Source :
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,108162,00.html?BE CAREFUL about what your computer does without your knowledge.
Mr Lee holds up two of his broadband Internet bills from Singnet. --DAVID TAN
If you let it become infected with malicious software, it can cost you dearly.
Take the case of Mr Simon Lee, who found himself hit with an Internet broadband bill that came up to nearly $3,000 when his computer became a hub for sending thousands of unwanted e-mails.
Mr Lee, 55, the owner of a debt collection company, claimed that he would go online for less than an hour a day to check e-mails and do online searches for company records.
But every time he switched it on, it would silently send out infected e-mails too.
In June 2004 when he received the $3,000 bill, he had exceeded the quota on his SingNet business plan by more than 11 gigabytes (GB). This is equivalent to downloading about three two-hour movies or 2,200 MP3 songs.
Mr Lee claims he does not download music or movies.
VOLUME-BASED PLAN
He claimed that because of his low usage, he had signed up for a volume-based plan in 2002 instead of one with unlimited usage.
For $100 a month, he could send and receive 2GB of data. He said he had never exceeded that amount until June 2004. For his plan, SingNet charges an additional $2.95 for every 10 megabytes that he exceeds.
'I really got a shock of my life. Our usage did not increase, so I did not understand how it was possible to chalk up that amount.'
Immediately, he switched off his modem, unplugged the cable and contacted SingTel (SingNet's parent company) in writing on 30 Jul 2004 for the discrepancy in his bill.
He has an administrative assistant who uses the broadband connection. But Mr Lee claimed their total usage hardly exceeded an hour a day.
Mr Lee claimed his assistant could not have surfed the Internet for any other purposes as he was not very IT-savvy either.
Mr Lee showed us an e-mail sent to him by the SingNet NetWork Security Team dated 30 Jul 2004. It stated that his SingNet account was sending out e-mails infected with viruses. (See report on facing page.)
The e-mail said that 'further reports of virus e-mails from your SingNet account may result in the suspension of the account without notice'.
But Mr Lee reasoned: 'They were threatening to suspend my account. But there was nothing in the e-mail to tell me that my usage volume would go up due to the e-mails that were being sent out because of the worms.
'How am I supposed to know that? I don't even know what viruses are and how you get them on your computer.'
Mr Lee claimed that for the next two months, he did not use the account to access the Internet.
After two months, he paid $250 to engage IT professionals to check his computer. That was the only time he used the connection, he claimed.
The result? They found about 180 files infected with worms. Mr Lee does not know how they ended up in his computer.
Worms are self-replicating programs that can spread from one system to another unaided. For example, a worm can send a copy of itself to everyone on your address book without the user having to execute any commands.
The IT professionals re-formatted his hard disk and installed anti-virus software and firewalls. Mr Lee spent less than $50 on them as the IT people had downloaded some of them for free.
Before that, he claimed his computer did not have such programs.
Mr Lee showed The New Paper several of his bills for 2003. In those bills, the usage did not exceed the limit and he claimed he always paid up.
That was, until the viruses hit.
For the next few months, he kept getting reminders from SingTel for his outstanding amount. But he has refused to settle the bills.
'I told them I did not send out those e-mails. Why should I pay for the excess charges?' he said.
In August 2004, SingTel warned him that they would cut off his connection.
He said he told them to go ahead. But he claimed that the account was not terminated.
He said: 'They said it was because I have outstanding bills. I really don't understand the rationale. If I have outstanding bills, shouldn't they be terminating the account?'
When his office shifted from the 12th floor to the fourth in Textile Centre last December, he claimed SingTel even transferred all his nine phone lines.
But Mr Lee still remained adamant about not paying the Internet charges. SingTel finally terminated all his existing services last month.
His phone lines were terminated as well, even though he claimed he has paid these bills.
His last cumulative bill for his Internet connection, dated June last year, came up to more than $7,200. He still hasn't paid up.
In a letter from SingNet dated 13 May this year, Mr Lee was informed that 'based on goodwill', SingNet will waive 30 per cent of the charges.
The letter also stated that 'all user login sessions as authenticated by SingNet on your userid and password are valid volume usage' and that 'there are no discrepancies in the bill'.
He was unhappy that SingTel took two years to terminate his broadband connection even though he claimed he had told them to terminate the service as soon as he got the huge bill.
When contacted, a SingTel spokesman did not explain why it took two years to disconnect the account.
She said: 'We have explained to our customer that our investigations confirmed that the Internet connections originated from the company's registered telephone line.'
She added that 'discussions about the outstanding charges are still on-going with our customer'.
SingNet's broadband connections taps on the telephone network.
Since January this year, Mr Lee has been using a StarHub unlimited access plan for $141 a month.
'I won't dare to sign up for volume-based plans again,' he said.
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Defend PC with firewall, anti-virus software
COMPUTERS without firewalls or anti-virus software are very vulnerable, said Mr Jimmy Ng, who works for a local IT security company.
'There are many loopholes in the network, and worms and viruses can infiltrate the system within minutes,' he said.
Computers can be infected by programs known as viruses, worms and trojan horses.
These programs take up memory space, cause the system to crash and can even re-format your hard disk, thus wiping out your files.
A virus is a computer program that attaches itself to a file and is spread when the file is transferred from one system to another. It leaves infections as it travels.
A worm is a self-replicating program. But unlike a virus, it can spread from one system to another unaided.
A trojan horse is a program which does not self-replicate and can only cause damage when it is installed or run on the computer.
Trojans are also known to create a back door to your computer, allowing hackers to gain confidential information like bank details.
All three can spread to other computers when the infected computer is switched on and connected to the Internet.
In Mr Lee's case, his system was infected by worms.
'Because they self-replicate and travel around, your infected computer can actually send out huge volumes of data without you knowing,' said Mr Ng.
'As long as you are connected to the Internet, all it takes is a few minutes for the worms to spread.'
Even if your computer is not connected to the Internet, viruses, worms and trojans can also spread through external devices.
'If I save an infected file onto a disk and use the disk on another computer, that computer can be infected too,' explained Mr Ng.
Anti-virus software can detect, clean and quarantine viruses, worms and trojan horses.
Firewalls can prevent unauthorised use and access to your system.
'A firewall cannot stop the virus problems, but will complement the security features of your computer,' said Mr Ng.
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