All About Computer Virus

Article Navigation

Click Here for more articles

The Top Twelve Threats No Computer User Should Ignore by Kai Chandler

by: Kai Chandler

The Top Twelve Threats No Computer User Should Ignore

The internet is undoubtedly a fantastic resource for
families and offers a rich vein of educational content.
However, there are potential dangers - welcome to the
seedy world of viruses, spam, trojans, pornography, spyware
and other nasties.

Here are the Top Twelve Threats No Computer User Should
Ignore:

1. Viruses - A computer program that copies itself. They
often disrupt your computer system or damage your data.
Viruses are usually received by email attachments so be
careful opening anything from a dubious source. They can
affect anyone, for example, the destructive Mydoom worm
affected one out of three small and mid-sized businesses.

2. Spyware - Sends information about you and your computer
to somebody else. Spyware may send the addresses of sites
you have visited or worse still, transmit personal
information. With today's concerns about identify theft
this is a real worry. For example, CoolWebSearch may hijack
web searches, home page, and other Internet Explorer
settings. Spyware is normally received as part of shareware
or freeware downloaded from the web.

3. IP Spoofing - A technique to gain unauthorized access
to computers, whereby the intruder sends messages to a
computer with an address indicating that the message is
coming from a trusted host.

4. Trojans - An apparently legitimate computer program
that is really intended to disrupt and damage computer
activity by sending information, perhaps even passwords
onto a third party without you knowing. As an example,
recent emails entitled "Osama Bin Laden Captured" attempted
to download the "Trj/Small.B." Trojan if the embedded URL
was clicked. This trojan attempts to hijack the PC.

5. Spam - Unsolicited mail often promoting products of a
dubious financial or sexual nature. Don't leave your email
address on websites and internet bulletin boards as they
are harvested by spammers.

6. Adware - puts advertisements on your screen. These take
many forms including popups, popunders and advertisements
that appear later, even if your browser is closed. Some are
sent using the Windows Messenger service which allows a
spammer to direct an advertisement straight to your
computer by sequentially sending messages to IP addresses.
Always irritating, they are also often of a pornographic
nature.

7. Diallers - for those of us still with dial up modems,
dialler programs redirect calls to a very expensive number.
You won't know until you get the bill.

8. Hijackers - Hijackers take control of your web browser
and may reset your home page, search bar and search pages.
They can redirect you to undesirable sites or stop you
going to particular sites.

9. Hackers - With so much personal data available online
to anyone with a password you must be sure your password is
secure. If you are using your mother's maiden name, your
cat's name or your birthday then your password is at risk.
Here are two tips for making a secure password. Method One -
pick two random unrelated three letter words and two
digits. Mix them up and what do you have? A secure password
such as "red19cat" or "hotpin73". Method Two - pick a short
sequence of words such as Now Is The Winter Of Our
Discontent Made Glorious' and you have a password of
"nitwoodmg". You could even change the I's and O's to
digits.

10. Phishing - Emails purporting to come from reliable
sources such as Paypal, Ebay or your bank. Often wanting
you to verify your account details, they can look very
realistic but are generally scams to harvest usernames and
passwords. Always open a new browser winder and type the
address there, rather than clicking on the link provided.

11. Hoaxes - Chain letters, scams, false alarms. At best
they take up time and bandwidth but at worst vulnerable can
be victims of fraud. Pass it on!

12. Stranger-danger - For those of us with children - do
you know what they actually do when they are online? Are
they working on homework tasks, downloading illegal music
or pornography? Or are they chatting to strangers in chat
rooms? You should consider blocking access to undesirable
sites and logging their activity with a surveillance tool.
Oh, and don't forget that where children are concerned,
computers should always be kept in a family room and never
in their bedroom.

Three Step Action Plan

There are three essential steps that should be taken to
ensure your PC is kept threat-free.

Firstly, be sensible when opening attachments or following
email instructions from apparently reputable sites.

Secondly, make sure you are using the latest service pack
of Windows as Microsoft is continually closing loopholes to
tighten up security.

Finally, there's a range of low cost tools such as
firewalls, antivirus, spam blockers and spyware killers
available. Like everything else they vary in quality and
you tend to get what you pay for so always do your research
first and perhaps try a free trial before getting your
credit card out.

http://www.surfcontrols.com specializes in providing
reviews and recommendations of top-rated tools to help
protect your online experience. There's a quick reference
list to dozens of top sites promoting different aspects of
safe surfing packed with useful information and there's
also a great set of top tips for safe surfing.

Copyright Kai Chandler (#12t5109)

About the author:
Kai Chandler is a project manager and journalist
particularly interested in tools and techniques to protect
his family and computer against spam, porn, viruses and
malware. As a father of two he is keen to ensure that
his children enjoy a safe surfing surfing experience. His
reviews of the very best parental internet filters,
anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-spyware and surveillance tools
are at It's essential reading
for any parent and computer owner.

Circulated by Article Emporium

Read Articles:

5 Mac Security Tips You Can�t Live Without

Looking after your Computer

Computer Hardware Preventive Maintenance Softwa...

How to reduce Computer problems?

Internet Scams 101 -- Attacking You Through You...

Anti Spam at the Enterprise Level

The Difference Between Spyware and Viruses

How to protect yourself from online attack

Are You A Spam Zombie?

Does it worth to backup emails from clients lik...

Registry Cleaner: Protection for Your PC

Reclaim Your PC from the Internet Spies

The Quickest Way I Know To Secure Your PC-Safet...

5 Critical Steps to Protecting Your Computer on...

The Opera alternative

How to Find What You Want with Google

How to Increase Your Computer Speed Fast

Malware: Computing's Dirty Dozen

Is "Spyware" Watching You?

5 Steps to Remove Spyware for Free

Network Security 101

Crouching Trojan, Hidden Malware

Spyware - Is Your Computer Safe?

Protect Your System From the Internet Evils

Could Your Email Compromise Your Safety?

How to Prevent Online Identity Theft

Does Microsoft Show Hackers How To Attack?

The Top Twelve Threats No Computer User Should ...

COMPUTER COURTESY

Hackers And Hoaxes

More Article Pages 1 - 2 - 3

Top 10 Ways To Protect Yourself From Computer Viruses
by: Jim Faller

As more and more people are becoming comfortable using their computers at school, home or in the office it�s only a matter of time before they encounter a computer virus. Here are our top 10 steps to protect you from computer viruses.

Use a high quality anti-virus program. There are many different anti-virus computers programs on the market some of them are better than others. Look to reputable computer magazines or websites for ratings to help you find the one that matches your needs.

Always use your anti-virus software. Make sure your anti-virus software is always turned on and scanning, incoming and outgoing email messages, and any software programs you run.

Keep your antivirus programs up to date. Most programs come with a yearly subscription make sure you take advantage of the updates. More advanced programs allow you to schedule updates or full system scans for �off hours� like 2AM when you aren�t likely to be using your computer.

Keep your computer up to date. From time to time operating systems fall victim to security holes or issue updates. Make sure you check periodically to make sure you are running stable up to date versions of your software.

Backup your data regularly. Most windows computer users keep their documents in the �My documents� folder. This makes it easy to back up all of your important documents. Make weekly or monthly copies to CD or USB drives.

If you use floppy disks or USB drives on public computers like your school computer lab, Kinko�s, or even digital photo printing store make sure you scan them for viruses. Public computers are notorious for not being up to date and properly protected.

Be wary of email attachments. Treat any email attachment as potentially dangerous. Never open attachments from people you weren�t expecting. Also be careful of attachments from people you know but weren�t expecting. Many computer viruses replicate themselves by reading the contacts from an infected computer.

Use text email if possible. While HTML email is prettier and allows you more control over formatting it also can carry computer viruses. If you use text based email the only way to get a virus is by opening an attachment.

Use downloaded freeware and shareware files or software with caution. Try to download them from popular reputable sources that scan the programs before they are uploaded. To make sure you are safe scan the program before you install it on your computer.

Be wary of links in IM or instant messaging software. Don�t accept invitations from people you don�t know and never click a link from someone you don�t trust, they can easily redirect you to another website that will try to install a virus on your computer system.

This Static Spot is open for sponsor

This Static Spot is open for sponsor