary password is sent via Txt and valid for that banking session only.