HitVirus : Blog about computer virus and security

Spyware - Different Types

2009-08-07T07:00:00.002-07:00

Spyware is more dangerous than a virus. It can steal personal data and track your internet habits. It might be concealed in a free screensaver or other software that you download. Computer safety expert Leif Wheeler advises us to be aware of any offer of free software. Many times, spyware is hidden in legitimate software. Be cautious of deals offered by well-known companies. Crooks and thieves often create web sites that resemble Adobe, Google or Microsoft, says Wheeler. They instruct you to download upgrades which secretly contain spyware. Common sense should tell you to download things like screensavers or wallpaper only from a company's registered web site. Have a safety talk with anyone who uses your computer. Run an anti-spyware application. The schemes for stealing are the same, notes Wheeler. What's changed is the technology. The rest of us have to try to stay one step ahead.

There is a type of spyware that the New York Times has labeled as "Stealware" and what spyware researcher Ben Edelman refers to as "Click Fraud", also known as "Affiliate Fraud". The most notable vendors of this kind of spyware are 180 Solutions and WhenU. This spyware redirects the payment of the rightful affiliate's commission to the account of the spyware vendor.

An instance of spyware rarely "exists" alone. An afflicted computer can rapidly become corrupted with a lot of spyware devices. Frequently, users will notice erratic behavior and a decline of the system's operation. Spyware contamination can cause considerable inappropriate CPU activity, network traffic, disk usage and the slowing-down of the legitimate uses of these resources. Stability issues, system crashes and application crashes are also very common. Spyware which disrupts the networking software normally causes problems connecting to the Internet.

A Trojan horse, by definition, sneaks in a danger-some program cloaked as something acceptable. Many spywares get spread in this way. The representative of the spyware presents the program as a suitable utility, for example, as useful software or as a web-accelerator. Users then install the software not suspecting that it could do harm to their computer. A classic case of this is Bonze Buddy, a spyware application designed to trick children, claims that: "He will explore the Internet with you as your very own friend and sidekick! He can talk, walk, joke, browse, search, e-mail, and download like no other friend you've ever had! He even has the ability to compare prices on the products you love and help you save money! Best of all, he's FREE!"

Often times, spyware programs are revealed by visibly presenting advertisements. Some spyware simply displays pop-up ads on a pre-determined schedule. For example, a pop-up may appear when the user opens a new browser window. Yet other types display ads when the user visits a specific type of site. Spyware developers use this as a selling point when pitching their wares to advertisers who want to buy ad placement in pop-ups shown when the user lands on a particular site. It is also one of the reasons why spyware programs collect and store information on user behavior.

Leif Wheeler began marketing on the internet in 1992 and he retired in 2004. Leif's internet-time is now spent researching and writing articles that improve everyone's internet experience. Benefit from Leif's vast experience at http://www.leifwheeler.com.

[tags]spyware, adware, viruses, adware[/tags]

Computer Viruses - 4 Easy Ways To Keep Your Computer Free Of Computer Infections

2009-08-07T07:00:00.001-07:00

Computer viruses normally infect a computer via email. The following are some suggestions to make your computing safer.

The safest way to avoid a computer virus is not to open an attached email file - if you do not know what it is, who sent it to you, or you were not expecting it (even if it is from somebody that you know.) This is especially true if the file has any of the following extensions: .pif, .vbs, .scr, .exe, since thsee files are programs that will run on your computer when opened.
Don't use the preview pane in Outlook. Some viruses can infect a computer just from the preview pane.
When in doubt, contact the sender. Write back to them and ask what is the attachment. If the attachment is valid, they will tell you what it is and what it does.
Delete a suspected message, by holding down the SHIFT key and hit DELETE. This will permanently delete the message. Just hitting the DELETE key (without the SHIFT key) does not remove the message, but simply moves the message to a deleted folder that can be opened.

However, if you just want to skip all the details and stop messing around with preventing computer viruses, just do what I did; download the a trial of anti virus software from a high quality software vendor, run the program and be done with it.

See the download link below for the automatic PC Tools AntiVirus software. I personally use this software to skip all the hazzles with computer viruses.

Since 1999, Nils Rognerud and ComputerRecover.com, has helped millions of users with free downloads of software utilities to repair, recover and optimize personal computers. Click here to see his recommendation for the best anti-virus software to remove computer infections. ComputerRecover.com

[tags]norton, symantics, free virus scan, virus, anti-virus, pixela, symantec[/tags]

Remove Nyxem Virus

2009-07-07T07:00:00.001-07:00

Nyxem has been programmed to delete Power Point, Word, Excel and Adobe PDF files starting on the 3rd of February and the 3rd of every month thereafter, Besides destroying those types of files, the worm also attempts to disable anti-virus software so that it stops updating and it can also disable the mouse and keyboard of infected PCs. It has also been reported that some Internet users have already lost important files after becoming infected by the Nyxem worm mainly because the clock time on their computer was wrong.

Many antivirus manufacturers have already released patches for Nyxem, but it is estimated that thousands of computers are still infected. Most of these infected PCs are believed to be located in India, Turkey and Peru but many other computer systems worldwide could be hit soon as the Nyxem virus will mail copies of itself to contacts in a user's address book.

To prevent getting infected by the Nyxem worm and the loss of critical data files you should not open attachments or click on Web links within these e-mails, especially if these e-mails have a porn-related subject line. You should also backup any important files that you want to preserve. It is also recommended to scan your computer for viruses.

About the Author: Edward is the owner of http://www.thespywareterminator.com where you can download the highest rated spyware remover for 2005. This superior software removes many unwanted Internet parasites such as viruses, trojans, popups, adware and spyware. It has been downloaded over 35 million times by people in over 100 countries. It really works!

[tags]nyxem,nyxem.e,remove nyxem[/tags]

How Does A Virus Spread

2009-06-07T07:00:00.003-07:00

"I love your site and your Tourbus Newsletter! I would like to know how a virus propagates over a network? If you get a virus on one computer - do other users on the network have to do anything to get infected? Is there a good way to protect against this?"

Great question! There are several ways for a virus to spread from one computer to another. Let's look at those, and ways to prevent the propagation of pestiferous programs.

Careful With That Paperclip...

The most common is via an email attachment. I'm not aware of any current exposures in popular email software that allow a virus to spread simply by opening or reading an email.

But plenty of people are still willing to open anything that pops into their inbox. Opening an attachment without verifying its contents with the sender is asking for trouble. Never run a program that you save to disk from an email attachment without anti-virus protection in place. The same goes for Word documents, which can have viruses in embedded macros.

Dubious Downloads

Another common way for a virus or spyware to spread is by piggybacking on other software that you download. If you just can't resist the latest toolbar, file-sharing gizmo, coupon dispenser or email enhancer, you may be at risk. Often these and other downloads come with malware, free of charge. Running a good anti-spyware program will reduce your risk.

Just Click NO!

Ever been to a website and gotten one of those "Click here to install and run {Whatever}" popups? Just click NO! Unless you know for sure that you need to press OK (such as when downloading security updates from Microsoft) then treat these popups as threats to your computer.

Sometimes It's NOT Nice to Share

If you are on a network, and you allow your hard drive to be shared (enabling other network users to read and write your files) then you are WIDE OPEN to the stupidity of the other users on the network. If any one of them got a virus, there's nothing to prevent it from copying itself to your computer via the network share. Unless you absolutely have to share your hard disk, don't. You can check to see if you have enabled sharing by right clicking on the drive icon in My Computer, then select Sharing.

The SneakerNet Menace

And don't forget portable media, such as floppies, CDROMs, and those nifty little flash drives that connect to a USB port. Assume that any file you copy from external media could be infected. Keeping your anti-virus protection enabled and updated should protect you here.

BOB RANKIN... is a tech writer and computer programmer who enjoys exploring the Internet and sharing the fruit of his experience with others. His work has appeared in ComputerWorld, NetGuide, and NY Newsday. Bob is publisher of the Internet TOURBUS newsletter, author of several computer books, and creator of the http://LowfatLinux.com website. Visit Bob Rankin's website for more helpful articles and free tech support.

[tags]virus,anti virus software,virus control,trojan worms,trojan virus,spyware,removing spyware,tech tips[/tags]

Computer Viruses The Nasty Truth

2009-06-07T07:00:00.001-07:00

The term, "virus", in computer technology, refers to a self replicating application that spreads by making copies of itself by inserting into other programs, other executables or documents, and when executed begins to perform harmful actions on the system. All computer viruses are deliberately created, not always malicious and some of them may be benign and simply annoying.

Non-Memory Resident and Memory Resident Viruses:

Non-Memory resident viruses, when they are executed, immediately look for other hosts that can be infected. When they infect these targets, they transfer control to the application program they infected. A non-resident virus has a finder module and a replication module. The finder module, once it finds a new file to infect, calls upon the replication module to infect that file.

Memory-Resident virus stays in the memory and do not look for hosts to infect when they are executed. It stays active in the background after its host program is terminated, and infects files as soon as they are opened or accessed by other programs or the operating system. It does have the replication module like the non-memory resident virus, but without the finder module.

Types of Computer Viruses:

File Viruses: These types of viruses are the most common, and mostly infect open files and program libraries on an operating system. The virus functions by inserting itself into a host file, modifies it in such a way that the virus is executed when the file is opened. They are also known as left viruses. Today, there are known viruses infecting all kinds of executables of standard DOS: batch command files (BAT), loadable drivers (SYS, including special purpose files IO.SYS and MS- DOS.SYS) and binary executables (EXE, COM). There are also viruses targeting executables of other operating systems - Windows 3.x, Windows95/NT, OS/2, Macintosh, Unix, including the VxD drivers of Windows 3.x and Windows95.

Macro viruses: Macros are used in most word processing programs such as Microsoft Office in order to automate or simplify recurring tasks in documents. Macro viruses are those viruses that use the application's own macro programming language to distribute themselves, in which an unwanted sequence of actions is performed automatically when the application is started or something else triggers it. These macro viruses may inflict damage to the document or to other computer software but are relatively harmless, and are often spread as an e-mail virus.

Boot Viruses: These were one of the most common viruses prevalent during the early and mid 1990s, when the use of diskettes was popular. These viruses infect or substitute their own code for either the DOS boot sector or the Master Boot Record (MBR), which controls the boot sequence of the PC. The MBR is executed every time a computer is booted so the virus will also be loaded into memory on every startup and spreads to every disk that the system reads. They are typically very difficult to remove, and most antivirus programs cannot clean the MBR while Windows is running. So, bootable antivirus disks are needed to fix boot sector viruses.

Script viruses: They are a division of file viruses, written in a variety of script languages such as VBS, JavaScript, BAT, PHP, HTML etc. They can form a part of multi-component viruses or infect other scripts such as Windows or Linux command and service files. If the file format, such as HTML, allows the execution of scripts, they can infect it.

http://antivirus-hq.com/ Antivirus HQ: your online resource to help protect your PC from viruses and spyware.

[tags]virus, computer, software, viruses, spyware, adware[/tags]

Virus Removal Software And Information

2009-05-07T07:00:00.002-07:00

I hate viruses, and so does everyone else who has ever gotten them or will get one. Since 2006, 1 billion people have the internet, which means that there are now more viruses then ever.

Viruses come in many forms and with many different problems attached to each kind. Some viruses are designed to mess up your entire computer and destroy all data; others are made just to show you unwanted advertisements every once in awhile. Either way, they shouldn't be on your computer and can be removed by you manually or by virus removal software. First though, let's discuss the most common types of computer viruses and what they can do to you or your computer.

The most known and damaging virus type that exists right now is the worm virus. This type of virus can duplicate itself and it will use the email addresses from your address book, and send itself to those people. This means your friends and family computers could even become infected with this virus.

The next most dangerous type of virus is the Trojan virus, which is a sneaky one, hence the name. Trojan viruses sneak in by disguising itself as a program that provides a legitimate function. But really it is a virus that will damage your computer or steal personal information like passwords. There is also the backdoor Trojan virus, which if your computer was infected with it, someone could take control of your computer through your network or the internet.

Another more common virus is just a plain old fashioned file virus. File viruses can attach to real software, so that whenever you use the software, it will load into your memory and infect other files that are associated with that program. That means that the most important documents and data could be destroyed by one simple click!

The next type of viruses I will discuss is the most common on all computers today, and that is Adware and Spyware. Adware is basically just advertisements that are saved on your computer, and show them selves sometimes in a random pop-up or when you type in a web address that is incorrect. Spyware is actually the worst of the two because spyware can log your every keystroke, record every website you go to, and report your statistics back to an individual or company.

Those are really the main types of viruses that exist and are most common on the internet today. Using that knowledge in conjunction with virus removal software, you will be allowed to make sure every virus is removed and not still lingering around somewhere waiting to come out again.

Before I end this article, I would like to give you some very important tips that everyone should know, taken first hand from my computer experiences over the past 10 years.

The most important tip has to do with a computer crash from a virus. Bad people make bad viruses, and those very bad viruses will do things like deleting all of your data, destroying your operating system and maybe even actually altering you're BIOS. Your BIOS controls a lot of technical details on your computer, like your CPU's exact speed, system temperature and most of your components.

This is what you need to do to ensure you can recover from a virus like that. First off make a clone copy of your hard drives data every week, backup your BIOS once every time you change it or a part on your computer. By doing these steps, which actually take very little time with the right tools, you will be protected against bad viruses that destroy that information. All you have to do is restore the BIOS and fully restore your hard drive from the clone image you have, and your computer will be back to normal.

That is all of my information on viruses, and my biggest tip is, if you really want to protect yourself against viruses you need to get virus protection software.

If you want to know more about viruses and purchase virus removal software, then check out Michael's page at http://www.computer-customizing-guide.com/virus-removal-software.html Also, learn more about computer customizing at his website http://www.computer-customizing-guide.com/

[tags]virus removal software, removing viruses, viruses[/tags]

Remove Blackworm

2009-05-07T07:00:00.001-07:00

Blackworm started on the 3rd of February and has been programmed to attack an infected computer on the 3rd of every month thereafter. So far it has been estimated that over 300,000 computers have been infected. It can also disable the keyboard and mouse of infected computers. Some Internet users have already lost important files after becoming infected by the Blackworm mainly because the clock time on their computer was wrong.

Like many Internet worms, Blackworm attempts to spread by mailing itself to contacts in a user's address book. The e-mails containing the worm can have a wide variety of Subject fields and attachment names. The worm also tries to add itself to the auto-start programs in the Windows registy. Once a computer in a network has been infected, Blackworm will try to infect all other systems in the network.

To prevent getting infected by Blackworm you shouldn't open attachments or click on Web links within these e-mails, especially if these e-mails have a porn-related subject line. You should also backup any important files that you would like to preserve. Most antivirus products will detect Blackworm assuming the worm hasn't disabled the antivirus software. It is also recommended to scan your computer for viruses and use a firewall.

[tags]remove blackworm,blackworm,blackworm virus,get rid of blackworm[/tags]

How To Protect Yourself From Viruses, Spyware, Adware, And Other Nuisances

2009-04-07T07:00:00.001-07:00

Spyware/adware is a new major concern for PC users everywhere. Infecting your computer silently (usually installed with programs that seem harmless), spyware and adware can collect personal information about you, as well as cause pop up ads to come up all of the time, changing your browsers home page, sometimes even completely disabling your computer's usability.

This article will show you how to protect yourself against harmful spyware / adware, as well as how to remove current infections, and how to protect yourself from viruses, hackers and other general "malware".

The first thing you can do, if you're an Internet Explorer user, is consider making a switch to the Mozilla Firefox web browser. Firefox can do everything that Internet Explorer can do, and much, much more. Plus it is almost completely spyware "proof", and is much more stable and secure than Internet Explorer. You can go to getfirefox.com for more information.

Next, you'll want to keep your computer up-to-date. To do so, you'll want to download all available updates from windowsupdate.microsoft.com (if you use Firefox, you will need to fire up IE to do this since Microsoft doesn't like people to use other browsers, so they have "banned" Firefox from accessing Windows updates).

Now that you've got a secure browser and have Windows up to date, it's time to talk about the anti-spyware software. The following is a list of the top three players in the free anti-spyware software game:

Spybot Search & Destroy
Download from: safer-networking.org
If you're only going to download one program, get this. Spybot is known as the king of spyware removal and is completely free, ran buy a guy who volunteers his free time to keeping Spybot up to date.

Lavasoft's Ad-Aware
Download from: lavasoftusa.com
Ad-Aware is technically a for-profit program, but they have a freeware version of their paid software, which is just as good, in my opinion. It picks up a few things that Spybot misses, so it's good to run both.

Microsoft's Newly Released Anti-Spyware
Downlaod from: microsoft.com
Not a must-have if you have the above two programs, but it actually is a pretty good program, especially considering it's a Microsoft product. Might as well have it around to pick up anything the other two might have missed.

Take all of the programs that you have chosen to use, download, and install them. Then, one at a time, update each program, run them, and remove anything that they found. This should effectively remove any active spyware or adware on your system.

Now that you have spyware removed, you'll need hacker and virus protection. To keep hackers out, you will need to install a solid firewall. You can either use the old built in with Windows XP, or download a third-party one.

To activate Windows XP's built in firewall, follow these easy steps:

Click the Start button, and open up the Control Panel.

Open "Network Connections" (or "Network and Internet Connections", then "Network Connections" if you're using the category view).

If you're using broadband, or another form of connection through a LAN, right click on Local Area Connection (or the appropriate network connection), and select Properties. Click on the advanced tab, and click on Settings. Select "On", and don't select "Don't allow exceptions". Click OK on all windows to close.

If you would like to download a third-party firewall, Kerio Technologies has a great personal firewall that you can use. It can be found at kerio.com/kpf_home.html.

Grisoft offers a great freeware antivirus program called AVG Free. It is a great alternative to the common commercial antivirus software designed to milk you for more cash with their "update subscription" fees. Updates to AVG are 100% free, forever. AVG can be downloaded from grisoft.com.

To keep your system completely secure, be sure to scan for viruses, spyware and check for Windows updates every week or so. By taking these simple steps, your computer is now many times more secure and less likely to leak out personal information or get a malware infection.

Ryan Bauer is a computer geek who writes tutorials for his computer optimization website and runs a computer optimization and support forum.

[tags]spyware,adware,optimization,computer,viruses,hackers,firewall,antivirus,pc,internet,security[/tags]

Virus Scanning Or Virus Avoidance

2009-03-07T07:00:00.001-08:00

I have had to fix hundreds of computers over the past several years and most of them could have been easily avoided by using antivirus software and making sure everything was up to date. This is not hard to do you just need to learn to make it a part of your routine.

Best Antivirus Software

Viruses are little executable programs that run on your computer, normally without you knowing and can cause an immense amount of damage to so little that you don't even notice. The best way to guard yourself is to not go on the internet, or even better don't own a computer. If that isn't a viable option for you then you are going to need a virus scanner. Most people are going to suggest Norton or McAfee but I have found these to be lacking. I have found in many instances that AVG virus scanner actually will detect more viruses than Norton will. AVG is completely free and can be found by searching through Google. Make sure you update your virus definitions on a regular basis, a minimum of once a week, I suggest every morning. This will ensure that you have the latest up to date virus list so that you are protected and also if you have one of those viruses you can clean and remove it.

Email a Virus Without Even Knowing

Next watch out for email attachments. If you do not know the person who sent the email, don't open it. Most new viruses spread by extracting your email address from other computers and sending you an email with the virus as an attachment.

Downloads From Sites

Some web sites request that you download an ActiveX DLL or Java Applet or some other piece of software in order to use a certain function on their web site. You need to be careful when deciding whether to download it or not. There are a few rules I follow to make sure that I don't download something I should. If you are on an adult site do not download anything unless you absolutely have to. Make sure that the site/company has a good reputation; this can normally be done by searching Google.

Downloading From P2P

If you are downloading from a peer-to-peer program like Kazaa, Bearshare, WinMX or any other P2P program you are at your own risk. Most computers that I've seen that have this software on it end up having plenty of viruses and spyware. Now, this is not due to the P2P software itself but is due to the files that you are downloading through it. If you must have a P2P program, please make sure that your virus definitions are up to date at all times.

Don't Rely On Automatic Update

On of the worse things you can do is to rely on the automatic update that come with the antivirus that you have. This will normally not send you an update notification until a few days after there is an update that you can get. Any antivirus software that I've seen allows you to manually download any updates that are available.

When Should I Scan My Computer

I leave my computer running 24/7 and if you do the same I would suggest scheduling a time somewhere around 2:00am. This allows the scan to run when no one is on it and will catch anything might have gotten by the automatic scan for one reason or another. If you turn your computer off at night, I suggest a scan right when you turn it on for the first time that day.

Conclusion

You will probably still get a virus from time to time but it should be a lot less frequent and will normally be something minor that you will get. Also if you need up getting a virus it will normally be caught within 24 hours which will reduce the amount of destruction that it can cause your computer and to others.

I am an all around big Geek with too much time on my hands. My main services are web design/development and PC repair. I've been doing both of these for the past 5 years and consider myself pretty good at what I do but, more importnantly, I love it. Webcyte Design

[tags]virus, virses, anti-virus, antivirus, virus scan, virus clean, virus scanner[/tags]

New Mass Mailing Spamming Internet Trojan For The Windows Platform

2009-02-07T07:00:00.001-08:00

May. 16th 2005 - MicroWorld has reported the discovery of Troj/Sober-Q, which is a mass mailing spamming internet Trojan for the Windows platform.

Some of the spam emails sent by this Trojan takes to respectable German news outlets, such as Spiegel etc., as reported by MicroWorld, which contain articles on:

1. "Necessasity of Health Reforms";

2. "asylum seekers receive first class private supply while medical supply for Germans abolished";

3. "Dentists- enormous content increases expense of the contribution payers" etc.

It affects Windows operating system and is also know by aliases such as Email-Worm.Win32.Sober.q and W32/Sober.q@MM

In order to protect yourself from this worm ensure that you have the very latest update of the eScan/MailScan software. MicroWorld provides Hourly Updates to its customer.

For further information on detection and removal of "Troj/Sober-Q" please visit the below mentioned link.

http://www.mwti.net/virusnews/virusalertd.asp?id=610

Download the free MicroWorld Anti Virus Toolkit that detects viruses in system registry and running processes

Link 1 --- ftp://ftp.microworldsystems.com/download/tools/mwav.exe
Link 2 --- ftp://update.mailscan.info/download/tools/mwav.exe

For more information please write to manish@mwti.net

For technical support please mail to support@mwti.net

MicroWorld (http://www.mwti.net) is the publisher of world's first real time antivirus and content security software eScan and MailScan, for desktops, file servers, citrix servers, proxy servers and Mail Servers. Working on revolutionary MicroWorld Winsock Layer(MWL) technology, MicroWorld's time tested and reliable products have seen bestowed with certificates and awards by some of the most prestigious testing bodies like Virus Bulletin, Checkmark, TUCOWS, and Advanced CheckVir, Red Hat Ready, Novell Ready etc.

MicroWorld Technologies is one of the leading solution providers for Information Technology, Content Security and Communications Software. MicroWorld's Revolutionary "MicroWorld-WinSock-Layer (MWL)" technology, the first of its kind in the world. It deals with these threats before they enter your network, in the same way that a firewall controls user access.

[tags]virus alert, virus news, internet security, e-mail spamming, trojan, worm,[/tags]

The Top Twelve Threats No Computer User Should Ignore

2008-12-07T07:00:00.003-08:00

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.

These 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 basic, 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.

The author, Kai Chandler, edits http://www.surfcontrols.com which specializes in providing reviews and recommendations of top-rated tools to help protect your online experience.

[tags]pornography, viruses,,Hoaxes , Phishing , Hackers , Hijackers , Diallers , Adware ,Spam ,Trojan[/tags]

Spyware Attacks! Windows Safe Mode Is No Longer Safe

2008-12-07T07:00:00.001-08:00

Many of us have run into an annoying and time-consuming error. With your machine running goofey you decide to run a scan for trojans and spyware. Following the scan, which usually takes fourty minutes or longer if you scan the entire system, you are hit with the "access denied" error. Frustrating, for sure, but being the savvy computer user that you are you decide to boot to safe mode to take care of the issue. No spyware can load when booted to safe mode, right?

Wrong.

The newer variants of the CoolWebSearch, HuntBar, and VX2 infections all load even when safe mode is used. There are a few different ways of accomplishing this, the most common being that the spyware registers itself as a critical system process. This ensures that it is loaded regardless of what happens, and makes it much harder to shut down.

If you can't prevent it from loading then how do you kill it? The answer to that is easier than it might seem. If you're running Windows 98 or ME, then the easiest way is to boot to DOS, and use a command-line scanner to search your hard drive. These scans actually tend to run a bit faster, since they have more system resources available to them courtesy of no GUI being loaded.

"Well, that's all fine and dandy", you're likely thinking to yourself, "I run Windows XP. You can't read it from DOS." True. You can't read NTFS hard disks from DOS. However, you can use Barts PE.

Barts PE is effectively a stripped version of Windows XP. It boots completely from a CD, and loads a simple graphical user interface. Coupled with plugins, McAfee, for example, you can scan your entire computer without the fear that your nifty little infection has somehow loaded.

For more information on how to setup Barts PE and McAfee within it, visit:

http://www.tweaksforgeeks.com/Setup_Barts_PE.html

http://www.tweaksforgeeks.com/Barts_PE_McAfee_Setup.html

Kevin Souter is a full time computer repair technician. He also operates a free spyware removal site, as well as a general computer repair site.

[tags]Spyware,spyware removal,Barts PE,virus,McAfee,spyware scanner[/tags]

Virus Spreaders

2008-11-09T07:00:00.003-08:00

Sometimes I wonder just what the world's coming to...

For some among y'all out there who read this column each week, you might've noticed a little while back that it didn't run for a week or so. As a result, I've had some people write and/or call and ask me just what was going on? Some thought I had decided to stop writing the column, some speculated that I had signed some kind of deal with "a big city newspaper" which meant that I couldn't write for my current ones anymore, and one person asked if I'd just "had enough?" For the record, the answer to each of those questions is a definitive "no."

I have a great time writing this column each week. It allows me to write about almost anything that pops into my mind, and I love having that kind of freedom. As a result, I seldom have a clue each week as to what I'm going to write about until I sit down in my chair and get to work. So, with that having been said, let me get right into the reason that "Free Wheelin'" went missing for a week or so. It vanished for a while due to the fact that some sweetheart out there in internet land sent me a virus.

That's right, a computer virus. One of those malicious little programs that's designed to wreak havoc on your computer. Viruses cost businesses and individuals tons of money each year, and for what? It makes no sense at all unless I give some thought as to just what type person sends out these viruses. It must be some super sloppy, maladjusted eighteen year old haint times three computer whiz whose closest contact with a woman comes through the serving line at his school's cafeteria, or some super-nerdy, pocket protector wearing geek who's mad at world because he doesn't yet possess a working personality. And, because these people would rather be anti-social than take a good, long look in the mirror we all have to pay for it. No one ever said that life would be fair, huh?

Fortunately, I'm pleased to report that I got out of my situation without too much damage. I did have to pay someone to reformat my hard drive, but I kept back-up copies of most of my stuff so I really didn't get hurt too badly. I also went out and bought some better anti-virus software, which hopefully will screen most of these cyber pests in the future. In the end, though, almost anyone can get nailed with a computer virus, and I've been far luckier than most - the people that fixed my computer told me that a lady brought in one a week earlier that had over two thousand viruses on it! It's a wonder that the "On" switch on her computer even worked with all that mischief lurking around on her hard drive.

In the end, I guess there are just some people out there who are sort of like walking cases of jock itch, they contribute nothing to the world and try and tear down those of us that do. People like the woman who walked up to my son recently at his job as a cashier at a well-known supermarket chain and presented him with over six hundred dollars worth of live lobsters and steaks. And what did she attempt to pay for all that food with? Food stamps. I kid you not, food stamps. Fortunately, the two food stamp cards she presented for payment had both expired, but, even with that happening, she proceeded to put down a dollar and some change in the hope that Will would be stupid enough to accept that for full payment. He politely told the lady that she was about six hundred some odd dollars short, to which she replied, "Well, I'll go someplace else and check my luck there."

So, for all you deadbeats, virus spreaders, bad check writers, child support non-payers, and the like, if I had my way I'd put you all in jail cells with Perry Como music playing in the background twenty four hours a day, serve you Spam sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then assign guards to sit outside your cells who've just eaten large Mexican dinners. And that's just for starters - don't even ask me what y'alls daily recreational program would consist of. The way I see it, every dog has his day, and it's more than time for some of you bottom feeders out there to stop having yours...

About The Author
Ed's latest book, "Rough As A Cob," can be ordered by calling River City Publishing toll-free at: 877-408-7078. He's also a popular after dinner speaker, and his column runs in a number of Southeastern publications. You can contact him via email at: , or through his web site address at: www.ed-williams.com.

[tags]each week, went out, column each[/tags]

Fighting Or Financing Malicious Software

2008-11-09T07:00:00.001-08:00

Come on. Be realistic. How should I approach security for my computer in the same way as I would approach security for my car or home? The answer is simple, just apply the same principles, not the same mechanisms. Why do I want to protect my car and my home? It prevents people from invading my privacy. What else is it when someone breaks into your car? A thief has no respect for the private assets of someone else, he takes what he wants, and an arsonist has no respect for the private assets of someone, he burns what he wants. Squatters have no respect for any private property, they occupy whatever piece of land they want. That is why we have alarms, security systems and security guards to protect our assets and most important of all our privacy. We don't like strangers strolling round on our premises, we take the necessary precautions to keep them off our property by putting fences and walls around our houses.

Your computer is nothing other than your private electronic property. Why would you go to all the trouble to keep unwanted people away from your home if you don't mind it when unwanted software crawls through your PC? You make online purchases, do online banking transactions, log into your e-mail, enter several passwords to keep people from gaining unauthorised access your private and critical information. Sure, so why would you want a key-logger or password-grabber to infiltrate your computer and steal all your important and private information? You need an anti-virus program, a spyware and ad-ware scanner and some kind of resident shield to prevent all these malicious programs from accessing your PC. We are talking about millions of home users who don't have the kind of budget to afford all these programs. That is why so many people ignore the threats of malicious software because it is just too expensive and not that important, to them, to battle them. It helps nothing to educate users against these threats if you can't empower them.

Many of the big anti-virus companies refuse to distribute free-ware versions of their software to help home users battle these threats. After all, it is home users that are the easiest targets for infections and they are the pawns for Denial Of Service attacks. This is where smaller anti-virus and -spyware companies made the difference when they introduced free, fully functional programs for home users. They even maintain these versions by updating them as new threats make an appearance. It clearly indicates that their main goal is to fight malicious software and not only profit. Companies like these make a positive contribution to the online community by empowering home users to battle the villains of the online world.

Home users no longer have an excuse for not protecting their computers. Not only companies, but also individuals have developed some useful tools to help their fellow man. The biggest problem users may face now is to make the right choice between all the free security software available today. That is why informed members of the online community have to share their knowledge with the uninformed to help them make the right choices and stay clear of fraudulent and malicious software.

Coenraad de Beer was born on 27 February 1982 in small town called Lichtenburg in the North West (Formerly known as Transvaal) province of South Africa. He graduated High school in 2000 and started doing computer programming on his own for 2 years using the C++ programming language. In 2003 he started a career in Accounting and he is currently studying BCompt at the University of South Africa.

Coenraad is a very dedicated person in whatever he takes on in life and believes that success only comes from hard work and believing in your own abilities, the abilities God gave to you.

Coenraad is also the Webmaster of Cyber Top Cops - The Cyber Security Specialists

You can also visit his homepage at http://myweb.absamail.co.za/coendb/

[tags]Anti-virus,antivrus,ant-spyware,adware,spy-ware,malicious software[/tags]

Viruses, Trojans, And Spyware - Oh My!

2008-11-08T07:00:00.001-08:00

Have you ever had to call Symantec or McAfee to ask them how to remove a virus? Or have you spent hours online trying to figure out how to remove spyware, only to find out that you did something wrong and now your computer won't boot? I know your pain and frustration with just trying to use your computer without worry. As a computer technician at ARCH Computing Services, I know how hard it can be to pay someone to remove viruses and spyware. In fact that's how I started in the computer business. I didn't want to pay someone to fix the problems that I usually caused. A little voice in my head told me "I can build a computer, it doesn't look that hard!"

Six years later, and a lot of dead computers in the beginning, have placed me where I am now. Let me tell you, it's a full time job, even when I'm not at work. There is always some new technology being developed, and of course security is a never-ending battle with new viruses, trojans and spyware daily.

The internet is full of how-to information. You can learn everything from how to make the perfect loaf of bread, tune your car, or remove a virus. Making a loaf of bread seems to be easy, and it probably is. Even if you end up making flat bread or burnt bread, you're not out a lot of money or in too much trouble. On the other hand, if you try to tune your car and break a spark plug or put the wires back incorrectly, it could end up costing you a lot more to fix it. All you wanted to do was save a few bucks and do it yourself. I've burnt bread and I've tried to fix my own car. The bread was thrown in the trash, the car I ended up taking to an auto mechanic and having it fixed right, which of course cost me much more than money, it cost me time.

You must be wondering what my point is. Yes, removing a virus or building a computer isn't really that hard of a taskif you live and breathe computers like I do and others do (we affectionately call ourselves Geeks). Let's take a look at the following scenario.

James is a real estate broker, and a damn good one. He makes his living helping people find the best buy for their dollar. As a result James keeps an extensive client list on his computer. Somewhere along the line he manages to pick up a nasty Trojan. His anti-virus software caught it but was unable to clean it. He does some research online and finds a site that explains how to remove the Trojan. After following the instructions he reboots his PC only to find that his machine will not boot. In frustration he goes to another computer and looks up information on boot problems and finds out that the best thing he can do is reformat his hard drive and re-install his operating system from his backup. Oh, by the way, he hasn't done a backup in over 6 months. By this time he has spent 4 or 5 hours trying to fix the problem, and now has the daunting task of re-installing his operating system without any backup

The moral of the story here is that he literally wasted hours that he could have spent making a sale or helping a client purchase a house or land. Is the above scenario a little extreme? In some ways it is, but it doesn't fall too far from the truth. Many of the clients I see with virus or spyware problems have tried everything they can to remove the problem, only to find out they spent hours with no results, and often come out worse than they were. By the time they come to see me they are frustrated and just want it fixed. Unfortunately, this does cost them money that they didn't want to spend in the first place, and more importantly in this day and age, it costs them more time. Time is the great equalizer. If James had been able to make a 10% percent commission on a $200,000 house, spending the 65 to 100 dollars to clean his computer wouldn't have seemed very significant.

Nine times out of ten an infected computer does require a re-format and re-install. I don't say this lightly. It is usually much easier to backup and start over than spend hours trying to find every little piece of nastiness that was installed on your computer.

Eric Graves is a Senior Computer Technician at ARCH Computing Services. His computer knowledge and interpersonal skills have helped the company to grow at a remarkable rate. He's currently completing his BS in IT Management, and will go on to complete his Master Degree in Information Systems Security. He is also currently the administrator for the Mutagenix forums, a Slackware based Live CD.

[tags]virus, spyware, trojans, computer, backup, install[/tags]

Spyware, Viruses, And Other Online Threats - Is Your PC Properly Protected

2008-11-07T07:00:00.002-08:00

AOL and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) released their second annual Online Safety Study a few months back, and the results weren't pretty. While the latest survey did find that users were getting better at taking the steps necessary to keep their PCs properly secured, the findings show that there are still plenty of people who just don't understand online risks.

Some of the key facts uncovered by the Online Safety Study included:

81% of home PCs lack one of the three main sources of protection - a secure firewall, anti-virus software, and spyware protection.
56% of users had no anti-virus software installed, or had not updated their virus definition files in the last week.
44% of users did not have a properly-configured firewall in place.
38% of users lacked spyware protection.
Most telling, perhaps, is the fact that even in light of these findings, 83% of users surveyed still believed that their PCs were safe and properly secured.

The online security threat landscape has certainly changed from the days when viruses were home users' biggest worry, but the survey shows that users are largely not keeping up with the times. Every PC connected to the Internet today should be configured with the following (at an absolute minimum):

A personal firewall capable of filtering both inbound and outbound traffic.
Updated anti-virus software that offers real-time protection, the ability to scan on-demand, and email message scanning features.
Updated anti-spyware software that not only scans for and removes spyware on demand, but also proactively protects against threats in real-time.
Windows Automatic Updates turned on (to download and install critical security patches, service packs, and updates automatically), or weekly visits to the Windows Update web site to obtain the latest critical updates.

Thankfully, keeping your PC updated and properly protected against online threats needn't cost you a penny. There are a number of anti-virus, anti-spyware, and personal firewall programs available free for personal use. A simple web search will turn up direct links to some of the more popular options, which I will be discussing in more detail in future articles.

For the time being, however, considering beginning your PC lockdown process by taking a look at my beginner's guide to eradicating spyware, The Best Free Anti-Spyware Programs. A secure PC is a fast PC, so take the time to start locking down your home computer today. Your system will thank you!

Dan DiNicolo is the author of the book PC Magazine Windows XP Security Solutions, and the managing editor of the online learning web site 2000Trainers.com

[tags]online security, spyware, viruses, anti-spyware, anti-virus, firewall, personal firewall[/tags]

Switch From Managing Email Security To Managed Email Security

2008-11-07T07:00:00.001-08:00

The days of riding horseback through the wilderness to deliver a message are over. But make no mistake; we're not out of the woods yet. The digital world exposes us all to a virtual wilderness. Email offers simplicity to both the messenger and the malevolent.

Email has grown in vitality, now becoming the most important communication tool in the corporate world. The perpetuation of emerging threats has transformed email from an asset to a liability. Gone are the days when organizations could manually cope with the occasional email-borne nuisance. Email security has become a necessity and organizations must know the best way to ensure the integrity of their email network.

Perhaps an even greater threat to your organization's effectiveness is an over-investment in an under-effective email security solution. Organizations must seek a comprehensive, future-proof solution on a platform that integrates flawlessly with their current infrastructure.

The email security market is not bound by in-house software or hardware solutions. Organizations can push the war against spam, viruses, and other email borne threats outside of their network using a managed service.

What is a managed service?

Unlike software and appliance solutions, a managed email security solution sits entirely outside of your network. With a quick change of your organization's Mail Exchange (MX) records, mail is routed through the managed service, effectively filtering your email and delivering only genuine messages to your network. Such an infrastructure offers a number of benefits over traditional appliance and software security measures.

Benefits

Instant Deployment

Zero Maintenance

Failover / Redundancy

Disaster Recovery

Scalability

Bandwidth Savings

Complete Threat Protection

Future-Proof

Platform Independent

Low TCO / Quick ROI

Instant Deployment

Since a managed service introduces no hardware or software into your infrastructures, deployments typically consist of only a simple MX record change. Moreover, managed solutions come pre-configured to maximize effectiveness with minimal user intervention.

Zero Maintenance

Updates to hardware and software are a necessary evil that demands time and money. This is especially true with security technology in order to stay ahead of new threats. But a managed service introduces absolutely no hardware or software into your infrastructure. All updates are performed by the managed service transparently to the end-user.

Failover / Redundancy

Implementing a redundant infrastructure is rarely cost-effective, especially in small to medium businesses. Yet, downtime is never acceptable. Deploying a managed solution is your ticket to enterprise-class reliability, without expending financial resources to integrate a redundant network infrastructure.

Disaster Recovery

Internal network and hardware glitches that compromise the availability of your email are inevitable. During downtime, not only is productivity lost, but also data which can cost your organization countless dollars. With a managed service, your email is queued during downtime. After connectivity is re-established, your email is promptly delivered to you. Organizations which deploy managed email security are able to focus solely on regaining connectivity, without worrying about lost messages during downtime.

Scalability

A managed service allows organizations the flexibility to grow without investing in additional information technology. Organizations with multiple geographic locations must purchase, implement, and maintain a software or hardware solution in each location that has a mail server. However, geographically dispersed organizations can be wholly controlled through a managed service, without any additional investments, installation, or maintenance.

Bandwidth Savings

Quality hardware and software solutions can effectively halt the flow of junk messages into end-users' inboxes. However, these junk messages still reach the perimeter of your network. Bandwidth is required to analyze all messages, and messages that are quarantined must be downloaded and stored. With a managed solution, only genuine messages reach your network. Spam, viruses, fraud, and malicious email messages are stopped before they approach your organization's perimeter.

Complete Threat Protection

There's much more to email security than spam and virus protection. Directory harvesting, mail bombs, phishing, dictionary attacks, and many other threats assault vulnerable organizations each day, causing countless dollars in damage and lost productivity. Most appliances and software solutions are only a piece of the email security puzzle.

More importantly, with a managed service you have professionals maintaining your email's security. Spam, viruses, and other email nuisances are growing more sophisticated, and require more sophisticated technology and know-how to combat them. A managed service supplies organizations with access to comprehensive technology and wisdom.

Future-Proof

Anti-spam technology, like no other, has an uncanny ability to lose effectiveness after a year or two. This is because spam is constantly changing, while your software and hardware is staying the same.

Spam is also growing in volume. A few years ago, you may have been receiving an average of ten spam messages a day. A spam solution with a 90% capture rate would catch all but one. Today, however, many users are receiving tens, even hundreds of junk messages a day. More intelligent software is needed to stop these additional messages, without misclassifying genuine ones.

A managed solution's core competency is to stay ahead of email threats. Thus, organizations are always plugged in to a cutting edge solution.

Platform Independent

Regardless of your organization's preferred OS and Mail Transfer Agent (MTA), a managed service can integrate easily into your infrastructure. Even organizations that utilize several operating systems and MTAs can quickly fit under the umbrella of a managed solution.

Low TCO / Quick ROI

Software and hardware solutions can rope you in with a large, non-refundable, upfront investment, and annual recurring fees. On the other hand, a managed solution is typically subscription-based, which can be cancelled at any time for a pro-rated refund. With a lower upfront outlay and minimal maintenance, organizations can realize a return on their investment in much less time with respect to traditional email security platforms.

Take Control of Your Email Network

Managed email security takes the burden off your budget and overworked IT staff and places it on the spammers. A managed service makes email what it was meant to be - an effective, hassle-free, business communication tool.

[tags]anti spam,managed email security,viruses,phishing,spam,email,security,spam blocker[/tags]

Free Computer Security Software - A Leaking Seal!

2008-11-06T07:01:00.003-08:00

There is nothing wrong with taking less than adequate measures to prevent a bigger damage to anything you treasure if you have financial or other constraints, as long as this is done temporarily over a short time. Similar reasoning applies when it comes to computer security threats.

Unfortunately some (if not most) computer users tend to forget this. They search on the internet for free computer security software which they dump into their computers and hope for the best. Most of the free software developers consistently forget to inform the downloaders of the inadequacies of their software and they are many and significant!

A simple search for free anti-spyware programs on any search engine yields significant results. If we exclude genuine beta-software from these results, almost all of these anti-spyware programs operate on the principle "Get infected first, then call us". In other words these programs are reactive. They scan and destroy spyware as it's found in the user's computer. The real downside of these programs is that they offer no real-time protection. Are you surprised? Maybe you've forgotten that "there's no such thing a free lunch"!

The big computer security software developers spend millions of dollars every year developing products that can quickly detect and destroy new computer security threats like spyware, adware, viruses, hacking techniques, Trojans, worms keyloggers etc

Do you think the developers of free computer security software inject millions of dollars in order to bring users of their software regular software updates? I think not!

Computer security software is such a critical purchase that I think one should actually buy the software before bringing home a new PC!

The most critical software that you should have in you PC is:

Firewall - To protect your PC from hackers and internal malware that maybe trying to "phone home"
Spyware/Adware - To detect the "ETs" that are "phoning home" from your PC, endangering your sensitive information such as passwords, credit card numbers and other sensitive information. These programs also use lots of your critical computer resources. That's why your computer is slow and crashing lately!
Anti-virus Software - These can either completely wipe out your critical data or render it or your computer useless. The most dangerous thing is that you may end up (unaware!) being a source of the virus (e.g. through email or infected website pages).

Here are common-sense measures you can take to protect your PC:

E-mail - Avoid replying to chain letters. Also be very careful of image attachment. Hackers attach malicious JavaScript program on these.
Regularly update your anti-virus definitions by running the update function of your security software.
Before buying a computer security software or package make sure that it offers regular updates to keep up with new viruses, adware, spyware and other computer security threats.

I want to repeat what I said at the beginning of this article: There is nothing wrong in taking temporary security measures as far as your computer security is concerned (i.e. using free software/downloads). What is wrong is forgetting that the measure was supposed to be over a temporary period in the first place.

About Msingathi Mnyengeza

Msingathi is the owner of the Computer Security Resources Website. The website is targeted at the computer user who wants the best computer security software to protect against spyware, adware, viruses and to improve computer performance using registry cleaners. Visit Msi's websites at http://www.computer-security-resources.com and at http://www.computer-security-resources.biz

Website owners can use this article on their websites and ezines, as long as no part of this article is changed/amended.

[tags]computer security software, computer security, spyware removers, adware, anti-virus,registry cleaner[/tags]

Blogs As Safe Haven For Cybercriminals

2008-11-06T07:01:00.001-08:00

To blog or not to blog? Well, why not? Lots of people like either to write or to read blogs -- sometimes both. The much-quoted survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, says 27 percent read blogs. 38 percent of all Internet users at least know what a blog is. The survey was made in November 2004 and estimated that 32 million Americans to be blog readers by the end of 2004. So now there must be much more blog readers and writers.

But there has recently been bad news that spoiled bloggers' mood. The security firm Websense found that blogs are "being used as a safe haven by hackers for storing and distributing malicious code, including identity-stealing keyloggers." Since January, Websense Security Labs has discovered hundreds of blogs set by hackers.

There have been scores of articles on this topic since last week. See, for example, the article by Gregg Keizer "Hackers Use Blogs To Spread Worms, Keyloggers" April 13, 2005 at http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=160702505

The general idea of all these articles is the same: hackers turn to blogs. Blogs are suitable for them: there are large amounts of free storage space, no identity authentication is required to post, and there is no scan of posted files for viruses, worms, or spyware in most blog hosting services.

Such blogs experts from Websense Security Labs call "toxic". In its press-release "Toxic Blogs Distribute Malcode and Keyloggers" http://ww2.websense.com/global/en/PressRoom/PressReleases/PressReleaseDetail/index.php?Release=050412889 they explained how some malevolent individuals use blogs for their own gain.

In some cases cybercriminals create a blog on a legitimate host site and post viral code or keylogging software at the page. Then they attract traffic to the toxic blog by sending a link through spam or spim (the analog of spam for instant messaging (IM). So a good advice never follow links in spam is worth remembering.

In other cases, a blog can be used only as a storage mechanism which keeps malicious code (for example, updates) for Trojan horses that have already been hidden on the users' computers.

"To read or not to read blogs -- that's a question?" Of course to read them, to write them -- blogs are already a part of our culture. But be careful.

While PC users can do little to stay aside of toxic blogs except not following links in spam and spim messages, leading to these blogs. If a blog is used as a storage for malicious code, users can do nothing at all about it.

It is up for blogging tool operators to add security, such as anti-virus and anti-spyware protection, to blog hosting service. They can also limit the types of files that can be stored. And it is high time they made their service more secure, because literally millions of Americans might be in danger of picking malicious code, such as a virus, worm or Trojan horse, simply by reading a blog.

Alexandra Gamanenko currently works at Raytown Corporation, LLC -- an independent software developing which created a technology capable of disabling the very processes of information capturing -- keylogging, screenshoting, etc. It makes the company's anti-keylogging software a solution against information-stealing programs and modules.

Learn more -- visit the company's website http://www.anti-keyloggers.com

[tags]blogs, blogging, malicious code, keyloggers, Trojans, viruses, worms, hackers, security, spam.[/tags]

Spyware. History And Description

2008-11-05T07:01:00.001-08:00

The first known use of the expression "spyware" occurred on October 17th, 1994 in a post that joked about Microsoft's business model. Spyware later came to allude to snoop equipment such as diminutive cameras. In early 2000, the man who started Zone Labs used the term in a press release for a new product. Since then, the computer-community has used the term in its current definition.

Spyware often comes wrapped-in with shareware or other software, and with music CDs. The user installs a program, for example, a file-trading utility or music program. The installer also installs the spyware. Even though the acceptable software itself may not do harm, the wrapped-in spyware does. Occasionally, spyware authors will pay shareware creators to wrap-in spyware with their software. An example is the Gator spyware distributed by Claria. There are instances when spyware authors will repackage desirable free software with destructive installers that add spyware.

Another way of propagating spyware is by tricking users. A program will manipulate a security feature that is supposed to prevent harmful installations. Internet Explorer is designed to stop websites from starting an unwanted download. Alternately, a user action must normally trigger a download (like clicking on a link). Nevertheless, links can prove misleading. For example, a pop-up may look like a normal Windows dialog box. The box contains wording like "Do you want to improve your Internet experience?" with links that look like real buttons reading No and Yes. It doesn't matter which button the user selects, a malicious download will start, installing the spyware on the user's computer. Newer versions of Internet Explorer offer better security against this tactic.

Many unscrupulous spyware creators infect a computer by going after security weaknesses in the Web browser or in other applications on the targeted computer. When the user arrives at a Web site controlled by the spyware creator, the site includes code that forces the download and installation of spyware or infiltrates the browser. This kind of spyware creator will have broad knowledge of commercial-quality firewall and anti-virus programming. This is commonly known as a "drive-by download". It leaves the user an unfortunate onlooker to the intrusion. Conventional "browser attacks" target security weaknesses in Microsoft Java Runtime and Internet Explorer.

Another problem in the case of some kinds of spyware programs is that they will replace the banner ads on visited web sites. Spyware that acts like a Browser Helper or web proxy can replace a site's own advertisements with advertisements that benefit the spyware author. This can seriously affect the revenue stream of advertising funded web sites.

There have been instances when a worm or virus has delivered a cargo of spyware. For example, some attackers used the W32.Spybot.Worm to set up spyware that caused pornographic ads to pop up on the screens of an infected system. By re-routing traffic to commercial sites that are set up to funnel funds to the spyware creators, they can profit even by such obviously illegal actions.

[tags]spyware, adware, viruses, worms[/tags]

Protecting Your Computer

2008-11-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

I have been around computers for years. I even teach on Introduction to Computers class at a four-year university. Despite my knowledge of computers, I was not immune to the problems that viruses and spyware can do to a computer. My computer was attacked and it was so bad I ended up replacing my hard drive. Does that sound scary to you? If so, I apologize. At the same time, I hope that my experience can benefit you.

While many computer users are familiar with the term virus, not as many understand the term spyware. Simply put, spyware is software that performs certain behaviors such as advertising, collecting personal information, or changing the configuration of your computer, generally without your premission. Here are a few things that can happen if you get spyware on your computer.

* Pop-up advertisements will appear even when you are not on the internet.

* Your home page (the page that comes up when you first open your internet browser) changes all of sudden and you don't know why.

* A new toolbar appears and you can't seem to get rid of it.

* Your computer takes longer than usual to complete certain tasks.

* Your computer crashes a lot when it never used to.

Just reading the above list should be enough to encourage you to read on and do what you can to prevent viruses and spyware from attacking your computer. Below is a list I compiled of things you can do to protect yourself from viruses and/or spyware. Following these suggestions doesn't mean you will never have a problem. However, it should lessen the chance of it happening.

1. Everyone should have good anti-virus software on their computer. This is especially true it you use the internet. I use PC-cillin Internet Security 2006 on my computer. Before that I used Norton's Internet Security. Both are good but only work well if used properly. If you are a beginner computer user, I would recommend Norton over PC-cillin. However, PC-cillin is a good program for those who are more advanced computer users. It requires a little more patience to set up and a better understanding of computers than Norton's does.

2. While it is nice to have Internet Security software, one must make sure it is turned on and that it is updated weekly. New viruses are being created daily and if you don't update your anti-virus software weekly your computer is open to attack by new viruses.

3. Make sure you have a good firewall and that it is turned on. A firewall helps protect your computer from outside attacks. Again, a good Internet Security program such as Norton's and PC-cillin come with a firewall. However, remember they only work if they are turned on.

4. I use two free programs in addition to PC-cillin to give me a little extra protection from spyware. I run these programs once a week to ensure that my computer is free from spyware. The two programs I use are:

SpyBot - Search and Destroy
Spyware Blaster

Both these programs can be downloaded for free at www.downloads.com

5. I use a free program that checks for advertising trackers and lets me get rid of them. You can download a copy of this program at www.downloads.com. The name of this program is: Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Personal

There are a few other things I would like to mention concerning viruses and protecting yourself from them.

a. When you receive an email from someone you don't know and it has an attachment. Never open the attachment. Often times these attachments can have viruses in them.

b. If you receive an email from someone you know with an attachment and you weren't expecting it, don't open the attachment. Contact them first to make sure they sent it. Sometimes a virus can send out emails without the person even knowing.

c. Be careful when you are downloading software or programs off the internet. Often spyware software will install during the installation of other software you want such as a music or video files. Whenever you are installing something on your computer, make sure you carefully read all disclosures, including the license agreement and privacy statement. Sometimes the inclusion of unwanted software in a given software installation is documented, but it may appear at the end of a license agreement or privacy statement.

d. Be careful when you use a file from someone else's computer. If someone gives you a disk, even if it is your best friend, run a virus scan on the disk before opening any files. It is possible for the file to have a virus without the person knowing about it.

I hope these tips will prove helpful to you. If you have good protection and exercise caution you have a much better chance of getting through your computer life without the headaches of viruses and spyware. However, remember there is no guarantee that it will never happen to you.

A computer virus is a program that invades your computer system, hides there, and replicates itself. Viruses spread when you launch an infected application or start up your computer from a disk that has infected system files.

Donna Rivera-Loudon
Tips on Computers and Technology
Donna has an MBA in Information Technology and is currently a Tupperware Director and CEO of her own company. She also teaches online Management and Business classes for a local community college as well as computer classes for a four-year university.

[tags]computer viruses, computer protection, computer spyware[/tags]

Background Of Password Cracking

2008-11-04T07:00:00.001-08:00

Passwords to access computer systems are usually stored, in some form, in a database in order for the system to perform password verification. To enhance the privacy of passwords, the stored password verification data is generally produced by applying a one-way function to the password, possibly in combination with other available data. For simplicity of this discussion, when the one-way function does not incorporate a secret key, other than the password, we refer to the one way function employed as a hash and its output as a hashed password. Even though functions that create hashed passwords may be cryptographically secure, possession of a hashed password provides a quick way to verify guesses for the password by applying the function to each guess, and comparing the result to the verification data. The most commonly used hash functions can be computed rapidly and the attacker can do this repeatedly with different guesses until a valid match is found, meaning the plaintext password has been recovered.

The term password cracking is typically limited to recovery of one or more plaintext passwords from hashed passwords. Password cracking requires that an attacker can gain access to a hashed password, either by reading the password verification database or intercepting a hashed password sent over an open network, or has some other way to rapidly and without limit test if a guessed password is correct. Without the hashed password, the attacker can still attempt access to the computer system in question with guessed passwords. However well designed systems limit the number of failed access attempts and can alert administrators to trace the source of the attack if that quota is exceeded. With the hashed password, the attacker can work undetected, and if the attacker has obtained several hashed passwords, the chances for cracking at least one is quite high. There are also many other ways of obtaining passwords illicitly, such as social engineering, wiretapping, keystroke logging, login spoofing, dumpster diving, timing attack, etc.. However, cracking usually designates a guessing attack.

Cracking may be combined with other techniques. For example, use of a hash-based challenge-response authentication method for password verification may provide a hashed password to an eavesdropper, who can then crack the password. A number of stronger cryptographic protocols exist that do not expose hashed-passwords during verification over a network, either by protecting them in transmission using a high-grade key, or by using a zero-knowledge password proof.

David is the leader of a software development team, who developed many types of automation software. One of them is http://www.ArticlePostRobot.com, the software which can post articles to hundreds of article sites and mail lists automatically.

[tags]password cracking, virus, secret key, hash function[/tags]

Don't Be A Victim Of Cybercrime

2008-11-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

Don't be a victim of Cybercrime

When you access the Internet through the world wide web it is extremely important that you safe guard your personal information.

There are literally thousands of people around the world that make a living exploiting the security loop holes by accessing your personal identity, passwords and bank accounts.

There are many more daily who are the victims of these crimes. You have a responsibility as a user of the Internet to take certain precautions to protect yourself from online crime.

Internet users who access bank accounts, e-currency accounts or any source of personal information online, should be aware of the following methods used by criminals to convince you to reveal your confidential information.

Here are some simple steps to help keep your information secure

1. Avoid being a victim of fradulent email requests for personal information

This method is called "Phishing" and is a popular way for criminals who are acting as legitimate businesses to steal your personal information. This is usually accomplished by sending you an email with a hyperlink to a fraudulent website made to look like the real one. Once you have entered your information the perpetrator will have access to your account, many times unknown to you.

One way to avoid falling victim to this sort of scam is to never provide any personal details in response to an email. Legitimate businesses will never ask you for your password by email. Be aware of suspicious emails from unknown individuals. Delete before opening anything that you think might be harmful.

2. Make sure you visit your bank, e-currency or financial website via your Internet browser with the correct website address.

3. You should take care to never follow any suspicious hyperlink, url, or open an unknown senders attachment.

If you inadvertently reply to a "Phishing" email or respond to what you think could be a fraudulent website, contact your associated financial institution immediately for advice. Do not delay in seeking help. Check your account for any unusual activity.

Ways to protect your computer

1. It is important to use only a trusted and secure computer to access your Internet banking account.

2. Using publicly shared computers, such as those at Internet cafes, is strongly discouraged.

3. It is recommended that you keep your computer up to date with current anti-virus protection, firewall and the latest patches.

4. Remember that after you install virus protection it is necessary to update the software so the protection remains current.

5. Avoid using the "remember my user name and password" feature when accessing sensitive financial information.

6. Make sure not to store your passwords and account information on your computer.

7. Use a different password for your bank than you would for your email address.

8. Do not use easy to guess passwords, or passwords that closely relate to you. Your birthdate, name or favorite pet make poor passwords.

9. Create passwords that have both numbers and letters.

10. If you use a wireless network it is important that you never leave your computer unattended.

11. Take extra precautions around wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) hotspots that provide free Internet connections. Coffee shops, Internet cafes, airports and libraries can pose significant security threats. Avoid conducting sensitive business in a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Sniffing and Evil Twinning are two methods devious criminals are using to steal confidential data. Sniffing is the act of using a program to search for certain information like passwords and credit card numbers over a Wi-Fi network. Evil twinning mirrors the setting of a Wi-Fi hotspot. When the unsuspecting person uses the evil twinning hotspot the hijacker uses sniffer technology to access anything the victim might be sending.

12. When accessing bank accounts online, confirm that your data is encrypted between the bank and your computer by looking for the padlock symbol on the bottom right hand corner of the browser window.

13. Close your Internet browser after logging out at the end of each online banking session.

14. Beware of any windows that 'pop-up' during an online banking session.

Most financial institutions have detailed information on their websites on how their customers can protect themselves from Online fraud attempts. Visit their website or contact them via email or telephone for information on how you can protect yourself from online criminals.

Matt Sherborne is the creator of "Get Rich Trading E-Currency." For more information please visit his website at: http://www.dxingold.com

[tags]online protection,online security,wifi,networking,security,protection,laptop,computer,antivirus[/tags]

How To Get Rid Of All Types Of Spyware, Pop-ups, Virus, Etc

2008-11-02T07:00:00.001-08:00

I work for a very large company as a PC repair engineer. We have offices in almost every state, yet I can fix almost every software related pc problem remotely. We use Dameware Mini remote control to remotely access each PC, which are all connected via a large wide area network.

When a user calls me, I ask them for their IP address. If they do not know what that is, I explain to them, what it is, and how they can get it, via the "ipconfig" command.

Next I enter it into the "Dameware" program, and a few seconds later, I can see everything they see. Now there are some pc's that are just infested with spy-ware, pop-ups, Trojans, viruses etc.

Sometimes this makes the PC not respond to my Dameware remote control request. So what do I do? Most of my coworkers give up at this point. Their solution is to re-image the entire PC. They send out PC Restore and Re-image Cd's, to reformat the pc.

Basically they reformat the computer and reinstall windows and all the programs. But, I do not like to do this. I like to seek out and destroy the spy-ware. I do it, just like the Spybot program does. That is: "I search and destroy!"

So, here is my solution. I wrote a few batch files that map a network drive to the injured pc. The batch files also attempt to end as many unknown processes first. I made up a list of the most common ones, and I keep adding to the list, usually once a week. My batch file also cleans up the registry and other program files folders. I like to delete the entire run, and run once keys from the HK Local Machine/Software/Microsoft Windows/current version/

I also clean the same under HK current user. Next I add back the run and run once keys. I also use the shutdown command to reboot the pc, and then once the batch file is finished, I am now able to remote control the computer and run some anti-spyware programs. I sometimes use the free ones, like Spybot and Ad-aware. But I also like to use Spy-sweeper and another program called Trojan hunter. From my experience those are the programs that I have found to work the best.

I rarely need to re-image any PC's. I enjoy finding new types of viruses and spy-ware. And besides, I get to add them into my little batch files.

Dave Perry

I also run my own computer consulting firm. You can contact me or read more at my website:

http://www.movicompservices.com/

[tags]Spyware, Adware, Popups, Viruses, trojans, computer, repair, cleanup, solutions[/tags]

Are You Safe From Hackers

2008-11-01T07:01:00.003-07:00

We don't use E-gold very often since most of our online business and customer sales are conducted through our online merchant account. However, we occasionally have someone who will request paying by E-gold so we keep an account there for this reason. Once a month or so we withdraw the funds and decided to do so yesterday. Imagine our dismay when we logged into our E-gold account yesterday and found our balance to be a big fat ZERO! We had checked the balance just a few days ago so we knew this was not correct. After investigating the history of the account, we found that a spend had been made to another e-gold account user WITHOUT our knowledge or authorization. We had been hacked!

Since we have up to date anti-virus and firewall software on our computer, we assumed we were safe. Not so! It seems this is not enough to keep away the hackers as the software does not prevent "Spyware" from being installed on your computer.

"Spyware" is software that gets onto your computer and literally "spies" on your activities. The spying can range from relatively harmless use of cookies tracking you across multiple websites... to extremely dangerous "keystroke loggers" which record passwords, credit cards, and other personal data. That data then gets relayed to the person who put the software on your computer.

Spyware gets on your computer in one of several different ways.

First, it rides along with software you download from the 'Net and install on your system.

Second, they come as email attachments (much like viruses) and automatically install themselves on your computer when you open the email message.

Third, hackers find an open port on your computer and use the "back door" to install basically anything they want.

And fourth, the more malicious types, like keystroke loggers, can even get installed by someone with direct physical access to your computer such as an employer, suspicious spouse, business competitor, or someone who wants to know exactly what you're doing.

So how do you protect yourself against these malicious hackers? You need a program that specifically scans your system for the tens-of-thousands of existing spyware programs along with the new ones appearing daily.

Below are two programs which specifically check for and remove spyware from your system:

"Spybot Search & Destroy" - http://www.safer-networking.org/ "Ad Aware" - http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

You may have spyware lurking on your computer right now so protect yourself today by downloading one of the above programs!

As a point of reference, we contacted E-gold and informed them that we had been hacked. We provided them with the account number of the person who received the funds and asked for a contact e-mail address on the person. E-gold informed us that they could not provide that information without a "court order" and that basically there was no way of getting the money back!

Take action today to protect yourself from this growing threat! The bottom line is: - Keep your anti-virus program current

- Install a firewall
- Carefully screen software before installing it
- Scan specifically for spyware weekly
- Stay current on this growing threat.

Charles & Susan Truett are experienced internet marketers who have built a successful online business and are now teaching others how to achieve the same success. For more more info on how to make money at home visit http://www.partnersinsuccess.net

[tags]anti virus, hackers[/tags]

Tips To Avoid Viruses

2008-11-01T07:01:00.001-07:00

Earlier viruses meant an ailment which had no definition and worked its way out of the human system in 3-5 days. Today when one talks of viruses it largely means those that harm computers. Techies work round the clock to create defenses to new viruses. A virus can slow down the computer, prevent functions, damage software, steal files, introduce spyware, and more. They are thieves and murders of technology

As a computer user you can take a few simple and practical measures to protect yourself.

1. Instant messaging is useful and harmless if you use the latest version, and never ever download a file from a person you don't know or a friend who is a known prankster. It is attachments that carry viruses.

2. Keep abreast of new developments and update your computer software and hardware. If you are using Windows you can go to Microsoft Update and get your computer scanned and get patches as well as high priority updates.

3. Use the latest versions of antivirus software, a firewall, and anti-spyware / adware programs.

4. Help prevent spamming. Learn about dos and don'ts of spamming and report spams.

5. Protect your work by introducing a password as well as taking all steps to ensure that only you can access administrator functions.

6. Keep your peace of mind by creating a "back up" schedule for the computer.

7. Never give in to phishing even if it seems like real.

8. Prevent invaders who tempt you with goodies by using Cyberhawk, AVGantivirus, or Avast. These are efficient and free.

9. Use wireless connections and broadband connections to the internet with care. Thieves can steal your IP address and much more.

10. Learn about which files are likely virus carriers. Mostly files with only data do not carry a virus and end with extensions like .txt, .csv, .gif, .jpg, .mp3 and so on. Files that have extensions like .doc, .exe , or.htm can carry viruses.

What you need to know about and watch out for are: viruses, worms, Trojan horses, adware, spyware, and phising. Don't install applications just because they are in vogue. Only install those you are likely to use. Never install file transfer or file sharing services or remote access to your systems. Further more always shut down when your computer is not in use. Be sure to log off from your internet connection. Try and store important documents on CDs, DVDs, or pen drives. Please store back ups in a safe place away from your computers. Never download files from unknown sources. Many offer temptations like flash games, music, movies, or videos free. Nothing in life is free and that is an established norm. Freebies always come at a price.

Look after your computer and your peace of mind and work will be undisturbed.

Andrew Bermam is a freelance writer for http://www.1888SoftwareDownloads.com, the premier website to find Free Software Downloads including free anti-virus software, free spyware detection software, free toolbars, free chat software and more. He also freelances for http://www.1888FreeOnlineGames.com

[tags]free anti-virus software, free spyware detection software, free toolbars, free chat software[/tags]

How To Stop Spyware

2008-10-31T07:01:00.001-07:00

Spyware is one of the biggest threats to your privacy and the security of your data. Here's a series of helpful questions and answers that can help you remove and minimize future spyware from your computer.

Spyware comes in various forms, but basically it is a program or piece of information on your computer that either sends data about you or your computer habits to someone else on the Internet. This can be a company that is collecting data, or a thief seeking to steal access to your computer or data like bank information on it. Spyware can also be a program that places unwanted ads on your computer. Cookies can be considered spyware. They are little piece of information placed in your web browser to track your web habits. This is useful sometimes as a web site can see you have visited it before and let you on without a registration process. Cookies are also used to keep track of your progress through a web store. They are also used to customize website ads to your likes and dislikes.

Spyware is bad because for one it can hog precious system resources like memory and hard disk space. It can also compromise your privacy, providing outsiders with information about your computer habits. If a spyware program installs a keylogger it can capture your keystrokes and send it to a third party. This can potentially expose your user IDs and passwords to thieves. Some spyware are trojans which allows someone to log into your computer remotely and use it for their own purposes like sending spam or launching malicious attacks on other computers on the Internet, making it look like you are at fault.

There are several techniques how spyware get's on your computer. Sometimes they arrive as an automatic download from a website you are surfing. Typically this happens a lot on porn sites. Sometimes if you download a free or illegal piece of software, they are embedded in the installation process. Or spyware can get on your computer via an email attachment that you shouldn't have opened.

Sometimes a spyware program is very obvious and it can be deleted manually. It adds itself to your menu bar and be found listed in your Add/Remove Programs list in your Windows Control Panel. Click START, (then if you have Win95/98/Me click Settings) then Control Panel then Add/Remove Programs and look for a program that you don't recognize. Sometimes its obvious....like "XXX dialer" or something like that. Just use the Add/Remove Programs features to remove it. Sometimes its not as evident and you have to go diving into the registry and delete entries and also search for specific files on your hard drive and remove them. There are good list of spyware removal techniques that can be found on the internet.

There are a few things you can do to stop spyware. Don't download programs by companies you are not familiar with. Avoid shareware and freeware. Don't download illegal pirated software. Set your browser security to high. One Internet Explorer, click Tools > Internet Options > then the Security tab and move the slider to MEDIUM or preferably HIGH. The only problem with this is it may block access to some websites you want to see. Ultimately your best bet is to get an anti-spyware program and scan your system regularly.

Mike Stewart and his company http://www.Freespamfilter.nl provide Free Anti Virus - Spyware remover - Adware removal - Pop Up Blockers and Spam Filters at their website http://www.Freespamfilter.nl

[tags]spyware, adware, remover, removal, anti virus, software, free, popup blocker, pop, up, blocker[/tags]

Types Of Computer Infections

2008-10-30T07:00:00.001-07:00

Computer infections can be broken up into 4 main categories which are explained in detail below:

Viruses

Computer Viruses are small pieces of software that attach themselves to real programs. An example would be a virus that attaches itself onto windows explorer. Each time you run the program windows explorer the virus will also be executed and perform the function that it was meant to perform. This can be several things such as damaging files on your computer, or erasing them all together. This is also the time in which the virus will try to spread itself onto other programs and even other computers!

Worms

A worm just like a virus is a small piece of software. However worms rather then relying on an external program to function, will run themselves over computer networks and security holes to spread. The worm will scan the network from it's host computer until it finds another computer that it can attach itself to. It will then continue this process to replicate. Because this type of infection runs by itself it can have devastating impacts. The Mydoom worm is estimated to have infected over a quarter million computers in a single day when it first launched back in March 1999.

Trojan Horses

A Trojan horse is a computer programs that claims to be one thing, but is actually another. For example you might receive a Trojan horse that is disguised as an image, but when you go to open the file, it will do whatever it is that it was written to do.

E-mail Viruses

Email Viruses are very common. They work by spreading themselves through email messages. Once they infect a computer, they will then go ahead and replicate themselves by automatically mailing out again to everyone in the victim's e-mail address book. Several of these virus's have raced through the internet. Examples of email virus's are the Melissa Virus, and the ILOVEYOU virus.

Feel free to reprint this article as long as you keep the following caption and author biography in tact with all hyperlinks.

Ryan Fyfe is the owner and operator of Software Area. Which is a great web directory and information center on Anti Virus Software and other computer software related issues.

[tags]Computer virus, viruses, e-mail, worms, Trojan horses, software[/tags]

A Computer Firewall Is Your Primary Defense Against Virtual Attacks

2008-10-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

If you have any personal information on your computer at all and access the Internet it is vitally important that you consider the benefits of a computer firewall. Many people lock their homes, lock their cars, keep a watchful eye on their children, and yet leave the bank accounts, personal information, and all kinds of other information vulnerable and exposed through their personal computers.

A virtual attack can be just as devastating financially and emotionally as someone breaking into your home. They are allowed access to secrets you may have shared in confidence with online friends or even offline friends that you correspond with online, they will have passwords for financial and banking accounts, they will know where you buy your coffee; they can learn where your children go to school. The information we have on our personal computers is staggering in terms of personal security nightmares and yet so many people take no steps to secure this information from prying eyes by investing in a simple computer firewall.

The amazing thing is that you can even find free computer firewalls available online if you know where to look. I highly recommend paying for a computer firewall though if you have little knowledge of the inner workings of your computer. If you're going to secure your families secrets you may as well invest in a very good program with constant updates in order to do so.

A computer firewall isn't just a nice thing to have on your computer; it is a vital line of defense for you and your family. Keep this in mind when choosing the best computer firewall for you. Remember you want to have a service that will provide updates and keep up with evolving technology that would harm your computer or steal your personal information.

John Gibb is the owner of Firewall Sources, For more information on Computer Firewalls please check out http://firewall-sources.info

[tags]firewall, antivirus, internet[/tags]

What Every Internet Marketer Should Know About Spyware

2008-10-29T07:00:00.002-07:00

If you run any type of Internet business, Adware and Spyware can be a very serious issue. These programs hide themselves on your computer and do all sorts of annoying and potentially dangerous things.

Viruses spread on your PC. The good news is that Spyware applications usually stay put, much like a parasite. Spyware collects information about your messaging and browsing behavior and your online preferences with the intent to sell it to online advertisers.

Adware is an application which shows advertisements on your PC, including banners and pop-ups. Some Adware programs also track the usage behavior of the application user without the knowledge of that user.

If you find ads constantly appearing on your computer, your home page being changed repeatedly, mysterious toolbars appearing on your browser, a noticeably slower PC, or any other weird thing happening then chances are you have some form of Spyware or Adware on your PC.

It's scary to know that you're being "watched", and that your private information that you assume is safe may actually be used against you. Adware/Spyware programs can enter your PC through email, instant messaging, or downloading files. It's especially scary for the Internet marketer, because we are constantly purchasing and downloading new products and services online.

If you let Adware pile up on your computer, things can get pretty ugly. It was getting to the point where every time I opened my browser a search toolbar would appear on top (even though I kept uninstalling it) along with about 5 popup windows. I couldn't get any work done without some kind of interruption every 2 minutes. Talk about annoying! And running virus software such as Norton didn't help.

If you are finding yourself in the same situation, don't despair. There are programs available (both free and paid) to help you get Spyware and Adware off your PC. It is not the intent of this article to try to sell you on any one piece of software. In fact, I recommend starting with free software, then evaluating your situation.

For Spyware, the best free program I've used is Spybot Search & Destroy, which can be downloaded at:

http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10122137.html

For Adware, the best free program I've used is Ad-Aware, which can be downloaded at:

http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html

These 2 programs got rid of most of the Spyware/Adware on my machine, but I was still experiencing some problems so I went ahead and purchased some software. There are a lot of good programs out there that will get rid of both Spyware and Adware with the push of one button. Most run between $25-$40.

If you are still experiencing popups or other symptoms of Spyware after running the free programs, do a little bit of research and upgrade to a paid version. Most offer some sort of guarantee, and the money you spend will be well worth the headaches and annoyances of Spyware on your PC.

Michael Murray is a 22-year old full-time Internet marketer and college student with Cerebral Palsy who lives in sunny Orlando Florida. His latest site is an information center on how to remove Adware & Spyware from your PC: http://www.adware-software.com

[tags]Internet marketing,online business,adertising,spyware,adware,computers,viruses[/tags]

Protect Your Computer From Spam, Viruses, And Spyware

2008-10-29T07:00:00.001-07:00

Breaking and Entering On the Internet!

I like to make analogies between the online world and our physical world. The similarities are becoming more recognized every day. Here's my favorite...

"If you are not taking the security of your home or business computer seriously, it is like leaving the front door of your home open all day and all night whether you are home or not."

The Internet is a big place with every imaginable character out there, many of whom are happy to intrude on your private domain and use it to their benefit. In addition to that, there is a constant battle for your desktop from many of the seemingly trusted software companies including Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and others, large and small. When you start up your computer, they want you to see their stuff and they are constantly fighting over what you see. This creates software conflicts that, over time, can bog down the performance of your computer and slow your productivity. Be an active participant in the management of your computer workspace by taking the time to install these essential protections and following the best practices shown below.

After years of working online, we have put together a set of programs and practices that have allowed us to use the Internet in relative safety and with minimal intrusion from evil doers. By the way, these are our favorite picks. Our objective is to save you the time of analyzing several various solutions on your own.

1. Basic Computer Security To Protect You From Viruses.

McAfee Virus Scan - We like this solution the best. It simply has worked best for us with the least intrusion on our workspace and time. Virus protection, by its very nature is somewhat intrusive. It must update itself every so often to keep up with spammers and virus writers. This one does it in a way that has not gotten in the way of our own work.

We consider McAfee an absolute must. Cost = About $60.00 per year (subscription). www.mcafee.com

2. Basic Spam Protection

CloudMark Spam Filter - CloudMark stands out to us as the best method of keeping up with spammers. You can't stop them, but you can control what you are willing to view. This very successful method uses the collective, real-time knowledge of millions of email subscribers to manage an ever changing database of spammers so it can filter them out before they get a chance to invade your mailbox.

The program creates a spam folder in your Outlook or Outlook Express so you can look through the junk in case a good email message gets caught, but then once you've browsed it, you can dump them all in one fell swoop. Very easy.

In addition, if you receive a spam that was not caught by the filter, you can report to the database with one click which will block it forever more from your good email box and alert the millions of others in the community of this spammer. We consider this a must as well. Get CloudMark here. www.cloudmark.com - Cost - $39.95 per year per user.

3. Basic Spyware and Adware Protection

Ad and Spyware are programs that are (often without your knowledge, unless you like reading lots of fine print) automatically installed on your computer. These programs change the way your computer sees advertisements on the web and often are the reason that you get uncontrollable popups.

There are two programs that we've used successfully to protect our computers from Adware and Spyware. The good news is that they are free. They also offer paid upgrades, but we've gotten by pretty well using both of these free versions.

Spybot Search & Destroy - This is a free program that we've used and it seems to have worked well for us. Get it here. http://spybot.safer-networking.de/en/

Ad-Aware Personal - Catches some of the adware and spyware programs that others don't. Get it here. http://www.lavasoft.com/software/adaware/

4. Update Your Windows Software

It's our opinion that MS Windows has become easier to use and more secure over the years. If you're not running Windows XP or above you are missing out on much easier computing. It's not that expensive to upgrade and the benefits are real.

More important however is that you must update your version and install the latest patches when they come out from time to time. The good news is that the latest MS Windows software does much of this automatically for you.

Remember, there are virus writers out there every day trying to invade your computer. Fortunately, there are just as many good guys fighting them and keeping up with them. By keeping your software updated, you are reducing your chance of being exploited. The crooks have plenty of easy pickings to take advantage of. You don't have to be one of those easy pickings. Just update regularly. Get it here... http://www.microsoft.com

Important Personal & Procedural Policies to Follow

5. Never, Never, Never Believe or Accept Unsolicited Email Offers

If you buy something from an email that was sent to you out of the blue, you are a.) encouraging spam, b.) putting yourself at risk for viruses or bad software, and c.) putting yourself at risk of getting ripped off. Just say no to all Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE).

In many states, it is illegal. If you don't have a problem with spam now, the surest way to get started having problems is to begin buying from those that send it. You only have to get on one list for your email address to sold and traded all over spam circles and I assure you that it will become a problem for you once you get started.

You may publish this article free of charge in your ezine, web site, ebook or print publication so long as the copyright notice and the resource paragraph (at the end of the article) are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

Joe Salvatore runs an Internet marketing and domain name consultancy called Personaweb and is the North Amerian Marketing Manager for a London based Domain Registry.

Website: http://www.personaweb.com
Phone: 909-590-5660

[tags]computer,internet,security,protection,spam,spyware,viruses,anti,software,program,programs[/tags]

How To Choose The Best Computer Security Suite For Your Needs

2008-10-28T07:00:00.001-07:00

Before you begin reading this article, there is something that it is critical to understand. Simply put, there is no such thing as a completely secure web browser or operating system. While any of the major security suites and associated products will greatly reduce your exposure to security risks, they are not silver bullets that will stop everything that may come your way. Any product that claims to eliminate 100 percent of your security risks should be looked at very carefully.

Now that we have the ground rule out of the way, let's consider security suites and computer security. There are a variety of means by which the security of a computer can be breached. Among the most common threats are crackers, phishing, Trojans, viruses, and worms. Potential security risks can also be introduced through spyware, malware, or email attachments, and something called port scanning.

Dshield.org, a Florida-based non-profit company, provides "platform for users of firewalls to share intrusion information". What they do is work with software vendors to allow for a common reporting platform of port scanning activity detected by software. Port scanning is when software scans another computer system looking for open ports to connect to. Port scanning is often a prelude to other types of attacks, and is used by many viruses and worms to propagate themselves.

Among the more interesting items reported by DShield is the "survival time". What this means is how long an unpatched computer will be able to "survive" online before being attacked. Over the course of the past year, the survival time for an unpatched Windows system is approximately 100 minutes. If you have an unpatched Windows system, you can expect it to be attacked in about an hour an a half. Clearly, you need to take matters into your own hands to protect the security of your computer systems.

There are some simple steps you can take to quickly and easily protect your computer.

1. Never run unfamiliar programs on your computer. While it may seem to be common sense, many of the most widely-spread attacks have involved spyware and email attachment worms. The rule is simple: Don't open the attachment if you don't recognize the sender.

2. Never allow others to have unmoderated physical access to your computer. If you have sensitive or confidential information on your computer, if you allow others physical access to the system, they may either inadvertently or intentionally breach the security of the computer.

3. Always use strong passwords. Be sure none of your passwords are easy to guess. Many people use the names of pets or children, or anniversaries or birthdays. Given how many passwords seem to be needed, another common mistake is for someone to use the same password for everything from their picture-sharing website to their online brokerage. By using only one password, if one system is compromised, all systems you have access to can be compromised. Also, if you absolutely must write your password down, never leave it attached to the computer. I recently saw the proprietor of a small business peering under her keyboard to login to her computer.

4. Be sure to keep your operating system and all installed applications up to current patch levels. Most security experts share the opinion that almost all network-based security attacks would stop if users kept their computers up to date with patches and current security fixes. Almost all of us forget to do this regularly. New Trojans, worms, and viruses are being distributed and created every day. Almost all of them are trying to exploit newly-discovered weaknesses in operating systems and applications.

5. Backup backup backup! It can't be said enough that it is vitally important to keep regular backups of any and all important data. Even if your system is kept secure from worms, viruses, and Trojans, it is still vulnerable to fire, theft, flooding, hardware failure, and any number of other things that can destroy your most valuable data. Given the ease and availability of CD and DVD burners, there are no excuses for not keeping your data backed up.

For most people, enabling auto-updates, using safe email practices, and using a password-protected screensaver provides adequate security. If you would rather take some additional measures to improve the security of your computer, you should consider purchasing a comprehensive security suite.

While there are many packages out there, you should start with asking yourself some basic questions: Are you the only user, or are there multiple users? If there are multiple users, are any of them children? Do you need to password-protect individual files, your desktop, or someone's internet access? How much are you willing to spend? What kind of system are you running?

Once you are able to answer those questions, you can begin to research which of the available security suites is best able to meet your needs. Consumer Reports, ZDNet.com, and PC Magazine are just a few of the very informative websites available that offer information and insight into security suites.

There are many different security suites available today. Be sure to conduct your research carefully to find the one that best meets your needs. Listed below are some of the more popular choices, along with what PC World had to say about them.

1. Symantec Norton Internet Security 2006. Symantec's suite produced top-tier malware detection and cleanup scores, but it would benefit from a more streamlined interface and fewer pop-up alerts.

2. McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006. The excellent malware detection and cleanup scores of McAfee's full-featured suite make up for its terrible installation routine.

3. Panda Platinum 2006 Internet Security. Panda has superior heuristics, a top-notch firewall, and speedy on-demand scanning, but its interface needs better organization.

4. F-Secure Internet Security 2006. This suite's five scanning engines--including one for rootkits--produced excellent malware detection scores but the slowest scan speed.

5. Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2006. Trend Micro's interface, speed, and features (including an antiphishing toolbar) were better than its malware detection scores.

Mike Tetreault is an accomplished developer and systems architect. He is also the managing principal of Macrocosmic Technologies and its PrivacyOnTheGo product line which offers a solution to the security and privacy issues faced by people who use multiple or public computers.

[tags]anti virus,antivirus,anti-virus,firewall,computer security,security,[/tags]

Spyware Protection Software

2008-10-27T07:00:00.001-07:00

Spyware protection software is the easiest way of removing spyware from your computer and keeping it away. It detects and removes all pieces of spyware and adware automatically. Spyware is extremely difficult to remove manually and should only be removed with spyware protection software.

Spyware protection software is designed to not only get rid of spyware viruses but will shield you and your computer from destructive hackers, data thieves, malicious e-mail attachments, and other emerging Internet threats. It keeps these dangerous viruses from getting into your computer in the first place.

You might be asking if there are free spyware cleaners available why would you want to purchase spyware protection software. The free spyware cleaners are good programs to get rid of spyware viruses you already have on your computer now. But how much of your personal information, passwords and even credit card numbers did these programs send out before they were removed?

Also, many spyware programs automatically reinstall themselves even after they are removed. So you have a false sense of security because the hacker designed the spyware program to start right back up again. Free spyware cleaners should be a warning to you and not a permanent solution to solve spyware and adware problems.

Spyware protection software is designed to find all of these hidden programs and disable them before they have a chance to work. It is the best way of removing spyware and adware from your computer and keeping it away. Whether you take our recommendations or someone else's it's important that you get spyware protection software installed immediately.

Spyware dangers have become so common, they have now moved ahead of viruses as the number one danger facing computer users today. It's worth a little time and a little cost now to invest into quality spyware protection software. Your personal information and computer are at risk until you do.

This article is provided by http://www.spyware-information.com where you will find free spyware cleaners, downloads, removal software, valuable tips and updated articles about adware and spyware removal programs to protect your identity. For other informative spyware and adware articles go to http://spyware-information.com/articles_1.html

[tags]spyware protection software,removing spyware from computer,get rid spyware virus[/tags]

Computer & Network Security Two Anti Virus Strategies

2008-10-26T07:00:00.003-07:00

Rootkits and advanced spyware have fundamentally changed the playing field says Mike Danseglio, Program Manager in the Security Solutions group at Microsoft, according to Fox News' "Microsoft Official: Malware Recovery Not Always Possible" by Ryan Naraine, reporting from InfoSec World on April 5th, 2006. "When you are dealing with rootkits and some advanced spyware programs, the only solution is to rebuild from scratch. In some cases, there really is no way to recover without nuking the systems from orbit," states Mr. Danseglio.

He cites a recent instance where an unnamed branch of the U.S. government struggled to design an automated process to wipe and rebuild 2,000 infected client machines. "In that case, it was so severe that trying to recover was meaningless." While training costs can be high, they pale in comparison to the mounting expenses incurred by detecting damage, recovering lost work and rebuilding compromised systems--let alone "nuking" and starting all over again from scratch.

Rootkits, for example, use kernel hooks which often make them undetectable. Because of this, they are able to hide malware programs, making them the weapon of choice to compromise computer systems. Mr. Danseglio adds that IT administrators may never even know if the entire rootkit has been successfully removed. The cleanup process is "just way too hard."

"We've seen the self-healing malware that actually detects that you're trying to get rid of it. You remove it, and the next time you look in that directory, it's sitting there. It can simply reinstall itself," he said. "Detection is difficult, and remediation is often impossible," Danseglio declared. "If it doesn't crash your system or cause your system to freeze, how do you know it's there? The answer is you just don't know," he explained. "Lots of times, you never see the infection occur in real time, and you don't see the malware lingering or running in the background.

Fortunately, however, the alternative, training, is easier than it ever was, thanks to new online technologies such distance learning. The important point to remember is that, with today's viruses. all employees--not just IT people--must be trained.

Tom McClintock is a Senior Analyst with NSI Partners (http://www.nsipartners.com), the consulting firm that operates the IT distance learning web site eLearnConnect which can be found at http://www.elearnconnect.com

[tags]computer virus, computer security, anti virus[/tags]

Security Systems Software And Basics

2008-10-26T07:00:00.001-07:00

Anti-Virus Software:

Install virus protection software. That means three things: having it on your computer in the first place, checking daily for new virus signature updates, and then actually scanning all the files on your computer periodically. Update your anti-virus software daily or weekly and schedule a regular scan. Make sure all family members know what to do if the home computer becomes infected.

Locate Anti-Virus Software - http://www.monitoring-software.net/

Install Firewall Software:

Firewalls act as a gatekeepers between your computer or network and the Internet. They are essential for those who keep their computers online through the popular DSL and cable modem connections, but they are also valuable for those who still dial in. Protect your computer from Internet intruders. Use firewalls. Firewalls are usually software product but can also be hardware solutions.

Passwords:

Choose passwords or Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) that are difficult for others to guess. Use both letters and numbers and a combination of lower- and upper-case letters if the passwords are case-sensitive. Use a different password for each of your Internet accounts.

Passwords should not be names, or words (from any language). Hackers who try to obtain passwords for accounts that don't belong to them (called crackers) use large dictionaries filled with these kinds of passwords. In order to protect yourself against these people, simply don't use common words!

Change these passwords frequently. Don't keep your password where someone can see it. If it can possibly be avoided, don't write it down at all. There are ways to create passwords that are both secure and easy to remember. Remember that your password unlocks your online identity. Don't leave yourself logged in when your machine is unattended. Everything that is done with your account can and will be attributed to you. It's best that you keep your password somewhat esoteric. Do not use the same password for different systems.

More on Passwords - http://www.password-software

Backups:

Back up your computer data on disks or CDs regularly. Retain the only copies of those files on removable media and store the media in a safe place. Use accessories such as rewriteable CD drives and zip disks for copies of your important files - they're easy to use and relatively cheap.

Alert:

Be alert for fraudulent (sometimes called "phishing") emails. They may appear to come from a reputable business or a trusted friend but are actually designed to trick you into downloading a virus to your computer or directing you to a Web site to disclose sensitive or personal information. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, educate all system users to be alert for phishing scams.

Practice Safe Computing:

Protect shared files and folders. Set the permissions on the share to "read-only." This means that no one will be able to copy, delete, modify, or rename your files. Set-up login accounts and file permissions, so only authorised users can access the system. Unix and Windows NT/2000 have these security functions built in. If you run Windows 95/98/Me, you can buy products to provide this protection.

Configure the access restrictions to individual files or folders, so other users can only access the files you want them to. Understand and use the security features provided by your PC software, such as those included in many operating systems, browsers and word processing systems. The safest option is to set your computer to ignore Java and ActiveX programming languages. Otherwise set your browser to ask you each time it is about to run Java and ActiveX code.

Depending on what you know about the site, you will at least have the choice to run it, or not. If information privacy is imperative you should also consider using a file- or disk-encryption system on the sensitive files.

About the Author:
Francesca Black develops educational material for http://www.security-port.com and http://www.security-protection.net a top resource for locating security related RSS feeds.

[tags]security, secure, password, hack, firewall, anti-virus, software, crack, safe computing, computer, p[/tags]

Virus Strains

2008-10-25T07:00:00.003-07:00

What we need is the Dewey Decimal System to go digital ...

Specifically, someone needs to coax their keepers into putting some logical order into how computer viruses are sorted.

Recently, warnings abounded about the Kama Sutra virus quickly proliferating cyberspace, joining the Grew.A and Nyxem.E as serious threats to computer file security. However, only those who took a closer look at these strains were able to discover that they all had something in common.

They were virtually the same virus.

There is uniformity in the library world when it comes to catalogging the millions of books contained therein, thanks to Dewey. The weather service administrators do their bit for personnification by breathing a bit of nefarious charm into the tropical storms they track by assigning them names in alphabetical order each year. They key to both of these facts is that someone devised a universal means of identifying something that assists the general public in dealing with it.

The time is rapidly approaching when someone needs to step forward and put some order into the villainous world of computer infections.

New viruses arise so suddenly and spread so quickly that those whose job it is to seek and destroy them have little time to muse over what to name them. With Dama Sutra, for instance, its file-destroying program seemed to be spread by junk e-mail enticements to visit porn sites. The news media ran with that theme and gave it a headline-grabbing handle; Kama Sutra, of course, is the legendary lovemaking guide compiled to classify the creativity of ancient Hindu hedonism.

Geeks, however, have their own perspective when they put a spin on things. Just as banks need to have stately names, spyware apparently needs to carry Matrix-like titles to make them appear darker, more foreboding and a worthy challenge. After all, who amongst them would want to quash the Kama Sutra? Wouldn't that confirm the geek image as a cyber-eunuch?

Thus, titles like Grew.A and Nyxem.E are coined to look so much more imposing and in need of professional assistance to eradicate.

F-Secure is a Finnish virus fighter and widely acclaimed to be one of the best of its kind on the market. Their stature is such that when they identify an intrusive program, others notice and accept the name they give it. In this case, F-Secure saw the program shared code and techniques with cetain file-destroying predecessors, so they went with 'Nyxem.E,' derived from the acronym for the New York Mercentile Exchange, whose web site was targeted by the initial culprit.

Other vendors took note that this program destroyed files instead of overloading websites with fake traffic. Using a logic known only to one of the backroom gnomes in their employ, this meant that 'Grew.A' was the most appropriate description. I can only think that asking for a clarification for that decision would cause most of us as much of a headache as trying to remove the program after it has hit our computers.

Anyway, in these trying times of terrorism alerts, if nobody else is willing to tackle the task of virus classification, those rock-lifters and cobweb-sweepers at the USA Department of Homeland Security are prepared to step into the fray. They have devised a system of virus naming through the Common Malware Enumeration, or CME. Outbreaks are assigned a random number, which in this case turned out to be '24.'

We'll see if such a system captures teh public's imagination.

This is an important point, because if a unified virus identification system is to be effective, it has to immediately raise a general awareness so that the virus' spread can be better contained.

If nothing else, 'Kama Sutra' generated enough clicks to quickly spread the word that a cyber-invader was on the prowl. Once named as such, a program that had been circulating for weeks, but was set to destroy files only on the third day of each month, finally came to the public's attention. That gave vendors time to update their products and warn customers.

Incidentally, this strain is known to corrupt documents using the most common file types, including '.doc,' '.pdf' and '.zip.' It affects most versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system, which caused them to issue the most widely-heeded warning of the problem.

Given the recent animosity-filled anti-trust suit brought by the American government against the software giant, it does seem like their efforts to raise the awareness of this virus has necessitated that they become the proverbial strange bedfellows.

It's only appropriate that something named Kama Sutra would bring them together. It's inevitable that they would find themselves in this position. The task now is for them --- and everyone else --- to agree upon what to call it.

J Square Humboldt is the featured columnist at the Longer Life website, which is dedicated to providing information, strategies, analysis and commentary designed to improve the quality of living. His page can be found at http://longerlifegroup.com/cyberiter.html and his observations are published three times per week.

[tags]Kama Sutra virus, computer virus, computer viruses, CME, Common Malware Enumeration, Cyberiter[/tags]

9 Steps To Protect Your Computer From Virus Infection

2008-10-25T07:00:00.001-07:00

Virus can create havoc in your computer. It can at the very least cause nuisance to your computer, to as bad as making your computer a useless junk. Here we list 9 steps you can take to protect your computer from being infected by viruses.

1. Install antivirus software, and get a high quality one. You can find many different anti-virus computers programs on the market, and some of them are just better than others. Do your research from reputable websites or computer magazines for ratings and reviews to help you find the one that is best for you.

2. Keep your antivirus software up to date. When you buy antivirus software or the license to the software it is very likely that you are subscribed for one-year updates. Most of them provide daily updates. Make sure you update you antivirus programs or database whenever an update is available. Remember that the crooks create tens of new viruses every day.

3. Keep your anti-virus software active all the time. Make sure your anti-virus software is set to scan incoming and outgoing email messages, downloads, and any software programs you run.

4. Keep your computer's operating system up to date. Check for updates periodically to make sure you are running updated versions of your software. Windows XP has a feature that automatically checks for updates. Use it. The updates may address some security fault that may put your computer at risk to virus attacks.

5. If you use floppy disks or USB drives on public computers like your school computer lab make sure you scan them for viruses when you get home or back in your office. You don't want to be infected by viruses that may be present in those public computers.

6. Be careful with email attachments. Treat any email attachment as potential hazard. Never open attachments from senders you don't recognize, or even from senders you know but look suspicious. Some computer viruses disguise themselves as someone you know by reading addresses from the contacts in your email program.

7. Be cautious of links in instant messaging software. Don't accept invitations or click a link from people you don't know or trust. The link may take you to a website that may try to install a virus on your computer.

8. If you need to download software try downloading them from popular sites that have good reputation that scan software before they are uploaded. To make sure you are doubly safe scan the software for viruses with your antivirus software before installing it.

9. Lastly, make backups of your data regularly. Perform weekly or monthly backups to CD or USB drives. If you lose your data on the hard drive due to virus attacks, you still can fall back to your backups.

Pauzi Said is the owner of the website More On Virus that discusses virus and antivirus. For more info on virus and antivirus visit More On Virus.

[tags]virus,antivirus,computer,anti virus[/tags]

14 Household Ways To Protect Your Computer From Viruses

2008-10-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

Computer viruses are deadly. They often spread without any apparent contact and can be a nuisance, or even worse, fatal to your computer. Individuals who create these viruses, estimated at 10-15 new ones a day, are the electronic version of terrorists. Their goal is to inflict havoc and destruction on as many people as possible by disabling, stealing, damaging, or destroying computer and information resources. Often, they have no specific target in mind, so no one is safe. If you access the internet, share files or your computer with others, or load anything from diskettes, CDs, or DVDs onto your computer, you are vulnerable to viruses.

Fortunately, there are good guys working just as hard as the hackers to develop cures for viruses as quickly as they send them off into cyberspace. And there are many things you can do to keep your computer from catching viruses in the first place.

Defining Viruses:

A virus is a small computer program that can copy and spread itself from one computer to another, with or without the help of the user. However, viruses typically do more than just be fruitful and multiply, which is bad enough in itself because it hogs system resources. Anything else viruses are programmed to do, from displaying annoying messages to destroying files, is called their payload. Often, they cannot deliver their payload until an unsuspecting user does something to make the virus execute its programmed function. This could be as simple as clicking on an innocent looking file attachment with the .exe (executable) extension.

Catching a Virus:

Most viruses are spread through e-mail attachments because it's the easiest way to do it. Although Macintosh, Unix, and Linux systems can catch viruses, hackers are particularly keen on exploiting the security weaknesses in anything Microsoft, particularly Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. Because of the popularity of this software, hackers get maximum bang for their buck, and they probably get some satisfaction from continually reminding Microsoft that being big doesn't mean you're perfect.

Solution 1: Anti-virus Software

Your first line of defense is to install anti-virus software. To be extra safe, also install firewall software, which is now included in some anti-virus packages. This software can scan all of your drives for viruses and neutralize them. Here are some features to consider when evaluating anti-virus software.

- Compatibility with your operating system - Make sure the software works with your system, particularly if you are using an older operating system like Windows 98.

- Firewall software - If it's not included, find out if it's available. If you must, buy it from another vendor.

- Automatic background protection - This means your software will constantly scan behind the scenes for infections and neutralize them as they appear. This provides some peace of mind.

- Automatic, frequent updates - Because new viruses appear every day, you'll want regular updates. It's even better if they occur automatically when you connect to the internet. If automatic updating isn't included, you'll have to check the vendor's website and download updates yourself. This is vitally important, because you will not be protected from new viruses if your software is out of date.

- Disaster recovery - Software with a recovery utility to help you get your system back to normal after a virus attack is always good to have.

- ICSA certification - The International Computer Security Associatioin has standards for the detection rates of anti-virus software. Make sure your software has the ICSA certification.

- Technical support - It's a good idea to select a package that offers free technical support, either online or through a toll-free number. If you're ever felled by a virus, you may need it. Some anti-virus software vendors are Symantec Corporation (Norton AntiVirus), McAfee Corporation (McAfee VirusScan), Trend Micro Inc. (PC-cillin), and Zone Labs Inc. (Zone Alarm Suite).

Solution 2: The Virus Scan

If you receive a particularly juicy attachment that you're dying to open, save it on your Windows desktop and run your anti-virus software on it first. To do this, click once gently on the file on your desktop ... don't actually open it ... then right click and choose Scan with (Name of Anti-Virus Software) to activate a virus scan.

If it's infected, your anti-virus software may neutralize it, or at least tell you the attachment is too dangerous to open. On the other hand, don't feel guilty if the very thought of saving a potentially damaging file anywhere on your system is enough to quell your eagerness to open it and make you delete it immediately.

Solution 3: Delete first, ask questions later.

When in doubt about the origin of an e-mail, the best thing to do is delete it without previewing or opening it. However, some viruses, such as Klez, propagate by fishing in people's address books and sending themselves from any contact they find to another random contact. You can spread a virus just by having people in your address book, even if you don't actually e-mail them anything. They'll receive it from someone else in your address book, which really makes life confusing. Because of the proliferation of porn on the internet, e-mail viruses often tempt victims by using sexual filenames, such as nudes.exe. Don't fall for it.

Solution 4: Beware of virus hoaxes

E-mails warning you about viruses are almost always hoaxes. You may be tempted to believe them because you typically receive them from well-meaning friends, who received them from friends, etc. These e-mails themselves usually aren't viruses, but some have actually fallen into the hands of hackers who loaded them with viruses and forwarded them merrily on their way as a sick joke.

The proliferation of e-mails about virus hoaxes can become nearly as bad as a real virus. Think about it, if you obey an e-mail that tells you to forward it to everyone in your address book, and they THEY do it, and this goes on long enough, you could bring the internet to its knees. If you ever want to verify a virus warning, your anti-virus vendor may have a list of hoaxes on it website. It's in the business of providing the fixes, so it will know which viruses are real.

Solution 5: Beware of filename extensions

The extension of a filename is the three characters that come after the dot. Windows now defaults to hiding filename extensions, but it isn't a good idea. Just being able to see a suspicious extension and deleting the file before opening it can save you from a virus infection.

To see filename extensions in all your directory listings, on the Windows XP desktop, click Start button | Control Panels | Folder Options | View Tab. Clear the check box for Hide extensions of known file types. Click Apply | OK. System files will still be hidden, but you'll be able to see extensions for all the files you need to be concerned with. Viruses often live on files with these extensions - .vbs, .shs, .pif, .Ink - and they are almost never legitimately used for attachments.

Solution 6: Disable the .shs extension

One dangerous extension you can easily disable is .shs. Windows won't recognize it and will alert you before attempting to open an .shs file. The extension is usually just used for "scrap object" files created in Word and Excell when you highlight text and drag it to the desktop for pasting into other documents. If this isn't something you ever do, or you have Word and Excell 2000 or later, which allow you to have 12 items on the Clipboard, click the Start button | Control Panel | Folder Options | File Types tab. Under Registered file types, scroll down and highlight the SHS extension. Click Delete | Yes | Apply | OK.

Solution 7: Dealing with double extensions

When you turn on your extensions in Windows, you'll be able to detect viruses that piggy-back themselves onto innocent looking files with a double extension, such as happybirthday.doc.exe. NEVER trust a file with a double extension - it goes against Nature.

Solution 8: Beware of unknown .exe files

A virus is a program that must be executed to do its dirty work, so it may have an .exe extension. Unfortunately, this is the same extension used by legitimate program files. So, don't panic if you find files named Word.exe or Excel.exe on your system - they're your Microsoft software. Just don't EVER open any file with an .exe extension if you don't know what the file's purpose is.

Solution 9: Watch out for icons

Viruses in attachment files have been known to assume the shape of familiar looking icons of text or picture files, like the wolf in the hen house. If you recieve an unexpected attachment, don't open it without first running it through your anti-virus software.

Solution 10: Don't download from public newgroups

What better place for a hacker to lurk and stick his virus than in the middle of a crowd? Sooner or later, someone's bound to download it and get the virus going. Don't download files and programs from newsgroups or bulletin boards, or open attachments sent from strangers in chatrooms ("Let's exchange pictures!") without first scanning with your anti-virus software.

Solution 11: Avoid bootleg software

This may seem like a no brainer, but sometimes that tiny price tag on a popular but expensive package can be too good to resist. Resist it! Likewise, be careful about accepting application software from others. You don't know where it's been, and what may have started out as a perfectly clean package could have become infected during installation on someone else's infected computer.

Solution 12: Protect macros in MS Word, Excel, and Powerpoint

A common type of virus uses macros. Macros are sets of stored commands that users can save as shortcuts to perform long functions in just a few keystrokes. A macro virus may perform such mischief as changing file types from text files or spreadsheets into templates, locking up keyboards, and deleting files. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint come with macro virus protection. To make sure yours is activated, open each application, then click Tools menu | Macro | Security. On the Security Level tab, make sure Medium or High is selected. Clcik OK. If you are already infected with a macro virus, you may find that the steps of this procedure are unavailable becasue the virus has disabled them. In that event, run a virus scan on your system to see if your anti-virus software can kill the virus.

Solution 13: Use passwords

If you share your computer, it's a good idea to assign everyone a password. Passwords should be a combination of letters and numbers no less than eight characters long, and preferably nonsensical. Never write passwords and stick them anywhere near the computer. To assign passwords in Windows XP, click the Start button | Control Panel | User Accounts. Follow the prompts to assign/change passwords.

Solution 14: Update application software

Microsoft constantly issues patches for the security holes in its operating system and applications software. however, don't be lulled into complacency if you have Windows Update automatically checking things for you. Update checks for patches to repair bugs in the operating system, not for security problems.

To get the latest security hotfixes (as Microsoft calls them), visit www.microsoft.com and look for hotfixes for all your Microsoft software, particularly Outlook and Outlook Express.

Microsoft also has a free downloadable package called Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) that scans your system for missing hotfixes. It works with Windows 2000 and XP Home and Professional only. It doesn't support Windows 95, 98, or ME.

To download the MBSA, go to the TechNet section of the Microsoft Website. Be warned that the information is written in techie language, so you may find it daunting.

Last Words:

Now that you know some ways for avoiding and dealing with viruses, let's wrap things up with some solution you've probably heard before but have ignored.

- Back up your files regularly - If a virus crashes your sytem, you'll feel much better if you've got backup copies of all your important files. Make the backup copies on a media that's separate from the computer, such as on diskettes, CDs, or zip disks. Scan them for viruses before you put them away to make sure they aren't infected. If they are, they'll do you no good if you ever have to use them because they will just transmit the virus right back onto your computer.

- Make a boot disk - Create an emergency boot diskette before you have a problem so you can start your computer after a serious security problem To make a boot diskette with Windows XP, put a blank floppy disk in the drive. Open My Computer, then right click the floppy drive. Click Format. Under Format options, click Create an MS-DOS startup disk. Click Start. Keep the disk in a safe place. With luck, you'll never need to use it.

- Turn off you computer - DSL and cable connections that are "always on" may be convenient, but you should always turn off your computer when its not in use. Hackers can't get to a machine that's powered off.

You are free to reprint this article in its entirety as long as the clickable URLs remain in the "About the author" section.

About the Author:

Marv Ko has many years of experience in business software and security. He is the editor of http://bestarticles.biz and also oversees http://best4biz.info Email: editor@bestarticles.biz

[tags]virus, anti-virus, security, protect, computer[/tags]

Viruses And Worms Your System Needs Protection

2008-10-23T07:00:00.003-07:00

Computer systems across the world are constantly threatened by viruses and worms. These malwares are created by disgruntled or malicious programmers, who let loose their treacherous creations on unwary hosts. Oftentimes, the damage that is caused is immense. Due to the severity of the attacks a small cottage industry has grown up to protect systems from viruses and worms.

With a virus that spreads automatically, a huge number of computers can be infected through the Internet and can be very hard to control. Because of this, the virus is the greatest danger to the security of personal computers today.

Companies in the antivirus industry discover large numbers of viruses' everyday. Scores of viruses are latent or dormant and continue to be present long before they are ever noticed. There are viruses that delete files, displays pop-ups, exchange the buttons of your mouse, uninstall Internet Explorer, they can even slow down your computer's fan.

A computers efficiency is reduced tremendously due to viruses and if that wasn't enough they also corrupt files as well as stored data. For that reason, it is imperative to locate and eliminate viruses before the damage occurs.

There are a couple of important precautionary measures you can take and that is:

1. Avoid opening e-mails from people you do not know.

2. Avoid downloading anything from websites that are not well known or trustworthy.

If you land on a website that is providing content that is possibly unlawful or improper you may well be at risk and you would certainly be better off avoiding it.

Another important step is to keep your operating system updated on a regular schedule to reduce the threat to your computer. The Microsoft.com website is a good place to keep track of security patches that have been created to plug the loopholes that viruses exploit.

Now an absolute must for your computer is a reliable antivirus suite. There are many good free anti-virus packages like Avast (avast.com) that are available, although it is best to get reputable antivirus software like Norton or McAfee to deal with viruses and worms.

A few other security measures for your computer are file protection, memory explorers and firewalls, although at times they can conflict with other software, confuse users, or use up scarce resources. It is always good a idea to listen to the advice of security experts to save your system from damages caused by viruses and worms.

Unfortunately, the majorities of people learn these lessons the hard way and realize the risks involved only after they suffered. If you can understand the risks involved, you can take on safety measures to guard your computer from these threats.

Garry Allen is a successful Webmaster and publisher of Spyware Blockers Tips.com. Providing you with more information on spyware protection and answering the question how harmful is adware that you can research in your bathrobe on his website.

[tags]viruses, worms, spyware, protection[/tags]

Protecting Your Computer And Your Privacy

2008-10-23T07:00:00.001-07:00

We've all heard about computer viruses and spy ware, but for some reason we all assume that it won't happen to us. Unfortunately, we are all more at risk than we realize because every time you get on the Internet you expose your personal information and the functioning ability of your computer to viruses. Visiting the wrong website, reading the wrong email, or downloading the wrong program will leave you and your computer wide open for the viruses to attack. Luckily, there are things that you can do to protect yourself.

First, virus protection should be your first priority when you buy a new computer. Before you install any other programs you'll want to ensure that your computer is fully protected from the viruses that come in all shapes and sizes. If your computer is not new, it's not too late. You should look into downloading programs such as Spybot, Norton Antivirus, Spysweeper, or the virus programs offered by McAfee. All of these programs will help you control what types of programs are allowed to run on your computer. Most of these programs can be set up so that they run every day at the same time. This means that you will have your computer swept clean of any suspicious or dangerous programs daily so that they do not have the time to affect your computer files in negative ways. These programs are highly effective and will most likely catch viruses and suspicious programs before they can invade your privacy and wall of protection. Most of these programs can be downloaded or purchased from your electronics retailer very inexpensively, making the retail price more than worth it.

It is also a great idea to align yourself with a web provider that helps you protect yourself from viruses. Most of the big web providers such as America Online scan each email before you open it for viruses and protect you from emails that have links and such in them so that you are not taken to a website that will put you at risk. The automatic scanning of emails really help eliminate the opportunity for you to become infected with any type of virus, big or small. When you have an Internet provider that does this along with at least one virus protection software program, you'll see that you can stop the intrusion of your privacy and the corruption of your important files.

As you can see, protecting your computer from viruses isn't all that difficult, it just takes some thought and planning. If you don't have the software you need or you don't run them regularly your computer can be rendered useless and your personal information can be stolen. Planning and protection is key!

Learn how to keep your computer secure from spyware, malware, worms and computer viruses at http://www.pcviruses.net.

[tags]spyware, virus, anti-virus, malware, norton[/tags]

Check Out That Privacy Policy

2008-10-22T07:00:00.001-07:00

Before you enter your name, address or any other data in that form, STOP! Wait. Don't enter anything yet. If you do, you may be giving away personal information to strangers, and you know what your mom said about talking to strangers.

Okay, back up a minute. You want to buy a new necklace for your wife at that great dot com you recently found. They require you to fill out a form first - your name, address, phone number and credit card information. They also want your email address, gender and income range.

So you know these people? Think about it for a minute. How many of your friends (even your best ones) have you told your true age or how much money you make. Have you divulged your credit card data to your co-workers at work? Perhaps you give your social security number to the kid at the McDonalds?

I didn't think so. Then why do you insist on giving this data to a faceless computer? You don't have any idea who is on the other side of the screen - yet every day you give away information that you would never dream of telling your parents or best friends.

Before typing in the information look around the site until you find a link named "privacy". Usually it is on the bottom of the home page (at least), and good sites will have a link to it from EVERY page. Click on the link and read the policy from start to finish. Make sure you understand it - if there are any words you do not understand pull out your handy dictionary and check them out. Once you are done, read it again. Slowly.

What's so important about this that it requires all this work? Look, you are giving out personal data about yourself. The web site owners have an obligation to inform you how this data is going to be used.

Questions that should be answered by any decent privacy policy include:

How do you get in contact with the owners of the company?
How do you erase your private data or remove yourself from mailing lists?
Are they going to keep your information to themselves or sell it to third parties? If so, can you stop this and how?
What are they going to do with your credit card data? How do they keep it safe?
Why do they need the information? For example, our site asks each person who signs up for an award their age. Why? Because the COPPA law does not allow us to collect information from people under 13 years old. How else are you going to ensure you are in compliance with this kind of law except to ask?
It's very important to totally understand what they plan to do with your email address ... you don't want to get spam, after all. How do they use cookies?
Do they make use of your TCP/IP address and other similar information, and if so what is it used for? Virtually every site logs this data, but rarely is it used for anything except mass statistics and error checking.
If the site has third party advertisers, banners, web bugs, banners and so on, what similar information is available for how they use any information? This is most pertinent for cookies and TCP/IP data that is automatically logged. At the very least, their should be links to third party sites so you can look at their privacy policies also.
Are there any special relationships such as partners who use the information also? If so, how is that information shared and used? If the web site asks for information, how do they ensure that COPPA (a law which attempts to ensure that information is not gathered from minors without their parents permission) is adhered to.
Under what conditions will you receive mailings and how do you opt- in and out of them.

Once you fully understand a privacy policy you can make an intelligent decision as to whether or not you want to give these people your information.

I know it seems like a lot of work, but remember you don't know who these people are and you don't know what they will do with your information. If you read the privacy policy, you can at least understand what they will do with it.

So now, go finish ordering new jewelry for your wife. That's important.

About The Author

Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets. This website includes over 1,000 free articles to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.

Web Site Address: http://www.internet-tips.net

Weekly newsletter: http://www.internet-tips.net/joinlist.htm

Claudia Arevalo-Lowe is the webmistress of Internet Tips And Secrets and Surviving Asthma. Visit her site at http://survivingasthma.com

[tags]internet security,firewall,internet protection,virus,spyware,spam,spam filter,anti virus,ISP[/tags]

Protect Your Computer From Malicious Intent

2008-10-21T07:01:00.002-07:00

There are many types of malware, malicious software designed to disrupt the normal use of your computer. Some types of malware are simply nuisances to the one sitting behind the keyboard while others can actually harm or destroy the computer itself. Another threat posed by malware is the invasion of your privacy and it has the potential to cause you considerable personal and/or financial harm. Most types of malware get onto your computer via web browsing, instant messaging, or peer-to-peer file sharing. Malware is a self-inflicted injury. You do it to yourself by using the Internet. Many people use the following terms interchangeably but there are definite differences in the types of infections you can "catch" on your computer.

SPYWARE -- Spyware is a program that has been downloaded, usually unbeknownst to you, because it can be piggy-backed with some other type of desired program, usually freeware or shareware. Once this spyware is secretly installed on your computer it can do such things as change computer settings, track viewed websites, collect passwords, history and private information, and can even record your keystrokes. This information is then sent back to the program's originator or to a third party. Spyware is extremely difficult to eradicate.

A particularly annoying type of spyware is called adware which generates a tremendous amount of advertising in the form of pop-up advertisements or banners scrolling across your screen. This program can actually track your activities and cause similar ads to pop up hoping to interest you in related products. It can be quite intrusive and distracting but hardly as malicious as other types of spyware.

VIRUSES -- A computer virus, also rides on the coat-tails of other programs when downloaded, and can reproduce and run itself when the host program is executed. It can infect and corrupt files and sometimes causes hard drives to 'crash' depending on its design. A virus can infect other computers through the sending of email and/or file exchanges.

WORM -- A worm is a self-contained program that can replicate itself and uses a network to infect other systems on your computer. Depending on how the worm was designed, it can secretly send documents though email and even delete necessary files. Unlike a virus which causes harm to the computer and its files, a worm causes harm to other computers on the network and consumes bandwidth, thus slowing down your environment.

SPAM -- Spam is electronic junk mail, usually unsolicited. It uses up tremendous amounts of network bandwidth. Spam is usually trying to sell you some product or service and is sent to generated mailing lists and newsgroups. Though it cannot cause you or your computer much harm, it is extremely annoying and time consuming to delete. It is estimated that more than 60% of all email on the internet is spam.

WHAT CAN YOU DO? -- Visiting Geeks technicians strongly urge all owners to install an anti-virus software program on their computers. We also recommend at least one anti-spyware program, if not more than one. Depending on Internet usage, you should set both programs to automatically scan on a regular basis. These programs can actually find and remove unwanted "infections" and can also prevent their future installations. It isn't enough, however, to simply install these programs and think yourself entirely protected thereafter, because new spyware and viruses are constantly being designed. You must update your anti-spyware and anti-virus programs daily in order to pick up on these newest threats.

Though no one program can be relied on to keep your computer completely clear of sypware and viruses, there are many reputable anti-spyware and anti-virus programs available on today's market. When our customers need an anti-spyware program our technicians install Counter Spy by Sunbelt Software. For those customers with no anti-virus we will install PC-Cillin Internet Security by Trend Micro which even has the added benefit of Parental Control Features.

It is much easier to prevent your computer from being infected with these above-mentioned malware than it is to try to get rid of them, so browse the internet wisely. To clean a computer of unwanted spyware and viruses can be a costly and lengthy process. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," so the saying goes.

ABOUT VISITING GEEKS

Marilyn Astell is an employee of Visiting Geeks, LLC, cofounded by Harold Belbin and Sharron Senter http://www.VisitingGeeks.com an on site computer repair, security and networking company serving north of Boston, Southern NH and Maine. Visiting Geeks' technicians are crackerjacks at squashing viruses, popups and securing and making computers perform faster. Learn more about Sharron Senter at http://www.SharronSenter.com

[tags]internet security,worms,internet worm,internet virus,spyware,adware,adware removal,anti virus[/tags]

Keeping Worms Out Of Your Network...

2008-10-21T07:01:00.001-07:00

No auntie Sookie, not earth worms, computer virus worms that can get to you computer and slowly dig deep into your files and eat them away. Put that eggnog down and I'll tell you some more about these new worms.

This worm is a self-replicating (makes a copy of itself, aunt sookie!) program that reproduces itself over a network. It can be hidden in an email attachment from an unknown sender, a movie download from a suspicious website, or an application sent from someone you don't know. Once on your computer it then can replace a single file, like a winsock.dll or many files and send copies of itself along with email or newsgroup messages that you can post.

The following are ways to keep these type of worms out of your network:

a) Never, I said never (for emphasis) connect an unpatched, non updated computer or other Internet related device to the Internet. How do you update and patch a computer without connecting to the Internet? Get a cd from Microsoft with the latest and greatest patches and updates, then connect the device and then check for updates while connected to make sure you have protection.

b) Always, I said always (yes I am being redundant) use a firewall between your network of computers and the Internet. Even if your network of computers is 1 or 2 computers, it is still a network and needs a firewall to protect it, really protect it. A single computer connected to the Internet is now part of a world wide network thru it's Internet connection and is therefore vulnerable without protection. Get a firewall, a real firewall.

c) Educate and train anyone who uses your computer(s) network. Many times an infection is invited by careless users who download infected email, visit infected sites, or bring infected machines (laptop's, pda's) into a network from outside.

d) Patch and update, patch and update, patch and update (redundant, oh yeah). Yes it's a pain, and it requires time to do and verify that it's actually patched and updated. However it's definitely simpler and cheaper than trying to fix an infestation, or explain to everyone why the network is down or their computers won't work because a worm is eating through everything they have worked hard to save and protect.

e) Make sure up-to-date anti-virus software is on every machine, everything connected to the Internet. Anti-virus packages aid in protection and detection against worms.

f) Establish security rules for your network and educate everyone who touches the network. They must be enforced, daily.

g) Frequently check your network for vulnerabilities. Visit vulnerability website's, take advantage of free scanning tools on the Internet to test your machines. New vulnerabilities and new exploits are released constantly, and you can't protect against what you have no idea what is coming your way.

********************************************************

Daviyd Peterson: 10-year consultant, instructor, trainer Helps african american homeschools bridge the digital divide by becoming computer homeschools. Free article on "Computer Homeschooling" and other related articles http://www.homeschoolwireless.com/homeschoolwireless.htm

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[tags]computer homeschools, african american education technology, homeschool resource, worms virus attack[/tags]

Everything You Need To Know About Spyware And Malware

2008-10-20T07:00:00.001-07:00

You are at your computer, checking out software on EBay. The computer is really sluggish, and you are not running anything else. You click on a link, and BLAM you are redirected to a search page you've never heard of and the "back" button won't work.

You've got Spyware! Just what is "Spyware?" The word brings to mind exploding pens and shoe phones. In fact, software makers have struggled to define what spyware is, and is not.

The Anti-Spyware Coalition, a group of companies that include EarthLink, Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard, have recently published a document that defines spyware as such: "Spyware impairs users control over material changes that affect their user experience, privacy or system security; use of their system resources, including what programs are installed on their computers; or collection, use and distribution of their personal or otherwise sensitive information"

In simpler terms, spyware "spies" the software on your computer, personal information, what web pages you look at, and in some cases, usernames and passwords. Ugh.

The first spyware distribution was in 1999, and is attributed to a popular freeware program called "Elf Bowling." Many users found to their dismay that this "harmless game," was sending information to the creators, Nsoft. This spawned the first anti-spyware program in the year 2000.

Now, both spyware and anti-spyware programs are too numerous to count.

There are several types of software that fall under the generic description of spyware. Let's look at a few, and what they do.

Adware adware is an application that displays advertising banners. The reason this is criticized is that it can send information back to the company, who then "targets" you with specific banners based on the web pages you've opened. This is different from clicking on a banner for more information. This program sneaks in the "back door," not "advertising" its presence. Please note that the word "AdWare" is a trademark of AdWare Systems, an honest software company. They are not a part of adware, just share the unfortunate name.

Key loggers are just that. They collect the keystrokes you make, like logging into your bank account, and send it to the hacker. Now he has your account number, user name, and password.

Hijackers and Toolbars are another form of spyware. Hijackers take over your browser, opening pages you don't want, and preventing you from opening ones you need like a site that tells you how to get rid of them. Toolbars are the same sort of thing. Now, you may want to have a toolbar like Yahoo or Google on your browser. They can make searches easier, and may have popup or ad blockers. The malware forms of these try to look like them, but they have completely different motives.

Malware is a generic term for "malicious" software. These programs don't just collect information; they are out to get your computer. Technically, these are not spyware, but a brief explanation seems to be in order. Malware spreads itself through the computer, changing files, making copies to send, even erasing the hard drive. Virus' and worms are a part of this group.

Other malware programs are "Trojan Horse, or Backdoor." These hide quietly in your computer until you connect to the internet. Then they creep around your browser, "reporting in" to the owner, who then uses your computer "address" to send out virus's, malware, and spam. Some hackers link several computers to send so much nonsense information to a particular web site that it is overwhelmed, causing it to shut down.

How does spyware end up on your computer? You're not going to like this . . . but most likely you loaded it on yourself! Wait! Before we get nasty letters, let us explain. Remember those "smileys" you downloaded last week? How about the cute cursor the nine year old picked? Most of these "free" programs have spyware attached, or imbedded in them. Even Adobe Reader loads a "Yahoo search bar" when you update the reader.

Remember when you installed the program and that gray box popped up with a thousand lines of small print? Did you read it? I doubt anyone does. The spyware distributor counts on that. If you do manage to slog through the legalese, and stuff only advanced programmers would know (or care about), there will be a few innocuous lines, something along the lines of: "this program will collect information to better your enjoyment of this program," or "a web search toolbar will be added to your browser." When you click on the "accept" button to install the software, you have also agreed to the spyware program.

Another way is when a box pops up claiming to be legitimate software needed to view the site properly, or that it is an update. It only has a "yes" button, implying that you are required to allow the download. These are copying legitimate updates from places like Microsoft, or Macromedia.

Just what is spyware going to do to your computer? Anything you can do, he can do better. It is an executable that can record keystrokes, read your files, watch your word processing program, change your home page, add and delete files, read your cookies (with personal info), then "phone home" with the info. Some spyware will crash your browser if you try to uninstall it. Others may "pretend" to be uninstalled, but they wait until your back is turned to load itself back on your system.

You don't know how the stuff was loaded on your computer, but it is causing all kinds of problems. The computer is running slower, certain programs are not working, and on occasion, you see the dreaded "blue screen of death." (crash). Don't worry, you are not alone According to an October 2004 study by America Online and the National Cyber-Security Alliance, 80% of surveyed users' computers had some form of spyware, with an average of 93 spyware components per computer. 89% of surveyed users with spyware reported that they did not know of its presence, and 95% reported that they had not given permission for it to be installed.

Now what do you do? There are several good "spyware removal" programs out there. But be warned! There are also a number of programs that claim to be anti-spyware that do not work, or worse add more spyware to your system! A good resource for "suspect" spyware is the list at: http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm They have a list of over 200 programs that claim to take care of spyware, but may not do what they claim.

Once you get your computer "clean," how do you avoid getting "dirty" again? There are firewalls and programs designed to watch for known spyware. When you register, the "known spyware" definitions can be updated on a regular basis.

You could use a browser other than Internet Explorer (most spyware exploits problems here). This writer loves Mozilla Firefox it's free at www.mozilla.org

Our lawmakers are doing their best to stem the tide of spyware/malware. For example, in Washington State, USA, it is illegal for anyone other than the owner/operator of a computer to install software that alters web browser settings, monitors keystrokes, or disables computer security software.

The Gibson Research Corporation, www.grc.com, has several free fixes to "plug holes" in Internet Explorer's security.

There is hope. In 2005, NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer brought suit against Intermix Media, Inc. Intermix's spyware program spread by drive-by download (loaded without permission), and installed itself in such a way it was very difficult to remove. Intermix settled for $7.5 million dollars.

Spyware is here to stay. Your best bet is to be informed know the tricks used by spyware to load itself. Use a firewall or spyware blocker program. Most important, understand exactly what that new program will install on your innocent computer.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mike Christy is the owner of http://www.spywarecenter.info which is a free information site providing the latest Spyware news and instructions on how to remove Spyware from your computer.

[tags]spyware,malware,hijacking,trojan,adware,virus,key logger,popup[/tags]

Web And Computer Security

2008-10-19T07:00:00.002-07:00

Well, if that would have been said to me by my father when I was 2 years of age, I would have understood. But when today, my own computer tells me that when I am 34, I wonder why I spent $1500 on my computer hardware and software just to enjoy the (un-realized) benefits of this great and revolutionary information technology?

Today’s cyberspace is hazardous. None of today’s PC users can claim that they never had a computer virus issue or a PC security breach. Now, if you count today’s number of PC users worldwide, they will soon be 1 billion by 2010 according to analysts. When I see all the computer viruses, infections, trojans, and what not around me, and compare it with the 1 billion innocent computer users around the world, I simply feel sorry not only for those billion users but for myself too. But again, as a common user myself, I must admit it was not all doomsday for the whole industry since 1987 when I started to use computers. So, as a responsible member of this great IT revolution, I must share some of the best tips and tricks that I learned to use to make the minimum room for productivity on my computer.

Please note this is a tutorial for someone who has basic know-how of computer usage. For those who are newbies, I would recommend asking a local expert’s help before trying anything out mentioned in this tutorial. In that case, make room for payment from deep pocket. For your own convenience, print this tutorial for step-by-step instructions.

Whenever my computer is infected, I act on any of the following options;

1. FORMAT HARD DISK: I back up all of my data on a CD-Writer if it is still accessible. And then format the whole hard disk drive and re-install each and every application.

2. USE SOFTWARE: I exhaust all anti-virus and other software options. This is usually my first priority as compared to formatting the whole computer hard disk drives.

Now, let me explain both options in detail;

PRE-REQUISITES: Make sure you have a CD-Drive (Writer), empty writable CDs, Windows OS CD (bootable) that contains files such as Format.exe, Scandisk.exe, FDisk.exe, and Attrib.exe files. Microsoft Office CD, Anti-Virus CD, GoldenHawk CD Writing Software in DOS (copy2cd.exe and cdtools.exe), Serial Numbers of your License, Driver CDs of Motherboard, VGA, Network, Sound and Modem devices. Optionally, download (using www.download.com or www.tucows.com) these software from any Internet Café when your own computer is inaccessible and save it on a CD so that you can use it anytime for security purposes;

Golden Hawk DOS based CD Writing Software

HTech Fireman Windows based CD Writing Software

Driver Genius Pro

Partition Magic

AVG AntiVirus

SpywareBlaster & SpywareGuard

Spybot Search & Destroy

Ad-Aware

IE-SpyAd

ZoneAlarm

HiJackThis & CWShredder

I have intentionally avoided mention of many commercially good and more friendly software’s mention here as I wanted everything to do FREE without any additional costs apart from the usual OS licenses. For your own convenience, you can research Google or Yahoo search engines find further information about such commercial software and their availability / pricing.

1. FORMAT HARD DISK

I know it is painful and surgical type of solution, but sometimes, it is the ONLY solution left after exhausting all of our efforts to revive our computer machine after a virus attack. Follow this procedure;

Booting Up: Try booting your computer normally first and see if you can login easily. If you can’t or your computer hangs up, try holding F8 key when starting Windows and you will get the Safe Mode. Even if you don’t get the Safe Mode, don’t worry.

Power up your computer and press DEL key or F2 key to login your CMOS. In CMOS, go to Boot Preferences and make CD Drive as boot drive as your first boot drive and change the hard disk drive as the second boot drive. If you don’t see your CD Drive in the boot-up options, your CD Drive is not properly installed. Check the connectors or ask your CD Drive provider for instructions to install the CD Drive. Now, when your CD Drive is ready, insert your Windows OS CD in the CD Drive and restart your computer machine. When prompted, select the option “Boot from CD with CD Option”. When you get the prompt, Notice the CD Drive letter that was allocated to your CD Drive when it installed the CD Driver. It is usually D: drive or the last drive letter depending on the number of your partitions. Note it down as it is the actual drive letter where you will have to type a DOS command like d:

You should now be able to run all software utilities such as Format, Scandisk, FDisk or Windows Installation Setup.exe files. Right now, simply make sure they exist by typing a DOS command dir at the CD drive letter. If you don’t find it with this simple directory command, use dir/s filename to search the file. For example, to search fdisk.exe file, type dir/s fdisk.exe.

BACKING UP YOUR DATA: Before formatting your hard disk drive, please make sure you have proper back up of your critical data files such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc files on a CD or any other media for backup that you have access to. In this tutorial, we assume you have a CD-Writer installed for taking backups on Writeable CDs. Their capacity is usually 700MB or less. Here, you should seriously consider using Zipping software like WinZip or WinRAR.

VIA WINDOWS: If you can luckily login to your Windows OS, you should run the CD-Writer software such as HTech Fireman to back up all of your data on an empty CD. If you don’t know how to do it, read their user manual for detailed instruction set. If you can’t access your Windows OS, read on.

VIA DOS: Some of the files that you wish to make back-up, may be hidden. To un-hide them, use attrib *.* +r +s +h.

Now, use the software from Golden Hawk file named as copy2cd.exe to backup your data files or directories on a writeable CD. Before using this command, make sure you are in an appropriate path on the computer such as E:/ where the actual file copy2cd.exe file resides;

Copy2cd c:data*.* f:

Here we assumed that f: is a CD Writer drive. Now, repeat the same for all of your files to back up. When finished, run cdtools.exe command i.e. cdtools f: to finish by selecting option “Disc Finalization”.

If you can’t back up your data using the above-mentioned procedure, either ask an outside expert’s help personally or via internet. If all fails, forget your data forever and carry on installing a new OS as mentioned in this tutorial.

Backing up Your Drivers: An interesting tool to mentioned here is a software that automatically backs up all of your drivers of CD, modem, sound card, vga, usb, printer or just about anything that is currently installed on your system. But this software works only in an operational windows OS, and not in DOS. It is a good and time-saving practice to keep a backup of all of your drivers on a CD by using such a software. Its name is Driver Genius Pro and it is commercial software, not a freeware.

USING FDISK: You may skip this option and go straight to Formatting Hard Disk option, if you wish to use other useful partitions that may contain your data. Before going ahead with this option, Make sure there is no useful data left on your computer to be backed up. This option will delete all of the computer partitions and create new ones.

i) Boot up your computer using Windows OS CD.

ii) Run this command fdisk

iii) Press option 3 to delete all current partitions.

iv) To create a new partition, select option 1 and select Y to answer the maximum size question by the program.

v) Next, select option 2

vi) Press Esc key to quit and restart your computer to

See the URL http://www.compguystechweb.com/troubleshooting/fdisk/fdisk_scr.html for detailed instructions alongwith screenshots. Now, that you have created the primary partition, you can continue to format the newly created partition. There is a very user-friendly but commercial software called Partition Magic by PowerQuest to manage your partitions easily after installation of Windows.

FORMATTING HARD DISK: Now that you have created new partitions, It is time to format them so that you can start installing Windows. This is how you make your C: drive usable by your Windows OS for installation. Boot up your computer with Windows CD and type format c: command at the prompt. When prompted for maximum size, press, YES. After complete processing you will be presented with the successful report about the formatting of the C: drive. Select your new drive name and press ENTER to finish.

INSTALLING WINDOWS: Microsoft has made it very easy for a newbie to install a completely new OS on a newly formatted partition. It is all wizard based and you simply have to click NEXT each time whenever asked a question. Boot up your computer from the Windows CD and select Start with CD Option. When on DOS prompt, change to the CD Drive that it just created which is usually d: if you have only one partition C. Now type command setup.exe to start the windows installation process.

During installation, make sure you properly name your PC as per your preferences and select your regions and Time zone. When finished, the computer will re-boot and during next re-boot it may ask some drivers of your Sound Card, VGA, Network, or other devices attached. Provide the requisite driver CDs and locate the paths of the appropriate drivers. If you are not sure, leave it like that and press NEXT to ignore. When your windows installation is complete, you can install Microsoft Office, setup internet connection and start using it as normally as you would. Please make sure you install all the security software such as anti-virus, anti-spyware, adware, and other software as mentioned in the next section.

2. USE SOFTWARE

Installing Anti-Virus: Download free AVG Antivirus software and install it. Make sure you get its free key from their website by registering. This software is not auto-updated for critical viruses and for an auto-update version, you will have to pay. If you wish to pay, we would recommend world’s most popular brands Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micros instead. No matter what Anti-Virus software you install, make sure you enable its Auto-Protect feature for automatic protection of your computer’s resources and in-coming or out-going emails from any virus attack. Some software even allow you to setup silent detection and destruction without any disturbance to your work. Further, they are auto-updated via internet at the regular interval that you setup. Hence, you can rest assured that whenever a security threat is spread all over the world, your software will automatically download the requisite updated version and install its defense on your computer.

BROWSER SECURITY: To setup your browser (Internet Explorer on Windows) for maximum security against the usual threats, follow this procedure;

i) Start up your browser

ii) Go to IE > Tools > Windows Update > Product Updates, and selected Security Updates to be automatically updated. Microsoft releases patches and security patches from time to time to make sure your system's security is up-to-date.

iii) Now, go to Internet Options/Security/Internet, press 'default level', then OK. Now press "Custom Level." In the ActiveX section, set the first two options ("Download signed and unsigned ActiveX controls) to 'prompt', and 'Initialize and Script ActiveX controls not marked as safe" to 'disable'. Now you will be asked whether you want ActiveX objects to be executed and whether you want software to be installed. Sites that you know for sure are above suspicion can be moved to the Trusted Zone in Internet Option/security.

If you use another browser such as Firefox or Netscape, see their documentation on how to securely set it up against any such internet threats.

Installing Anti-Spyware: Spyware, adware, browser hijackers, and dialers are some of the fastest-growing threats on the Internet today. By simply browsing to a web page, your computer may become a victim. You can install SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard to effectively guard your computer from such internet threats.

It includes Fast Real-Time Scanning engine for known spyware and heuristic/generic detection capabilities to catch new / mutated spyware and Download Protection along with Browser Hijacking Protection in real-time.

Simply download the software (free) from their website and install it on your system. Make sure you download its latest update too or enable its Auto-Update feature to be updated automatically in the background. Now, when you are ready, run the software to check the spyware on your computer. When spyware are found, it reports accordingly. Press "select all", then press option "kill all checked". Although it won't protect you from 100% spyware, But it is a very important extra layer of protection.

Next, install another software that is called Spybot Search & Destroy. It works exactly like SpywareBlaster, but it never hurts to have a double layer of spyware detection alongwith Spybot R&D.

Installing Anti-Adware: Adware is a common term used to describe potentially dangerous websites and scripts that do data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components. There is a very good software called Ad-Aware available to scan and remove such nuisances from your system.

To start using it, simply visit Lavasoft USA website and download its free non-commercial version of Ad-Aware Personal Edition. Run its setup program and install it. When prompted, ask it to scan your computer. If there are any adware found, it is detected and removed automatically by Ad-Aware. Run this software on a weekly or daily basis, if possible to keep your system clean.

In addition to the Ad-Aware, Internet Explorer comes with a very handy tool that allows you to block specific sites that may carry well-known advertisers, marketers, crapware pushers to the Restricted sites Zone. If you had to input 50000+ of such sites manually yourself, it would takes years. Luckily, there is a software that does it all automatically and it is called IE-SPYAD. Once you merge this list of sites and domains into the Registry, the web sites for these companies will not be able to use cookies, ActiveX controls, Java applets, or scripting to compromise your privacy or your PC while you surf the Net. Nor will they be able to use your browser to push unwanted pop-ups, cookies, or auto-installing programs on your PC. It is not an ad blocker. It will stop top unwanted crapware from being installed behind your back via "drive-by-downloads"; prevent the hijacking of your home page.

This Restricted sites list is based in part on info from: discussions in the SpywareInfo Forums and other forums that specialize in crapware removal major crapware reference sites: doxdesk, cexx.org, Kephyr.com, PestPatrol and SpywareGuide.

To start using it, simply download it from their website and run its install.bat file. Make sure you run its update as well soon after its installation.

INSTALLING FIREWALL: A firewall software acts as a defense shield against hackers, intruders, and blocks access attempts to your computer. ZoneAlarm is a professional firewall software that works in a stealth mode automatically and makes your computer invisible to anyone on the Internet.

Download it from ZoneLabs website and run its setup for installation. I recommend you use its Express Settings which automatically configures your most commonly used software like browser, chat messengers, ftp software to access internet, while blocks every other internet traffic in real-time. If any software or service tries to upload or download any data, it pops up an alert whereby you can allow or disallow such internet traffic.

Computer Slow Down: It is very common to see many complaining about their computer slow-down. The fastest and easiest cure is using Windows’ built-in Defragmenter utitlity that you can find in Startà Programs à Accessories à System Utitlities à Disk Defragmantor and run thorough defragmantation. It will take a while before it ends.

If your system’s performance does not improve after running defragmantation utility, consider scanning your computer via a software utility called HiJackThis which you can download and install on your system. Use this tool carefully as it is intended for advanced users only. HijackThis is a tool, that lists all installed browser add-on, buttons, startup items and allows you to inspect, and optionally remove selected items. The program can create a backup of your original settings and also ignore selected items. Additional features include a simple list of all startup items, default start page, online updates and more.

CWShredder is a utility for removing CoolWebSearch (aka CoolWwwSearch, YouFindAll, White-Pages.ws and a dozen other names). This tool will find and destroy all traces of the CoolWebSearch (CWS) hijacker on your system including redirections, IE slowdowns, start page changes, un-authorized addition of sites in IE Trusted Zone, and blocking access to IE options or setup.

Download CWShredder from their official website only as there is a similar named virus/trojan on the loose at various websites which you may accidently download and install, hence become more infected than being cured instead. When it is installed successfully, run the software to scan your local machine. Select the fix button & it will get rid of everything related to CoolWebSearch. Close ALL other programs & windows, including IE, before running CWShredder. Reboot after doing this.

I know there is still a lot left, but as I wanted to keep this tutorial as brief as possible, hence I covered only the critical elements here. I am sure you will have fewer breakdowns (if not ZERO0 and more productive hours on your computer. I would recommend you to setup all the software’s auto update and auto-check options to free your time for more productive things than just playing hide and seek with spywares, adwares or viruses. Happy and safe computing!

This article is submitted by Kashif Raza http://www.networkingtutorials.net

[tags]Web, Computer Security, Partition Magic, Zone Alarm,Symantec,Firewall,Adware,Virus attack,Spyware[/tags]

How To Avoid Getting Ripped-Off Online

2008-10-19T07:00:00.001-07:00

Online security is one of the top catch phrases these days, but hardly anybody knows what it means and worse, most home computer users think security only applies to corporations and online businesses.

Most people think online security means simply protecting your credit card data from fraud and theft, but it actually goes way beyond that.

The potential for mayhem and just plain disruption of your life doesn't just mean credit card fraud - it can mean having your identity stolen, your life disrupted and spending hours cleaning up after an online 'vandalism' attack.

You must protect yourself from everyone from the teenage computer hacker to the organized crime syndicate using computer worms and keystroke logging viruses.

The great news is that a number of simple techniques should protect you against the vast majority of threats, since the evil doers will simply move on to easier pastures.

Update your anti-virus files

The widespread 'Bad Trans' worm logged keystrokes and transmitted potentially sensitive data such as credit card and social security numbers to the 'bad guys'.

Though this virus contained a high level of criminal intent, it was easily blocked by anyone with up-to-date anti-virus files.

If you don't have anti-virus software with current virus definitions installed, you leave the door wide open for security problems.

Install a 'Firewall'

A firewall helps prevent unauthorized access to your computer by 'hackers'.

It closes off the entry points (called open 'ports') carried by virtually every computer connected to the Internet.

A common misconception is that firewalls are only for people with cable or other high-speed connections.

Even if you use a dial up connection to get online, a firewall can help you detect and prevent people from logging on to your computer, stealing files or even using your computer to break into others!

You can take a free test of your computer's security by logging on to http://www.symantec.com/securitycheck/ and clicking 'Find out today if you are safe'. The results may surprise you.

Use secure sites

Only give sensitive data such as credit cards, social security numbers and important passwords over a secure connection.

This means the little yellow lock appears in the lower part of your browser and nobody but the website you are connected to should be able to read the data you send.

Change passwords often

An easy way for you to protect your sensitive data and email is to change your passwords on a monthly basis, or even more often depending on how frequently you use computers away from home.

If you log on to your email at the library, in 'cyber cafes' or any other remote computer then the possibility exists that computer could have a key-stroking virus present.

This means everything you type into the computer (passwords, birthdays, social security numbers, credit cards) could be logged and used by someone else.

** Change your passwords at lease once a month.

Though not fool-proof, these security tips should help reduce your vulnerability and keep you safer online.

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...

Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months... without spending a dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com

[tags]online security, firewall, anit-virus, passwords[/tags]

Free Computer Security Software

2008-10-18T07:01:00.003-07:00

Looking for free computer security tools to use?

Got Spyware?

There is now a bill in Congress to make Spyware illegal. Good luck at catching the creators, in the mean time here are two links you can use to get started on your journey against Spyware.

http://www.lavasoft.com Ad-aware http://www.safernetworking.com Spybot Search and Destroy.

Note there is better version available for a cost. There are many things you can also do to protect your computer Keep Automatic Updates turned on for all of your Anti-Virus Software, and operating systems. Clean out your cookies as well there is often cookies placed to track your whereabouts on the Internet.

Now the subject of viruses. There are commercial anti-virus scanner like Symantec Norton Anti-Virus and MacAfee in fact many new computers come with trial versions. Unfortunately when these versions run out users most of the time ignore it and wonder why do I have a virus? Let me explain something just because you have a antivirus software program on your computer you are not cured. Virus writers do just that write new viruses and edit old ones to do new things. You need to update your signatures of your anti-virus software continuously. Crafty virus writer's code Viruses to disable your anti-virus software!

There is free anti-virus solutions one is called AVG http://free.grisoft.com. I personally use this product and love It, it is not a memory hog like Norton. And you can also set up schedules to run and get updates.

A good firewall is a must especially nowadays. This is because everyone for the most part is running DSL and Cable modems. Which are great for connectivity horrible because it's like leaving your front door unlocked.

Check out http://www.zonelabs.com They have a product called Zone Alarm. It is customizable and blocks allot of attempts of entering your network. It is shocking to see the amount of people trying to get into your network. Zone Alarm will alert you to programs trying to access the Internet. This is kind of annoying but can be a life saver if a program is dialing Kenya on your telephone!! Zone Alarm can remember certain programs.

Windows Service Pack 2 has a firewall in it and I recommend enabling it.

There are many web browsers that you can use. I love Open Source you can probably guess I'm using Firefox www.mozilla.org/products/firefox.There are so many features that I can rave about like tabbed browsing, if your anything like me at home I have at least two or three browser running if using Internet Explorer, with Firefox I can have as many websites as I want open and tabs at the top with descriptions. it's ingenious in my opinion. I don't have to switch browsers like I do with IE.

Internet Explorer is one of the most used browsers and most targeted. Mozilla Firefox has many advantages including security. It also does not use ActiveX.

Scan your own systems! To see what ports are open and running. DO you have services that do not need to be running?

Knowledge is power. I work for a technology company for three years and never have they trained any people in multiple departments on security that I'm aware of. I'm amazed to hear things from co-workers such as I don't have an account with so and so bank but they wanted my information and I gave it to them! Corporate networks are and will continue to be infected by users that are untrained about computer security. People all the time open attachments that they do not know where they came from. Homes users are sometimes even more ignorant. That is not said in a mean way. File Sharing programs are popular and an opening to viruses, Trojans and other lovely things you don't want in your network.

For the best and current security tools, alerts and news use Google http://www.google.com.

Benjamin Hargis CEO

Phuture Networks

http://www.phuturenetworks.com

http://www.computersecurityadvice.com Free Computer Security Advice !!!

[tags]firewall, adware, spyware, virus, security, computer security[/tags]

Three-pronged Trojan Attack Threatens Security On The Internet

2008-10-18T07:01:00.001-07:00

Glieder (Win32.Glieder.AK), Fantibag (Win32.Fantibag.A) and Mitglieder (Win32.Mitglieder.CT) are not names of a modern day version of The Three Musketeers. These are Trojans engineered for a hacker attack that will infect computers and open them for use in further attacks.

"Combating computer viruses is essentially a game of hide and seek," says Govind Rammurthy, CEO, MicroWorld Technologies, among the leading Security Solutions providers. "Hackers riding piggyback on viruses have only a short window of opportunity to maximize their gain before the viruses are detected, neutralized and logged into Virus Definition databases, 'vaccinating' the system against those strains.

Without continuing system vulnerability caused by virus infection there is little they can do to further their malicious ends like stealing personal information, credit card details and other sensitive and vital data. To achieve their ends they need to keep the system vulnerability going for more time. This co-ordinated Trojan threat is an attempt to the keep that 'backdoor' open, essentially buying time," he concludes.

Of the three, Glieder leads the initial charge. It sneaks past anti-virus protection to download and execute files from a long, hard-coded list of URLs and "plant" the infected machine with "hooks" for future use. On Windows 2000 and Windows XP machines, it attempts to stop and disable the Internet Connection Firewall and the Security Center service (introduced with Windows XP Service Pack 2). Then the Trojan accesses the URL list to download Fantibag. The way is now paved to launch the second stage of attack.

Sulabh, a tester with MicroWorld Technologies says of Fantibag, "Now Fantibag goes about attacking the networking feature of the infected system to prevent it from communicating with anti-virus firms and denying access to the Microsoft Windows Update site. It closes your escape route by making it impossible to download an anti-virus solution and any subsequent Windows security patch to your system. Effectively it helps Mitglieder (the third stage Trojan) open the 'backdoor' by shutting the other doors on you."

Mitglieder puts the system under complete control of the attacker by opening the 'backdoor' on a port using which the attacker can update the Trojan, to stay a step ahead of attempts to remove it, download and execute files, initiate an SMTP server to relay spam, execute files on the infected computer and download and execute files via an URL. "This is what makes it scary," say Aarti, Assistant Manager, QA, MicroWorld Technologies. "The fact that the system can now be used as a remote controlled 'soldier' (bot) in an army (botnet) of similarly compromised machines to launch criminally motivated attacks, causing harm to Internet users."

Botnets thus formed can among other things, use your machine to launch Distributed Denial of service attacks which overload servers, making them crash, to send out spam, spread new Malware, plant Keylogger to retrieve your personal information like identity, passwords, account numbers etc., install Spyware, manipulate online polls/games, abuse programs like Google AdSense to cheat advertisers of revenue, and install Advertisement Addons for financial gain as in fake websites advertising services that don't exist.

"Botnets can even encompass over 50,000 host machines. The potential for mischief is huge," reflects Govind Rammurthy. "Such a three-pronged Trojan attack where attackers change their virus code and release viruses quickly to bypass virus signature scanners, then disable network access to deny the user link-ups to anti-virus and Microsoft Windows Update site for protection has huge significance for virus-signature based protection. It is a sign of things to come," he says, remembering the scramble at MicroWorld labs to update their products to detect and remove the three Trojans.

Anti-virus updates for the three-pronged Trojan threat are available at MicroWorld Technologies site. Maybe the time for worrying about some pimply teenager turning out malicious code because they have nothing better to do on a nice sunny morning, is over. The world could be facing a determined organized crime syndicate who'll stop at nothing to get what they want - information precious to you.

MicroWorld Technologies is one of the leading solution providers for Information Technology, Content Security and Communications Software. MicroWorld has established itself as a leader in providing content security, anti-virus and corporate communications software solutions.

[tags]Antivirus, virus, trojan, antivirus news, latest news, content security, desktop antivirus, spam.[/tags]

Trojan Horse Delivered In Automatic Update

2008-10-17T07:01:00.003-07:00

Trojan Horse - One Mans "Worse Case Scenario" Prediction
---------------------
This is a fictional article about a Trojan Horse Virus, or you could say it is one mans prediction of a "worse case scenario". Because of the field I'm in, I maintain a personal list of my top 10 "worse case scenarios". Every time I perform a security assessment I run into something new or identify a situation that is ripe for a potential vulnerability. I think we could all agree that no respectable or ethical company would intentionally deliver a malicious piece of code as part of a helpful update solution. However, the reality is that human beings are behind technology and human beings are unpredictable and fallible.

Many major operating system vendors have automatic update services. Many hardware vendors and other software packages have followed this trend, incorporating automated update services into their products. In some cases, the services for automatic updates run as the local "system" account. This account has the ability to access and modify most of the operating system and application environment. When automatic updates were relative new, many people would perform the updates manually, however, as time has progressed, many now trust these services and allow the updates to proceed in a truly automated fashion.

The Final Step Before The Hammer Falls
---------------------
So let's expand upon our "worse case scenario". A new service pack is just about ready for release. The last step prior to public release is quality control / validation. The team of people performing this task includes a significantly disgruntled employee (Or may he/she is going through a horrible life crisis and has not much to lose). When people are in pain or distress it is not uncommon for them to project this same feeling onto others in any way they can. So, instead of performing their job in the normal fashion, they decide to incorporate a malicious payload into the forthcoming update.

The First Step For The Trojan Horse: Evasion
---------------------
This payload has some unique characteristic, three to be precise. First, it is constructed in such as way to not appear as something malicious. The anti-virus and anti-spyware programs currently on the market won't be able to detect it through anomalous detection techniques.

The Second Step For The Trojan Horse: Information Collection
---------------------
Secondly, it has been instructed to wait 12 hours to activate to start searching your computer an network for important files that may contain financial, healthcare, and other confidential information such as user accounts and passwords. It then sends this information to anonymous systems on the Internet. Because this "Trojan horse" has been incorporated into an automated update by someone with reasonable skills, it is instructed to only perform the collection of data for 12 hours. Given the number of global systems that allow automated updates, 12 hours should be more than enough. The person behind this realizes that someone will quickly identify that something malicious is going on and start to roll-out a defense solution to halt the process.

The Final Step: Incapacitate
---------------------
Finally, the Trojan Horse will cease it's data collection and deliver it's final blow. Because of the level of system privilege it is running at, it modifies the communication protocols and services on the system to prevent any type of external communication to its local peers and external (Internet) hosts. It does this in such as way that the only immediate method to recover from this is a system roll-back, system repair, or restore from near-line media, such as tape or disk. And as far as system recovery is concerned, I can tell you that many people even in corporate entities do not perform the most basic steps to be prepared for a quick system disaster recovery. In some cases, some of the most important recovery services have been disabled because of lack of system resources or disk space (which is amazing given how inexpensive this is anymore).

What Could Be The Impact Of This "Trusted" Trojan Horse
---------------------
Just about every time you install a new application or piece of software you increase the time it takes to boot your PC and in some cases decrease its performance. On thing that drives me crazy is printing software. For the life of me I cannot understand how or why printer support software could total 400MB in size, but they sometimes do. Not only that, they tend to load all kinds of unnecessary real-time running applets. HP printers are notorious for this. Be very aware of what it is you are loading and only load those components that you need. Even some off-the-shelf software packages load adware and other not so helpful applets. Also, when you uninstall software, not all the software gets uninstalled in many cases. One thing I suggest is to purchase a registry cleaner. This can dramatically decrease boot times and in many cases increase the overall performance of your PC.

People are already concerned about identity theft, or at least they should be. I recently spoke with a business associate that told me that even with everything he does to keep his identity secure he has been the victim of identity theft not once, but twice. If your user id's, online accounts, passwords, financials, or other confidential information winds up on the Internet for any anonymous person to see, you can bet it will be used in a way to cause you problems. Even if only 10% of the global systems fell victim to this Trojan Horse, the cut off of communications could cost businesses billions of dollars and potentially impact their reputation as "secure" institutions.

Conclusion
---------------------
If we don't think that this "worse case scenario" can happen, then we're kidding ourselves. Recently, one of the market leaders in the perimeter defense business had to recall a service pack because it contained a significant "bug" that could result in a security breach; a service pack that can be delivered through and intelligent update service. Obviously there has to be a certain level of trust between us, the consumer, and the vendors of hardware / software we rely on. I'm not entirely sure what "fail-proof" solution can be put in place to prevent something like this from happening. Although I'm sure there are quite a few checks and balances in place already. The bottom line is, if you or I can image a scenario like this, there is always a chance of it happening. In my case, I usually wait for several days to apply new service packs and hot-fixes. Hopefully someone else will find the problem, correct it, and then I'll apply it.

You may reprint or publish this article free of charge as long as the bylines are included.

Original URL (The Web version of the article)
---------------------
http://www.defendingthenet.com/newsletters/TrojanHorseDeliveredInAutomaticUpdate.htm

About The Author
---------------------
Darren Miller is an Information Security Consultant with over seventeen years experience. He has written many technology & security articles, some of which have been published in nationally circulated magazines & periodicals. If you would like to contact Darren you can e-mail him at Darren.Miller@defendingthenet.com. If you would like to know more about computer security please visit us at http://www.defendingthenet.com.

[tags]trojan horse, trojan horse virus, delete trojan horse, remove trojan horse, trojan horse picture[/tags]

Virus Nightmare... Lessons Learned

2008-10-17T07:01:00.001-07:00

I got a virus the other day, Thursday I believe and since then I have been making FRANTIC efforts to save all my info.

The most important thing for me to save are my Outlook Express emails and my Roboform passwords. That way I can at least access all the places I need, to download and re-install all the software I use.

Thankfully I was able to still access my Laptop and very, very slowly (the system was painfully slow because of the damge done by the virus) start a process of trying to save my system without having to reformat the whole disk. I say thankfully because after a virus attack not everyone is able to even access the system.

I tried anti-virus software, I attempted to fix things using the various "malicious advertising" expulsion applications (Ad-aware, Spybot etc.). All to no avail. After almost three days I resigned myself to the fact that it would have to be a re-format which means restoring my Laptop to factory settings. What a nightmare!

First of all I made a backup of my Outlook express email software, emails, account settings etc. For this I downloaded a great little free trial software application called Outlook Express Back Up Wizard, a free trial can be downloaded here: http://www.outlook-express-backup.com/ This software met by needs better than others I tried.

If you don't use Outlook Express then you can download others by searching here: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=RNWE,RNWE:2004-35,RNWE:en&q=email+backup+free+downloads

The I did a search for some backup software to back up the files that I could and also to use for future occasions. After trying a few that either wouldn't work on my system, or didn't back up to the medium that I wanted(CD Rom Discs) I found a great tool that just did the trick and in fact I plan to buy as soon as the free trial is up. The software is called "NTI Backup Now 4 Deluxe Suite" and it is so straightforward that even a tech dummy like me found it simple.

Again you can use the full version for 30 days free: http://www.ntius.com/

I added my Roboform(www.roboform.com) passwords, my Internet Explorer favourites, my Outlook Express backup, my Microsoft Money backup files(For accounting purposes), as many software installation files as I had and most of the files and folders that I have used recently.

Of course what I also ralised is that I have not kept the Install files of loads of the software that I have on my Laptop. Bad mistake! This means that I will have to go search for these again to download to my reformatted system.

What I will do in future is save every Install file in it's own folder with passwords, serial numbers and any other useful info in a notepad file alongside them.

The hard lesson I have learned is to make sure in future I do frequent backups of my system. I have been online since 1998 and never had any major problems. This is the first and I foolishly underestimated the damage a virus could do.

My next step is to get an external drive to use as a backup and as I mentioned to use it frequently.

I hope this has given you some food for thought. As I sign off here I am going to insert my Toshiba Product Recovery CD-Rom.

If I had taken the necessary precautions I wouldn't have just lost three days of my time. Three days I could have been putting to better use.

Ah well, there is positive in every bad situation. Or at least that's what I keep telling myself:-).

Mal Keenan is editor and publisher of Home Business Tips Newsletter: Work at home business opportunities

Find a work at home business you can believe in visit: Work at home Jobs & Opportunities

[tags]virus, system recovery, tools, software, internet marketing, lessons[/tags]

Virus And Adware - Fix Them Both!

2008-10-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

We all get the odd virus now and then, but sometimes that one virus could cause so many problems. In this article I shall be going though just some of the problems that these virus software programs can do, and how to fix them.

One of the worst type of virus is one that effects the Boot Config, if this happens you will notice an error such as "Invalid boot sector" or "unaccessable boot device", there are many other errors for the same problem, if you don't get even a windows loading screen then your issue may be the Boot Config, sounds like a hard problem to fix don't it, infact its pretty easy. For this we shall need a Windows XP install CD, if your computer never come with one then please go down to where you paid for your PC and ask for one, insert the CD and then turn on your PC, you will get a text messege saying "To boot from CD press any key", so press anykey!, now wait for a few mintues untill it says the terms and conditions, read though them and then follow the onscreen instructions untill it warns of another operating system already installed. It will give you a option to go into the recovery console by pressing R, this is what we want to go into. Wait, and a Dos like screen will show itself, type the following "/fixmbr" and then "/exit", and then load up your PC and windows should load up. Now I would advice for you to do a virus scan using what ever software you use!

Another type of virus is one that cuts you of the network or internet often, these can be hard to fix as they most of the time merge with the system files. First of all check that you can't just fix it by using MSCONFIG (Start - Run - Msconfig - Startup - Disable all), if you can then do so and then run a virus checking peice of software, if this fails then read on. Load up in Windows safe mode (Press F6 before the windows loading screen and then select safe mode) and now wait for safemade to load, once loaded use your virus checking software to rid yourself of the virus that is creating this problem, almost all viruses can be removed from Safemode. If this fails then seek professional help or reinstall Windows.

Yet another type of virus is not really a virus its spyware and adware, this is the type of problem most people get and it is the most common caluse for computers to slow down over time, you may ask where you could get spyware from and the most common places are p2p software such as Kazaa or websites offering Illegal content or even porn sites, but you may also get it from any other type of site. Spyware and Adware are big issues for slowing down your PC so I am sure you want to get rid of them, to do so you will wish to download Anti-Spyware software and I reccomend Spysweeper by WebRoot, others may wish to try Ad-aware, download the anti-spyware tool you want and then UPDATE the softrware, now do a full system scan and go make a drink, when you get back the scan should be done and it will list all of the spyware and adware, right click and click remove all and then wait again for it to remove the software. When done it may ask you to reset, do so as surgested, but now you will want to get another peice of software called Spybot S&D, this is free and can be downloaded from http://www.security.kolla.de, download and update that then run scan, it will find more spyware and adware so don't be shocked by thinking the other software did not work, in turn they work together to make a better peice of anti-spyware, Spybot also gives you the chance to immunize from some spyware, click that and now your system won't get the same spyware again. I reccomend doing a spyware check every 1 week.

Dimension WallPapers - Wallpapers without fuss

Created by Daniel Nethersole who works on Dimensionet.com, check out Daniels Wallpaper site at http://www.walls.dimensionet.com

[tags]Virus, Spyware, computers, fix, problems, internet, adware, software[/tags]

Secure Your PC From Hackers, Viruses, And Trojans

2008-10-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

Viruses, Trojans and Spyware: Protecting yourself.

No user on the internet is safe from assault. Viruses, Trojans and Spyware can all effect your computer by placing annoying ads, tracking your credit card numbers, or even slow it down to a certain extent it is deemed no longer usable. By following through these simple steps, you can help protect yourself from the internet.

High CPU Usage: If your computer seems to be slower than usual, it is very likely that you have been infected. Background services can slow down your computer, and to check performance, enter Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete). Then, click on the processes tab. You will be able to see active processes that are running. To find what should be running on your computer, visit http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm.

Check your level of protection: A good way to know whether you are safe or not is by using security tools. Here are some you should try out: NeWT 2.1: This is a very simple tool to use, and it scans for more than 4000 common security vulnerabilities. Download NeWT here: http://www.tenablesecurity.com/newt.htm Sumantec security check: This is a free service provided by Symantec. Simply visit here (www.sumantec.com), then select Scan for Security Risks. It will only tell you what vulnerabilities you have, but however it won't tell you how to fix them. Infinitive! Port Scanner: Our very own online port scanner! http://infinate.x10hosting.com/phport

Update Yourself: Install all the latest update possible. Service Pack 2 is a good way to start if you're running Windows XP. Enable Automatic Updates, and make sure you have the latest updates on your PC.

Safe Surfing: Due to Internet Explorer's high popularity, it is usually safe to change altogether. A common program now is known as FireFox (www.mozilla.com/products/firefox), which is fast, responsive and similar to Internet Explorer. However a major flaw with FireFox is that you will need to install additional plug-ins in order for you to view certain pages.

Make Regular Backups: Prepare for the worst. Make regular backups of your important files and store them on a type of offline storage.

Don't open suspicious links: If you are sent a link you are not sure about, do not open them, Simple. Another good way is to avoid suspicious sites altogether. Many programs too, bundle with spyware, so when you download them make sure they are stated "Freeware", nothing else.

Program Protection: Use Anti-Virus and Firewall software. McAfee is a highly recommended product over Symantec, but there are also other free anti-virus/firewall software online such as NOD32. http://www.nod32.com/

If you have been infected: Find cleaning instructions online on sites such as http://vil.nai.com. It will tell you where to locate your infection, and where to find and remove it. System Restore is also a good option on Windows XP. To use System Restore, go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System, System Restore. Simply click a restore point and reboot.

You can also remove viruses using the programs listed under Program Protection. To remove Spyware, Spybot S&D (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html) is a free yet useful tool to use.

All articles are written by Infinitive!

Infinitive! http://www.infinate.x10hosting.com You may reproduce and use this article just so long as you add a link (http://www.infinate.x10hosting.com) down at the bottom.

Infinitive! All the latest articles, tools, news, file hosting and more!

[tags]program, protection, hackers, virus, trojan, windows, update, protect, spyware, security, port[/tags]

The Move To A New Anti-Virus Model

2008-10-14T07:01:00.003-07:00

This is the second in a series of articles highlighting reasons why we need a new model for anti-virus and security solutions.

Reason #1: the Basic Model

Anti-virus software vendors still rely on yesterday's methods for solving today's problems: they wait for the next virus to wreak havoc and then produce a solution. That worked for a long time when a virus would take years to traverse the world. But in this fast-paced Interet-crazed world we live in today, this type of solution is no longer applicable. Now a virus can traverse the world and infect millions of computers in minutes.

In the good old days a virus traveled by floppy disk. Put a floppy in your computer and save some data to it and the virus would infect the floppy. Then unwittingly put the infected floppy in another computer and presto the new computer would become infected. (I'm skimming over a lot of detail here to make a point). So the virus' progress was slow and steady. Anti-virus vendors had time on their side. They had the time to get a copy of the virus, dissect it, run it through a series of tests to come up with a signature string (see below for definition), put the string into a database of strings to search for when scanning your hard drive (and floppies) and release the new database to the public. Ten years ago this system worked very well.

But now everyone is connected via the Internet. Now, using email as a transport point, it doesn't take years to gather momentum, instead it takes a matter of minutes. And here is where the model breaks. Step back and ask yourself the following question: if vendors can catch "known and unknown viruses" as their literature states, how then is it that we continue to have virus problems?

The answer lies in the fact that virus authors have been more creative in coming up with new ways to infect and wreak havoc and the software industry has not responded in kind, preferring to stay embedded in its old fashioned methodologies.

Why don't the old ways work any more, you might ask? It's relatively simple. Let's go through the steps.

A virus author unleashes NewVirus via email. He mass mails his virus to thousands of people. Some, not all, unwittingly open the attachment thinking it's from a friend or the subject is so enticing that they are fooled into opening it without thinking it's a problem (cf. nude pictures of Anna Kournikova). The email attachment immediately starts emailing everyone in his contact list and embeds itself into his operating system so that it's activated every time he turns on his computer.

The folks he emails in turn get fooled into thinking the email is valid and they open the attachment. Very quickly all hell breaks loose. Agencies which monitor Internet traffic see problems arising with the sudden spikes in email traffic and they begin to get calls or emails alerting them to the fact that there's a new problem. Samples are obtained and sent off to anti-virus vendors. They pass the emails through a series of tests to analyze what exactly the virus does and how it does it. Additionally analysis is performed to extract a unique string of 1's and 0's to identify this attachment as none other than NewVirus. This is called the signature string. It's important that whatever string is arrived at does not exist in any other program or piece of software; otherwise, you will get what is commonly called a false positive.

Quick digression on "false positives": if a vendor arrives at a unique string that just happens to be embedded in Microsoft Word, then every time a user runs a scan of their hard drive, Microsoft Word will be identified as being infected with NewVirus. Users will uninstall Word and re-install only to learn that they are still infected. There will be complaints; the vendor will be forced to re-assess the signature string and re-release his list of strings and admit the error.

Typically signature strings are matched against a whole boatload of commonplace software just to protect against this occurrence, but it still happens and vendors learn to add new software to their test beds.

OK, so the vendor has arrived at a signature string. Next? Implement the string into their string database so that when their scanners are scanning they will match what's on your hard drive to what's in the database. After the database has been updated they release the database to their customers in what's commonly called a "push" where they send the updates to their primary users.

If you did not buy into this service, you must know enough to log into your anti-virus vendor and update your software so that you stay current.

So where are we? The bad guy or problem teenager- has unleashed NewVirus. NewVirus has infected thousands of computers; vendors have been alerted; NewVirus continues to infect; solutions are achieved and "pushed" to corporate clients; NewVirus continues to infect hundreds and thousands of computers; corporate clients breathe a sigh of relief and alert their users as to the new threat.

Thousands, if not millions, of computers become infected and need to be cleaned because the best way to solve the virus problem is to wait for each new virus to come along and solve on a case by case basis.

But if you sat back and said: what if? What if you categorized all the things a virus can do (or could do), built a series of computers to allow any email attachment or program to have full rein of a computer (much like it would have on your own computer such a computer is called "honeypot") and then analyze that computer for unwelcome behavior?

That would be a true pre-emptive strike against all malicious software. This is the behavior-based model. Such a model would actually protect you unknown viruses, along with all the known 70,000 viruses.

In part 2 we'll discuss the risks and security failures of having distributed vendor software on your desktop.

About The Author

Tim Klemmer
CEO, OnceRed LLC
http://www.checkinmyemail.com

Tim Klemmer has spent the better part of 12 years designing and perfecting the first true patented behavior-based solution to malicious software.

timklemmer@checkinmyemail.com

[tags]internet security,firewall,internet protection,virus,spyware,spam,spam filter,anti virus,ISP[/tags]

Modern Diseases Computer Viruses And Antivirus Treatment

2008-10-14T07:01:00.001-07:00

See, once your computer gets connected with the global net it faces various threats and attacks from unfriendly microelements walking freely through the cyber space and seeking for new victims. It doesn't help if you wash your hands before touching the keyboard; the little monsters called computer viruses could be defeated in their own methods. This is where the sword and shield aren't able to help your romantic tendencies and the only way to eliminate this gross injustice is to accept a battle with electronic weapons!

While computer viruses behave pretty much like biological ones, they need special treatment that admits no analogy in biological terms. As insidious as their biological correspondents, they infect every living cell and spread around in record time. Thus, if you really need a functional pc, you should procure some electronic pills to get your work safe.

In this case you cannot become a faithful guardian to your machine until you have installed an antivirus program skilled enough to detect viruses, worms and Trojan horses - all "trustful" members of a happy family! It is important to keep clear about the differences between these sorts of malware, in order to protect your computer from them all. Viruses, as we used to know them when first dealing with a computer are no more that widely spread since the Internet became popular. Once again: you need an antivirus that helps against viruses, worms and Trojan horses (not only viruses)!

See the slight differences in methods and effects: Viruses intend to destroy your data. They act in sly movements and this is how the predominant negative effect of viruses is their uncontrolled self-reproduction, which wastes or overwhelms computer resources, until your cyber work space doesn't leave you room for your actions.

But since we've got Internet connection we have to deal with the most popular visitors from "out there"! Introduce yourself to malicious worms: worm uses a network to send copies of itself to other systems and it does so without any intervention, thus, you stay helpless face to face with it. In general, worms harm the network and consume bandwidth, whereas viruses infect or corrupt files on a targeted computer. Viruses generally do not affect network performance, as their malicious activities are mostly confined within the target computer itself.

And here is the moment when the masquerade starts: Trojan horse is a malicious program that is disguised as legitimate software. Trojans use false and fake names to trick users into dismissing the processes. In most cases the program performs other, undesired functions, but not always. The useful, or seemingly useful, functions serve as camouflage for these undesired functions.

While some of them are particularly benign or simply annoying, others are extremely harmful and deadly dangerous. In analogy, just compare a regular cold with pneumonia no need to mourn for you computer! What it really needs is an anti-virus protection. Remember, they are active in this certain moment, when you're peacefully typing. Hurry up to get protected and try out PC Tools AntiVirus 2.0 as a fair suggestion.

Ted Peterson writes for Core Download, a software archive with over 30.000 software titles to download like PC Tools Antivirus, Spyware Doctor and Spam Monitor.

[tags]antivirus, download shareware[/tags]

Internet Basics Anti-Virus Software Is Like A Soldier Ant

2008-10-13T07:02:00.003-07:00

Ever see soldier ants at their anthill? They have one job -- protect what's inside. How do they do this? They stop anything unfriendly from coming in. Fortunately for the soldier ants, it's easy to know what not to let in -- if it ain't an ant, no passage allowed!

But ants going in sometimes bring things along with them, things they're carrying that could be dangerous to the life of the hill.

What if, for example, an ant out looking for food found a yummy red can full of free food just sitting there. He grabs a bunch. Heads back to the hill. The soldier ant sees the other ant is an ant, and so he's free to pass - only neither ant recognizes the food being brought in is actually poison designed to destroy the hill and everything inside. Yikes! So the ant goes in and everything's history after that.

That's what anti-virus software is like (and hopefully it can do an even better job than the soldier ant).

Anti-virus software is always on the ready. It wants to snoop around anything that's coming into your anthill (in this case, your computer). So it wants to check over:

* incoming emails (especially if they have other files attached to them, just like the ant carrying in the food/poison)

* files you download from the Internet

* it might even check emails you send out. Why? Because anti-virus software doesn't just care about your computer. It also wants to make sure if you have a virus, you don't send it to anyone else (and when you don't destroy others' computers, they're more likely to help you if yours gets destroyed).

Since anti-virus software needs to be on guard all the time, it likes to start up when you start your computer, and continues running "in the background" the whole time you're working in other programs. It's always watching. Always waiting. And sometimes it can slow your computer down as a result, but it's worth keeping your computer safe, in my opinion anyway.

And that's why anti-virus software is like a soldier ant.

Grant Pasay is a professional website copywriter, advertising copywriter, and SEO copywriter serving clients in Vancouver, BC and everywhere. Grant is also the author of the FREE e-book, "The Internet Is Like A Refrigerator."

For copy that captures your business message without any of the hassle, go to http://grantpasay.com/

Check out Grant's FREE e-book at http://grantpasay.com/refrigerator/

[tags]website copywriter, advertising copywriter, SEO copywriter, Vancouver[/tags]

Be Aware Of Phishing Scams!

2008-10-13T07:02:00.001-07:00

If you use emails actively in your communication, you must have received various messages claiming to be from Ebay, Paypal and a number of banks. A recent email as if from U.S. Bank Corporation that I received contains the subject "U.S. Bank Fraud Verification Process" and in the body of the mail it says "We recently reviewed your account, and suspect that your U.S. Bank Internet Banking account may have been accessed by an unauthorized third party. Protecting the security of your account and of the U.S. Bank network is our primary concern. Therefore, as a preventative measure, we have temporarily limited access to sensitive account features. To restore your account access, please take the following steps to ensure that your account has not been compromised:". It continues with a link to a webpage, which looks very similar to original web page of the bank.

The misleading web site appears authentic with familiar graphics and logos. The wordings are professional right down to the legal disclaimer at the bottom of the page.

If you happened to be holding an account of the claimed bank, followed the instructions of the email and input your account, pin, password, etc. you are doomed. You just have handed over access to your account to a con artist, who, in a matter of days, will drain off all the money available in that account.

This new scam, which is proliferating in a very rapid pace, is called "Phishing". Phishing is a form of identity theft, where a con artist with the help of official looking email containing link to phony web pages capable of harvesting information, tricks an unsuspecting victim into divulging sensitive personal data. Scammers use these data to bilk victims out of their savings.

One of the most common phishing campaigns being waged has targeted users of Web auction giant eBay and its PayPal division with financial services giant Citibank serving as another popular target. However, recently, every major bank has been hit with this scam. Crooks send out huge amounts of emails with an expectation that some of these email address owners may have online access to their accounts at the bank.

The term "Phishing" is a deviation of the word "Fishing". In hackers' lexicon, in many words, "F" becomes "Ph". The term derives from the fact that scammers use sophisticated bait as they "fish" for users' personal information.

According to Gartner, a research firm, illegal access to checking accounts gained via phishing has become into the fastest growing type of consumer theft in the United States. Roughly 1.98 million people reported that their checking account was breached in one way or another during the last year and US$ 2.4 billion were defrauded from the victims!

Gartner also estimated that 57 million U.S. Internet users have received phishing emails and 3 percent of them may have fooled into revealing their personal sensitive information.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group has also spotted a dramatic increase in reports of phishing attacks in recent months. Since November, 2003 phishing scams increase by about 110 percent each month. In April alone, the group identified 1125 unique phishing scams, a sharp lift of 178 percent from the previous month.

MessageLabs, a company that watches phishing scams closely, has noted an even more dramatic increase in number of phishing emails. It claims to see phishing messages jump from just 279 in September, 2003 to a staggering 215,643 in March of 2004.

The scammers also started to use more sophisticated technologies in recent months. The latest generation of phishing scammers uses several methods to trick users, including pop-up graphics to mast the true web URL of the phishing site and the installation of Spywares and Trojans on victim's computer. The perpetrators also take advantage of security bugs in web browsers, in which the URL in the address bar appears to be for one site but is, in fact, a link to a totally different site.

A new Windows worm under the name "Korgo" is able to infiltrate into victim's system with a key logging Trojan, steal information that the victim input in web forms and secretly transmit to designated server. There are a number of variants of this worm and they are spreading rapidly. However, Microsoft in April came up with a patch to seal this glitch. Many computers without the patch are still vulnerable to this potentially dangerous worm.

A U.S. Treasury report provides consumers with steps to prevent and report phishing scams:

Do not respond to or open any e-mail that warns that an account is about to be closed. Contact the company directly by phone and inquire of this e-mail.
Do not submit financial information unless there is a symbol for a locked padlock on the browser's status bar. Also look for the https:// at the beginning of the Web address. If both of these signs are absent, the Web site is not secure.
Always review your bank statement and credit card statements immediately upon receipt.
Verify the domestic telephone number listed on the Web site through directory assistance or other reliable sources and call the number. Many phishing attacks have originated outside the U.S. and don't have a domestic number.
Report suspicious activity or if you have been defrauded to the FTC and the FBI.
Phishing e-mails can be forwarded to uce@ftc.gov. Complaints can be filed at www.ftc.gov. Phishing attacks can also be reported to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center at www.ifccfbi.gov.

Other cautionary measures you should take in order to protect yourself are:

Since most of the phishing emails come through spam, get a spam filter and install on your computer.
If you suspect a phishing attempt, report immediately to the bank. Every bank web site has a link or a toll-free number to report scams. Don't be ashamed if you were tricked into divulging account information. If you report it immediately, your account will be protected until you receive a new PIN.
Change your password and PINs regularly. Banks advise that you use separate PINs and passwords for different accounts, that way if one gets compromised, your entire financial life won't be revealed. - If you are a frequent user of EBay, download its Web browser toolbar, a small program that runs with a user's Web browser. It flashes red when the user visits a possible spoof site. The toolbar uses a database of spoof site URLs, submitted by customers and is updated quite often.
Check your computer frequently for possible Trojan virus.

About The Author

Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present CEO of [tags]phishing,scams,mlm,internet scam,computer virus,computer worm[/tags]

How To Protect Your Files From A Computer Virus

2008-10-12T07:01:00.001-07:00

How safe is your computer? Could you be in danger of getting a virus on your system? Just how real is the danger? What steps should you take if any?

While visiting with a one of my students, I became aware that her anti-virus software was over seventeen months old and had never been updated. Upon informing her that she should update her anti-virus software regularly, she was totally surprised. Furthermore she had no concept how essential this was to ensure her system safety. Therefore I thought it wise to write about some of the precautions you should take to avoid becoming infected with a computer virus.

While there are many 'virus' hoaxes, and please do not pass any of these hoaxes on as these may actually contain viruses, computer viruses do pose a very real danger. Therefore I've listed a few preventative measures that you should take to ensure computer safety.

1. Do install an anti-virus software program and update it often as there are new viruses discovered everyday. I update my anti-virus database daily. At least weekly should be a goal. If you are not updating perpetually, it is like having an insurance policy and never paying the premiums. In no time at all it would be worthless.

2. Be wary of email from strangers. Never open an email with an attachment from a source that is unknown or suspicious. Virus containing emails can be very persuasive in the subject line. Do not let your curiosity be aroused.

I prefer an anti-virus program that has the ability to check all email sent and received. If you update it often, this should keep you safe, although nothing is 100% secure. There are good programs that offer a free version for personal use. These programs generally allow continual updates. Some may require that you register again at the end of year, but the software and updates will still be free.

Two such programs are:

AVG anti-virus, Free edition http://grisoft.com

Free avast! 4 Home Edition http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

For more options and reviews on programs you can do a search on google for free anti-virus.

3. Do exercise caution when downloading files from the Internet. Be sure to download from well known and reputable sources. Ascertain that your anti-virus software is set to scan files while you are downloading. I have that feature enabled in my anti-virus program and it scans all files when I am in the process of downloading, and it has on occasion prevented me from downloading a file that was infected or posed a potential danger. These programs work so take advantage of the security your anti-virus will provide by using all of the safety features.

4. New viruses creep upon a daily basis. It is important to back up your important files regularly. CD's and DVD's hold a large amount of information. Take advantage of this and store your valuable information and computer programs on these removable disks. In the event that a virus should ever invade your system and your files become corrupted you will be able to replace them with your backup copies.

5. Lastly apply the little rule, 'When in doubt do without'. If you are uncertain, whether it is with an unknown source in your email or a web site that offers a download, then best not to take a chance. No email message or free software is worth the damage to your computer files and the time and expense of repairing your PC. Do not be fooled, computer viruses do affect everyone.

The Internet offers us an array of software, services, entertainment and education that is beneficial. There is no reason to fear the web, it can be safe and secure. Yet it would be unrealistic to assume that there is no danger of computer viruses. There are unscrupulous persons who desire to do you harm. By observing these few guidelines you can minimize any threat of a virus attacking your computer.

Doran, writer and entrepreneur provides lessons, resouces, tips, freeware, biz info, ebooks, mp3s, and more to improve your PC and Internet experience.

http://doranunlimited.com

[tags]computer safety, PC threats, virus, anti-virus, system, danger, infected, email, precautions, preven[/tags]

The Importance Of Protecting Your PC From Viruses And Spam

2008-10-11T07:00:00.002-07:00

Today the internet is a mine field of malicious code looking to harm your computer. Hackers want to have access to your PC for both fun and profit. You must be diligent in your ability to detect and then protect your important computer data.

Understanding what hackers are looking for, what doors they use to gain entry into your computer and which programs are available to help you protect your PC against any illegal entry will give you greater peace of mind and protect your valuable data.

There are three types of threats to your computer that you need to be concerned about. The first are viruses. The definition of a computer virus is a piece of code or a program that is that is loaded onto and run on your computer without your knowledge. They can attach themselves to other programs on your computer. Some Virus' can reproduce at a great rate and in turn use up a lot of your computer memory. This eventually can cause your computer to crash. You get Viruses most commonly via email or downloading programs and files. One way is in form of .exe files. If you receive an .exe file you should never open it unless it has been checked and approved as safe by your virus protection program.

Viruses can come into your computer in many other forms. You have to be careful with flash files, movies, mp3 and even .jpeg files. This is a good reason to have virus protection software installed on your computer. Companies like Norton, McAfee (McAfee.com), Trend Micro who makes PC-cilliin (trendmicro.com) and Grisoft (grisoft.com) among others make excellent virus protection products. Grisoft makes AVG Pro which is competent virus protection software. They have a personal edition which is free to use and is very good.

The next piece of software that is needed to protect your PC computer is a firewall. A firewall is used to block illegal access to your computer or network. It will block suspicious data from flowing into your PC and block unapproved programs outside your computer from taking data from your PC.

Think of a firewall as a doorman whose job it is to open a large locked door. When the doorman knows who is knocking at the door either by an announcement or because he recognizes the person he will let them in. With your firewall the firewall is unlocked only on your authorization allowing data to be passed on or received. It learns after awhile who is trusted and who is not.

A firewall comes standard with Microsoft Windows XP (Microsoft.com). But in order for it to protect, you must turn it on. Other solutions are Symantec's Norton Personal Firewall which you can buy by itself or bundled in the Norton Security Suite (symantec.com). McAfee (McAfee.com) also has a good firewall as well as the free version of Zone Labs firewall called Zone Alarm (zonelabs.com).

And, finally you should have good spyware software to protect against hackers or companies from snooping to find information about you through your internet connection. It is commonly used by companies for marketing purposes. Free spyware software that is widely used is Spybot's Search & Destroy (safer-networking.org) or Lavasoft's (lavasoft.com) free version of their Ad-aware spyware application. Spy Sweeper from Webroot (webroot.com) is an excellent choice and does not cost very much. Spy Sweeper has received many top reviews from the computer magazines.

If you install a virus protection software, Firewall and spyware software your computer will be well protected and you will have peace of mind. And, you needn't spend a lot. In each category you can find a free version that is very good and will help keep your computer problem free.

Ken Katz runs a Dating site:Web4Love.com. He has written this article for his viewers to help inform them on easy and mostly free software to help protect their computers.

[tags]virus,spyware,spam,firewall,virus protection,firewall protection,remove virus,remove,spyware[/tags]

How Profits Motivate Virus Creators

2008-10-11T07:00:00.001-07:00

The motivation behind hackers has evolved noticeably over the last couple of years. Developing harmful viruses is less about "bragging rights" or satisfying the creator's ego and is becoming more and more about generating profit or commercial return.

The destruction of data on your computer or corruption of programs you use is a common side effect and what people have traditionally associated with a computer virus. The reformatting of your computer "c: drive", especially at work, and the loss of valuable data used to be an incredibly painful experience.

The widespread deployment of data back up solutions within companies to comply with legislation and other factors means less and less valuable data is now stored on your computer's local hard drive. More importantly for the virus writer this attack does not generate much tangible profit so there is not much motivation to develop more sophisticated programs to counter improved anti virus applications and corporate network security.

However, there is profit for the virus writer in turning your computer into a spam distribution machine. "Spam" is email sent without the permission of the person receiving the message. Hackers gain control of your computer through a Trojan Horse which gives them the same access rights as the user. Once your computer is controlled by the hacker it becomes known as a "Zombie." A group of zombie machines is known as a "botnet."

By controlling a botnet a hacker can generate profit in a number of ways. The botnet can be used to exhort a ransom from a company by threatening launch a damaging "Distributed Denial of Service" (DDoS) attack against its web site. The botnet can also be hired out to other hackers.

The most common way of profiting from a botnet is to use it to send out spam email. According to the security software company Sophos over 50% of all spam email now originates from botnets. Hackers use spam email to drive traffic to pay per click advertising sites or distribute virus programs further. Using a zombie computer helps cover their tracks.

The drive for generating profit is clearly evident in a new form of virus dubbed "Ransomware" by security experts which started to appear in 2005. Ransomware, as the name suggests, holds data on your computer "hostage." Files on your hard drive are encrypted with a password. The user is then contacted and asked to pay a ransom to release the file.

Here are some simple tips and strategies to help prevent your computer turning into a "Zombie."

Keep your computer up to date with the latest software patches for Windows and other Microsoft programs. Most viruses and other malware exploit vulnerabilities in widely used programs.
Install a reputable anti virus program. Keep the definitions up to date and scan your computer regularly.
Install a personal firewall or buy a router with a hardware firewall. Ideally you need a firewall solution which filters both incoming and outgoing traffic from your computer to the internet.
Never open spam email or associated email attachments which is frequently used to distribute virus programs. Use a spam filter to help reduce the amount of spam you receive.

Richard Rogers runs a number of computer-related sites offering Spyware Remover and Anti Virus Software help.

[tags]Virus, Trojan Virus, Computer Security[/tags]

How To Stop Spyware - Once And For All

2008-10-10T07:00:00.001-07:00

Stopping spyware and adware is not a difficult task if people just simply take the time to be careful. To make it even easier, however, I have created a simple 3 step guideline to stop spyware and adware from infesting and slowing down your computer. Following these 3 simple steps will greatly improve your internet experience and all in all will make your computer very happy.

The 3 simple steps are

Only trust certain websites

Always assume no

Get anti spyware software

Let's examine each step individually.

Only Trust Certain Websites

One common problem with people is that they are too trusting. In the real world where with your family and friends, this is always a good thing. However, in the internet, this is a very bad idea.

Let's make an analogy here. Let's say you go to New York Park and a man walks up to you asking if he can borrow $10. Ten dollars is not much, but he doesn't just want the green, he wants your credit card number. You obviously say no and walk away, right? You can't trust a man that you have never seen in your life with something as valuable as your credit card, can you?

The same can be said on the internet. There is probably one website to every human being on this planet, and we all know not everyone on this planet is trust worthy and safe. How can we then say that every website is safe? It's simply not true.

When a website asks if they can install something on your computer, it's just like the man in the park asking for your credit card number. You may not be able to see the parallel right away, but think about it. You may have your bank statements downloaded on your computer, a picture of your children, several passwords, and maybe even personal emails. Spyware and adware not only slow down your computer, but it actually spies on you and steals your personal information.

How do you know what websites to trust and which to not? It's very simple. How do you know who to trust in the real world? Between a clean, well dressed man or woman on Wall Street and a man in shaggy clothes who looks to be in bad health in a ghetto, you'd obviously choose the well dress one on Wall Street, right? Maybe you know of this website from some other people you trust, so you can inherit the trust from others. Maybe it's a big name website or owned by a big name like Yahoo, Google, or Microsoft.

All of these websites you could trust because you know of them personally already. That's not to say you can't trust more websites, though. Such websites need to gain your trust though, either by helping you personally, not asking for personal identifiable information, or not asking you to install anything on your computer.

Always Assume No

So let's say you are surfing the web and you are on a website you're not sure if you can trust yet or not. Out of no where it asks "Such and such as requested to install an ActiveX controlblah blah blah" Too often people think "Oh, it's just one thing, I'll click ok."

This is the biggest mistake on the internet ever. Just like the man in the park, why would you say "Ok"? Do you know this website, has it gained your trust? How can you just say yes out of nowhere? You have to let it gain your trust first.

Let's say you go to Yahoo! Games and it asks to install something. You should know of Yahoo, and you know that you are trying to play a game, so you can draw your conclusion that you can safely install something.

Get Anti Spyware Software

One sure fire way to make sure you stop spyware and not get any is to get anti spyware software. It is the best way that, even if you accidentally click "yes", it will still block it so you know you are 100% safe. It will catch anything.

Following these steps should help you out on your journey on the internet and keep you safe. Following these basic guidelines will become second nature to you after a while and you will always be safe. Be sure to send these guidelines around to your friends as well, to help keep them safe and keeping you safe as well when they need to use your computer. Good luck on your journey!

Stephen Craton is a computer expert and has helped countless people across the world with computer related issues. His most recent site shows you how to rid your computer of harmful spyware by using simple software programs at http://www.adware-removers.net.

[tags]spyware, adware, virus, trojan, computer problems, antivirus[/tags]

Scam Artists And Low Lifes On The Internet

2008-10-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

The Internet is a wonderful invention. To me it's the greatest technology that mankind has ever produced. It's changing the culture of the world as well as the world economy. The tasks it allows us to accomplish are mind boggling. I can talk and collaborate with a friend halfway across the globe using my computer microphone. I can look up and get detailed information and how to's on anything I want, instantly. A world of useful and relevant information is at my fingertips.

Unfortunately all is not right on the Internet landscape. There's a lot of evil people out there. These people were probably doing evil things before the Internet came about, and now they have a fantastic new vehicle for spreading their evil ways. To put some nerd into this article, they have chosen the dark path. Why do they want to do these evil things? Money is probably the number one reason. Boredom and fame are others. What do they want? They want your credit card number. They may want your social security number. They want to send you a cashiers check that's way over the sale price for payment for an item at which point they want you to send them back a cashiers check for the difference. The catch is the check they have sent you is a fake check and will bounce.

The good news is that people are educating themselves to the ways of these evil doers. I'm going to help you to recognize some of these scams. I'm going to give you advice on steps you can take to minimize your risk of falling for one of these scams.

Email seems to be the vehicle of choice for these scams. The common name for these types of emails are Phishing emails. They are called that because the bad guy is fishing for victims. I get about 3 or 4 of these emails a day. I have seen enough of these to be able to tell you the common traits among all of them. If you get any email resembling any of the following chances are it's a sham and the email needs to be discarded. 1. The person is addressing you as Kind Sir or Madam.

2. They say they are some government official, diplomat, some person of royalty from a foreign country. Usually they introduce themselves as "I am" so and so from "the noble"" or "the great" land of **some foreign country** 3. They have some lengthy bizarre story of hardship.

4. Their grammar is way off.

5. It's usually a @yahoo or an @msn email address, although it could be others.

I never get far enough through the email to see what it is they want, but I assume it's money of some sort. Most of the general population can easily spot these and tell that they are a scam because they are just so strange sounding. But other emails come much better disguised. They arrive looking and sounding very much official. They will even have the proper domain extension (ie @paypal.com, @bankofamerica.com etc). Usually these scam emails want you to update something on your account. They will say something similar to the following:

"While checking your account we noticed that some information is not correct and needs to be updated. Please click on the following link and update your information. If you do not update your account we may be forced to deactivate it (cancel it, suspend it). Thank you, *signed* , The (Bank of America, Pay Pal, Wells Fargo etc) Account Team."

The best practice for these is as follows:

1. Do not click on any link where you need to enter any information, or update anything. If the supposed institution really wants you to do something to your online account, they will ask you to go to their website yourself, and log into your account.

2. If you have any question as to the legitimacy of the email, call the institution if you can and ask their support staff about it. If the institution has no number to call, go to their web site yourself and send them an email asking about the email.

If you are an Outlook or Outlook Express user an additional step would be to install a some spam blocking software on your computer. Shortly I will be using and then reviewing one of the popular spam blocking software programs that are made for Outlook and Outlook express. Another step would be to sign up and start using a Google email account. Google's email service does a great job of blocking junk and scam emails. You need either a cell phone or an invitation in order to get a Google email account.

Following these tips will help you, your money and your information stay safe on the Internet. As always use caution when clicking on anything in an email.

Carlos Cabezas writes regularly about home technology at http://www.HighTechHomes.tv/blog. His business, High Tech Homes, helps work at home professionals, families and small businesses with their technology issues.

[tags]virus, scam artists online, spyware[/tags]

Why Should I Use Antivirus Software

2008-10-07T07:01:00.001-07:00

The answer is really simple. To protect your own computer from damage, and to prevent your computer from being used to pass on infections to other machines without your knowledge.

Many people are reluctant to shell out the cash for decent antivirus software. I'll agree that at roughly $50 for a decent antivirus program, it isn't exactly small change. But, let's look at the costs more closely for a moment:

Computer $600-$4,000
Monitor $250-$1000
Software/Games $500-$5000
Internet Connection $25+/month
Personal/Business Data Priceless

So, on the low end of the scale we are looking at an investment similar to an older used car, on the higher end, a computer investment similar in price to a newer used car.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm guessing that you wouldn't buy a used car that had all the locks removed and didn't need a key to start it, and comes with a free "STEAL ME" sign on it too.

Having a computer that does not have up-to-date antivirus protection is absolutely the same. You are simply asking for trouble.

And trouble WILL find you.

How can I be so sure? Simply because that is what viruses, worms, malware etc. are made to do. Their ONLY job is to find unprotected computers and attack and hijack them without your knowledge. These things are VERY good at what they are built to do, and they NEVER stop. If your computer isn't protected, and you share disks or go online, it will get infected.

The top antivirus software programs cost as little as 2 months internet connection. They all include constant and unlimited automatic updates that keep your system safe and clean.

If you can afford $1500+ on a computer, $300+/year on internet connections, you can definitely afford another $50 once to make it safe (and prevent it from being used to spread viruses and Trojan horses behind your back).

Anything less would be uncivilized!

P.S. Some people have started to make claims that if you don't use antivirus software you should be held legally responsible if your machine be used as part of an attack (even if you did not know about it).

Learn how to remove black worm virus and how to easily block trojan horses, spyware, computer viruses, and other malicious software in the future. Growing library of Computer Security Articles

[tags]antivirus software,antivirus,black worm virus,blackworm virus[/tags]

A New Era Of Computer Security

2008-10-06T07:01:00.002-07:00

Computer security for most can be described in 2 words, firewall and antivirus.

Until recently could one install a firewall and an antivirus program and feel quite secure. The risk of something "bad" succeeding with infecting your computer or a hacker to breach your firewall was not likely.

This as internet was filled with computer completely without protection. Easier to attack or infect the completely open computer then fight all installed counter measurements. The viruses spread quickly and if you had protection, you where protected.

The new era has come.

But look around. Read about all new versions of spam control software, software firewalls, antivirus software and similar products.

Of course are they still a good protection against all the normal threats on internet, but the new main focus is the protection they offer against new threats.

Yes, they actually all try to come up with more and more cleaver ways of protecting you from threats not even present!

And how can they do this?

The answer is quite simple.

Most attacks and viruses use variations of known methods to attack or infect. And the new technologies that are being invented all search for "how things are done" instead of "exactly this or that".

How to find viruses.

The old way, a known virus can be found by using a signature, a known piece of code inside.

The new way, now they look for known actions certain viruses use to accomplish an infection or spreading.

How to recognize an attack.

The old way. Someone connecting to your computer in any way at all (stop them).

The new way, someone connecting via this protocol, to this port, more then 3 times per second and so on.

A couple of examples.

Norton Antivirus 2005 has, Internet Worm Protection. Panda Antivirus has, Trueprevent.

Other companies will follow and this will expand into other areas like firewalls and spam protection.

What's in it for you?

New protection will catch more virus, more attacks but they will most probably require more configuration from your side as well as a better understanding of how they work. And as always, a more complex system is more likely to give you problems.

So here you are, probably a bit more secure and with a bit more technical problems.

Kenth "The Designer" Nasstrom is the founder of The Designed Software Series. His software can be found at http://www.kndata.com and he also owns http://www.free-newslettertemplates.com as well as http://www.costa-rican-information.com

[tags]computer security,firewall,virus,antivirus,spam,spam control, stop spam[/tags]

Dialing Up A Scam Avoiding The Auto-Dialer Virus

2008-10-06T07:01:00.001-07:00

For many, the daily walk to the mailbox evokes mixed feelings: The glee that your favorite monthly magazine or a friend's hand-written letter (quite a surprise in the e-mail age) may be waiting is countered by anxiety of how many bills the postman left you.

Now, imagine coming across your phone bill, thicker and heavier than normal. When you open it, instead of "statement stuffers" from the phone company's marketing department, the bill is dozens of pages long ending in a one-month total of almost $5,400.

A quick glance at the details reveals hundreds of calls to the same 1-900 number. "A mistake," you insist. After all, you're the only person in the house and you have never called a 900 number before. Actually, this is no mistake. In this true story, the homeowner had fallen victim to one of the oldest computer scams around: the "Auto-Dialer" virus.

How Did This Computer Security Nightmare Begin
-----------------------------------------------------------
What is an "auto-dialer"? Some time ago, the phone companies came up with a feature that allowed merchants to reach a broader range of customers by allowing consumers to make payments via your phone bill. If you did not have a credit card, you just dialed a 900 number, connected by voice or modem (for Internet sites). Every minute you used the service, you were charged a fee ranging from $1 to $5 or more per minute. At month's end, the charge appeared on the phone bill. Many services were legit: Consumers called weather, horoscope and gambling services offering this feature. But many merchants sold expensive phone or online adult content.

How Did An Auto-Dialer Get Installed
-----------------------------------------------------------
But how did $5,400 in charges end up on the person's phone bill? Although many of these services require the user to physically dial the number or connect to the online site by instructing the modem to dial the number, this can happen without the user's knowledge. In the above case, the person's computer was infected with an auto-dialer virus. Somewhere during his Web travels, he connected to a site that popped up a rather confusing message instructing him to "Hit OK" to make the message go away. What this person didn't know was he was agreeing to download,install, and execute an adult content auto-dialer.

Behind the scene, the auto-dialer installed itself, checked for the presence of a modem and dial tone, and then proceeded to dial an overseas 900 number over and over again. Even though the person surfed using an always-on broadband Internet connection, the modem remained so he could send and receive faxes. One problem: When he wasn't using the modem, it remained plugged into the phone jack. Why should he have unplugged it? It's not like it could hurt anything, right? Wrong.

How To Protect Yourself
-----------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, there is no single solution to avoid these types of malicious acts. A short list of protective measures would include:

1) If you no longer need a modem in your computer, remove it. Or at least disconnect the phone line from the modem;

2) Install anti-virus software such as Trend Micro or Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus. Many are designed to prevent this kind of malicious software, or "Malware." More importantly, make sure your subscription for new virus patterns is current and configured to automatically download and install updates;

3) Install and regularly run Adware protection solutions such as LavaSoft's Ad-Aware or SpyBot Search & Destroy;

4) And do not, under any circumstances, blindly hit "OK" to pop-ups or similar annoyances without first making sure what you are agreeing to.

This tale is not fiction; in fact, it happens frequently, to businesses and consumers, kids and adults. But even the least savvy among us can thwart such an attack. A neighborhood teenager recently avoided potentially thousands in fees when an auto-dialer was downloaded and installed. How? She had unplugged the modem.

About The Author
----------------
Darren Miller is an Industry leading computer and internet security consultant. At the website - http://www.defendingthenet.com you will find information about computer security specifically design to assist home, home business and small business computer users. Sign up for defending the nets newsletter and stay informed and empowered to stay safe on the Internet. You can reach Darren at mailto:darren.miller@paralogic.net or at mailto:defendthenet@paralogic.net
URL
---
http://www.defendingthenet.com/NewsLetters/Auto-Dialer-Newsletter.htm

[tags]Auto-Dialers, Auto Dialers, Auto-Dialer Virus, Malware, Virus, Worm, Trojan, Adult Content[/tags]

How To Prevent Your Computer From Virus And Spyware Attack

2008-10-05T07:01:00.001-07:00

What is a computer virus?

Virus is a harmful program which when runs on a computer may alter the information, files and damage data stored in it.

How a computer gets infected from virus?

1. From Infected Floppy Disk

2. From infected files downloaded from website.

3. From infected files from a infected CD

4. From infected E-mail attachment.

5. From running an unknown program or code on your computer.

What precautions or measures we can take to prevent virus from entering into our computer?

1. We should only use floppies that are from known source and are properly scanned from an anti-virus.

2. We can install a good firewall on our computer.

3. We can install good anti-spyware on our computer.

4. Never open an E-mail from an unknown person or unknown source.

5. Install a good Anti-Virus on your computer.

6. In the Internet Explorer go to go to Tools icon then go to the Internet Options.

Then click the security tab and select Highest security option on the slider.

Then click Apply and Ok. This step will help you from restricting harmful viruses and Trojans from entering into your computer.

The above instructions will help you reducing the risks of saving your computer from any Virus Attack.

What we should do when a virus attacks our computer?

1. First of all we should try to back-up our data that is most important to us.

2. If our computer is on network, just disconnect it from the network so that the virus should not spread in to the other computers.

3. Now run a good Anti Virus on the computer to scan for the viruses.

4. After the viruses are found by the anti-virus try to remove them with it.

5. Some times the viruses are internet Trojan horses or spyware, in that case you should use good anti-spyware to remove them.

The ideas above are own ideas of the author based on his 10 years experience on internet and networks. The author is not responsible in anyway for any damage or loss of data caused to the user directly or indirectly.

Cyber Force is always with YOU.

Website: http://www.cyberforce.info The ideas above are own ideas of the author based on his 10 years experience on internet and networks. The author is not responsible in anyway for any damage or loss of data caused to the user directly or indirectly. The author has been granted Expert status from http://www.ezinearticles.com and was able to grab top position in google search (in approximately 8 million WebPages search with keywords virus and spyware attack and cyber force virus)

[tags]Virus, Spyware, Anti Virus, Anti Spyware, Torjans, Internet Worms, Computer Education for all[/tags]

Internet Security - Important Tips

2008-10-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

As the Global Convergence of Information or Internet is increasing its span, so are the security threats related to it. Internet Security is the most important aspect that everyone using the internet should understand. I'll here provide few important tips to keep yourself secure and protect your Information from Security threats.

1. Latest Anti-virus software:-

Everyday New threats and Viruses are being discovered and to cope with that you need to have a latest version of the Anti-virus software. Even to make your Version of Anti- Virus software effective, you need to update it with latest updates available. There are Lots of Anti- Virus Software available in market, both free and paid. Some of the Popular and trusted Anti -virus software are Norton (Symantec), Panda, McAfee etc.

2. Anti-Spyware Software:-

Now-a-days having Anti-virus software only is not enough. To enable yourself to be secure from Internet Security threats you also need a Anti-spyware software. Spyware programs are different from viruses in a way that unlike virus it does not alter the way in which your machines works or corrupt any data but it installs itself on your machine to send important data like passwords, SSN, Credit card numbers stored on your machine to its server. So in order to detect spyware programs & prevent one from getting into your machine you need latest Anti-spyware software. Popular spyware software's are Spyware Doctor, AdAware and Microsoft Anti-spyware.

3. Password protection advice:-

Passwords are the most important aspect of various online accounts. They provide access to online accounts and enable you to perform various activities linked with account like shopping, emailing, online transactions etc. Keeping your password secure is like keeping money secure. Never keep same passwords for different accounts. Never keep password's that can be guessed or password relating to your personal's like telephone number, date of birth etc. Use long Password's consisting of both letters and digits and may be some special characters. Always Access Websites Related to your password directly by opening a new webpage and never through a link in email or provided otherwise.

4. Apply Latest Updates & Patches:-

No software installed on your system is perfect for life. Vulnerabilities are bound to be found out in each one of them. So always apply the latest updates & patches to the software. These updates and patches are made available from time to time by the software manufacturer.

5. Firewall:-

If possible try to Use a firewall to prevent hackers from attacking your system and find out vulnerabilities in your System. Firewall blocks traffic not authorized to access your PC. Firewall enables you to access internet securely and prevent unauthorized applications and people from accessing your PC. Some well Known Firewall Software's are - Norton Internet Security & Zone Alarm.

by Rahul Goyal author for sycamore.in and sarvpriya.com

[tags]Internet Security, Anti-virus, Anti-spyware, Password protection, firewall[/tags]

Spyware Protection - The Only Way To Safeguard Your Personal Information Online

2008-10-04T07:01:00.002-07:00

The Problem:

Are you bombarded with popup ads? Seeing new toolbars in your browser? Does your home page change to unwanted/unknown destinations? Bombarded with irritating spam? Perhaps strange software loads when you first start your computer, or your favorites file may have new entries that you don't recognize and don't want. If this is happening to you, your PC (Personal Computer) is most likely infected with adware spyware, spybot spyware, trojan viruses or other harmful internet parasites.

What Is Happening?:

Your privacy is being seriously invaded. These programs have the ability to track your Internet usage habits and even steal such personal information as bank account numbers and passwords. If you are like me, this is scary, isn't it? But there's more...spyware even has the power to install even more parasites on your computer without your knowledge and without your consent. Everything you do and everything you type can be recorded without your knowledge and without your consent. Using spyware, companies can find out what your interests are and even track your purchasing habits. Hackers can and sometimes will access your PC and do anything they wish. Unscrupulous individuals can even steal your identity (you've heard of identity theft, haven't you?) and you would never be the wiser, at least until it is too late (this would be when the bill collectors, or even the police, start calling you!).

To Determine If You Are At Risk, Ask Yourself These 3 Questions:

Have I downloaded files, documents or free mp3 music online? Has my computer suddenly started getting annoying ads popping up on the screen? Have I suddenly noticed that my computer is running extremely slow?

What Is The Solution?

There is only one solution to this problem and that is to protect yourself and your privacy with a Spyware protection solution. Spyware protection software helps you to completely clean your computer of invasive threats. As a result, your computer will be clean and its performance will be better. Simply put, it will run a lot faster. Additionally, you will have protected your privacy - personal information, financial data, and your financial security will be protected. In the information age, where having just one piece of your personal information can ruin your life, protecting your personal privacy while online is of the utmost importance.

Joe Borges makes it easy for you to protect your sensitive information while on the Internet. To get free tips, tools and other essential information, visit our Anti Spyware Software website.

Joe Borges is an Internet Marketer and Online Business Owner with experience in web development and implementation. He is also a professional SEO Consultant, helping internet businesses increase their web presence, website traffic and Search Engine Ranking. Get essential tips, tools and strategies that you can use right now to protect your most sensitive information by visiting: http://www.alertcomputer.com

[tags]spyware protection, anti spyware software, spyware, adware spyware, trojan virus, spam, spybot spywa[/tags]

Computer Viruses And Other Nasties How To Protect Your Computer From These Invaders

2008-10-04T07:01:00.001-07:00

Can you protect your computer from all possible viruses and other invasions?

The quickest answer to this is "no." It's just flat impossible to protect your computer from all viruses, registry attacks, worms, spyware, malware, popups, and other such nasties.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that you can clean up and protect your computer against almost all of these undesirable intruders.

The first thing you need to do is download a program called Mozilla Firefox. It's a newer and better browser than anything offered by those guys in Seattle. For one thing, hackers have been concentrating their efforts on Microsoftâ products like Internet Explorerâ and MSN Explorerâ. This makes these browsers more likely to be attacked, whereas Firefox, at least as of this writing, seems more secure. And it does offer great popup protection.

Another thing you will like about Firefox is a feature called Tabs that lets you have numerous Web pages up at the same time with the ability to click back and forth between them. For example, you could have your favorite site, eBay's home page, a phone number directory, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and your favorite blog all loaded at the same time then just click amongst them as the moment moves you.

Here's what you'll really like about Firefox. It's free from the Mozilla.org, which is a sort of consortium of public-minded software engineers who develop and distribute freeware (free software). Mozilla is also responsible for a great, free email program called Thunderbird.

Thunderbird is a fast and efficient way to get and send email and has great spam filters. I've personally been using it for more than a month and haven't gotten a single piece of spam mail to date. Compare this with the stuff you get when you use other free email services such as MSN Hotmail.

Before you install either of these programs, you will want to rid your computer of any nasty software it has fallen victim to. A good way to do this is to download another great, free program, Ad-Aware SE from Lavasoft (Lavasoft.com). This program detects and eliminates objects such as a registry invasion. The Webopedia defines your registry file as "a database used by the Windows operating system (Windows 95 and NT) to store configuration information." A registry invasion happens when a "free" program changes your registry to automatically load spyware or some undesirable program. For example, a Web site called I-Mesh allows you to download free programs, share files, and search for music and videos but will alter your registry file to incorporate a service called GAINâ (GAIN Publishing) that you may find very annoying.

Ad-Aware will also find and eliminate known data-mining programs, aggressive advertising, parasites, and scumware, as well as selected traditional trojans, dialers, malware, browser hijackers, and tracking components.

You can also find and eliminate spyware with a program called Spybot Search & Destroy. It's available free at spybot.info/en/index.html. Install this program and then click on Search & Destroy and it will scan your hard drive in a matter of moments and then show you a list of "problems" it has found. It also tells you the type of problem, for example, "registry change."

Once the scan completes, all you have to do is click on a button titled "Fix selected problems." Spybot will first create a restore point (in case you delete something you wish you hadn't) and then fix all the problems that are check marked (if there is any problem you do not want fixed for some reason, just remove the checkmark next to it).

Finally, there is a great anti-virus program you can also get free. It is AVG Free Anti-virus and is available at Grisoft.com. AVG will scan your hard disk, then report and eliminate any viruses found. In addition, it automatically downloads information on new viruses from time to time to help keep you protected. This automatic download service is free as well.

Have you heard about HD radio technology? It makes AM sound as good as FM and FM sound almost like you were listening to a CD ... and its free! To learn more about this amazing new technology, just go my Web site, http://www.hd-radio-home.com, to get all the buzz. Douglas Hanna is a retired marketing executive and the author of numerous articles on HD radio and family finances.t .

[tags]spyware, viruses, registry invasions, computer protection, trojans, popups, pop-ups[/tags]

3 Steps To Ending Scams And Virus Problems

2008-10-03T07:01:00.000-07:00

Watching how the traditional media covers the latest virus or scam would make one think we are all innocent victims and it is the "evil Internet" at work once again. News flash! Innocent? More like uninformed. Victim? In many cases add the word "willing." The media's point of view and how they choose to portray these occurrences always makes me chuckle.

In the past decade, there has been very little progress when it comes to onliners wanting to acquire just enough information and knowledge to know how to protect themselves. They throw their hands up claiming "I'm not a techie!" while they proceed to want to participate in "technienology." The truth is these issues are part and parcel of participation.

Many do not update their virus programs (that is if they even have one in the first place) and they believe some of the most gratuitously ridiculous offers. That is as long as those "offers" insinuate easy riches with little effort or expense. To that end; there is your weakest link. The propensity to believe misinformation that caters to one's inner desires.

When did plain old common sense go out the window? Why do the natural rules of trust, common sense and due diligence for some reason not seem to apply online? Off-line if these tactics were used, most would probably laugh the salesperson right out of the building! But online, we enter the surreal world of possibilities combined with the perception that some of the most important issues of all are ours to ignore or disregard if we so please.

When it comes to impeding scams and viruses there are three simple solutions:

1. For Scams: Simply don't believe it; none of it! If it comes in an e-mail you didn't requestjust hit delete! If it's on a Web site, do your due diligence to confirm claims and to ask for recommendations and proof. Investigate how long the site has been online. Read their terms and conditions. E-mail them with every single question you may have before you give them one red cent of your hard earned dollars. Only proceed if you receive timely and concise answers. Not willing to make these efforts? Then plan on getting ripped off and you deserve it! Buyer beware? More like buyer be informed!

2. For Viruses: Update your virus software every time you log on. Simple. Don't click on any links within e-mails that you are not expecting. Most virus software has an automatic scheduler so that the software can update daily at specified times. Once this is setup you will no longer have to manually update. Then, keep your update subscription current. Remember, you computer doesn't know what to protect you from without these updates!

3. Make an effort in both these areas to understand the tools and resources available to you to help you participate in a smart and informed manner. You can literally check anything out online by searching Google to find reviews, warnings or even accolades and recommendations. Take the time to use and absorb the information available to you if you want to participate in information technology!

By following the above three steps, those who create viruses wouldn't have a leg to stand on and the scammers would not be in business by taking advantage of what folks don't want to take the time to understand or verify.

As long as Netizens do not make a concerned effort to be informed there will be someone out there willing to take advantage of them. Don't blame technology; don't blame the scammers and hackers. The blame should be placed with those who can easily avoid these situations, but choose to not be informed enough to do so.

About the Author:

Judith Kallos is an authoritative and good-humored Technology Muse who has played @ http://www.TheIStudio.com for over a decade.

Check out her popular Technology Cheat Sheets: http://www.LearnAndThrive.com

[tags]virus protection, network security, online scams, online schemes, virus files, viruses[/tags]

Securities

2008-10-02T07:02:00.001-07:00

NETWORK SECURITIES: IMPORTANCE OF SECURITIES

Computers and securities must form a strong partnership to keep information safe and secure. It is important for people who spend time surfing the web to understand much of the information given out is easily accessible by individuals who desire to eavesdrop on the data. Unless the web site you are viewing has taken special precautions to secure the web pages, they are open for anyone with the right tools to intercept information over the Web.

Data security has taken on new meaning in recent years, particularly with the introduction and widespread use of the Internet for people and businesses to take care of the things they need to do. Many people see the Internet as a big open door inviting almost anyone to enter their system and stay for a while. With the proper measures, this does not have to be the case and you can effectively close the door and only allow a select group of people inside.

There are a number of different ways you can get the data security you need to protect your system through the use of software. Some of these programs work to defend your system by providing encryption which basically scrambles information so it can not be utilized until it has been properly unscrambled on the system or another one. You can find programs that will inspect your system, looking for holes others may take advantage of and offering solution.

Software exists allowing the person in charge of the network to know the instant an intruder is noticed on the system so appropriate steps can be taken quickly. There are many other good programs on the market you help you protect your system and data. Be proactive and find the solutions you need before you absolutely need them.

Getting Data Security Software

By far, the best place to start your search for the data security software you need is through the Internet. You can learn in detail about different software packages currently available and choose the one or combination of them to provide the security you need. Making sure your data is secure should not be left to chance.

EMAIL ENCRYPTION

Email encryption can be a great step to make sure the messages you send via email are kept completely private and out of the view of anyone else. One of the great things about living in the USA is the ability to pass snail mail from one person to another without worrying about anyone reading through it and casting aspersions. Some people living in countries not so free do not have the freedom to send mail without fear. The same privacy we receive in snail mail is what we should expect when sending digital mail to people we care about. While you do not need to worry about the government reading through your email (for the most part), other people may eavesdrop. There are a number of people who get a thrill out of looking at other people's email without permission by using various programs to snoop into the email.

One of things to consider is some people do not use any kind of email encryption whatsoever. These people are basically writing information on a wall for anyone who desires to read it and look it over. While you may not be passing any personally sensitive material, you may not want people to know the details of your life found in the emails you send.

Email encryption basically allows your computer to encode your message so that it does not make sense to people who may intercept it. The person it is meant for can decode the message to read it properly

SECURITY SOFTWARE

Security software is all about protecting your computer systems and data from those who would like to gain access to it for a variety of reasons. Many companies have found it necessary to create websites to tell the world who they are and what they have to offer but it also carries with it a problem. The moment you put up a web server at your site, you are inviting the world to your site and possibly to other portions of your system.

SPAM FILTERS

Spam filters can be one of the best tools you can use to get rid of practically all of the junk mail you and/or your company receives. It is amazing the amount of spam delivered to people all across the United States of America each and every day. Various companies help to deliver hundreds of millions of advertisements and contacts to people each and every day through email in the USA alone.

INTRUSION DETECTION SYSTEM

Intrusion detection systems can be the safeguard you need to protect your computer system from unauthorized access by people who do not have your permission to be in a particular area of the system. It is a step to make sure your data and IT systems are as safe as possible all of the time. You should recognize the possibility of intruders entering your system from remote locations outside of your network and from inside it as well.

VIRUS PROTECTION

Virus protection should be a part of every single computer used to surf the Internet or to work as part of a network. If you can read this page, posted on the web, you need to have some sort of quality virus protection on your computer. It seems almost everyone has had some kind of bout with a virus of some type either catching it and destroying it or suffering from its damaging effects.

EMAIL FILTERS

Email filters can read your email so you do not have to read every single message delivered to your computer. It is amazing to consider the impact email has had on people's lives since it was first introduced to the general public back in the 1990's. I can remember the computer systems designed to specifically handle email and very little else so people could keep in contact with friends and relatives many miles away.

COMPUTER ENCRYPTION

Encryption is one of the most popular ways information is protected and has been a way to send hidden or secret messages from one place to another. The idea is based on an age old practice called cryptography which is a coded message sent an individual who has the key to unlock the message in code so that it makes sense. Coded messages have been found dating back as far as the Roman Empire.

COMPUTER VIRUS PROTECTION

Computer virus protection should be one of the most important aspects of your computer system no matter if your computer is part of a huge network or is a single personal computer. There are a couple of different kinds of viruses and many variations of them, some of which have literally traveled around the world. Usually, once a virus has settled into a computer, it looks for the opportunity to duplicate itself and email itself to others.

SECURING WEB SERVER SOFTWARE

Web server software is one of the most important aspects of your server allowing people to view your website at any time day or night. The Internet has had a profound effect on the entire world and continues to grow more and more each hour of every day as people produce unimaginable amounts of information worldwide. Unfortunately, with all of the web traffic, there are also some people who do not use the Web for good.

WEBSITE FILTERS

Web site filters are a wonderful way for companies to make sure their employees are visiting websites appropriate to their job description. One of the major difficulties with the Internet is the amount of inappropriate websites popping up when you search for almost anything on the Internet. Imagine what would happen if your receptionist is looking up information pertinent for his/her job and a pornographic site pops up as a customer enters the door who catches a glimpse of the pictures on the monitor.

SERVER SOFTWARE

Server software is at the very heart of any computer network as it provides the tools needed to make the network operate properly. After investing in quality hardware for the network, it is of equal importance to make sure the software used is of high quality and performs the tasks you desire efficiently without fail. You want to make sure you have a powerful combination of both hardware and software

COMPLYING WITH CHILDREN INERNET ACT

The Childrens Internet Protection Act was introduced to congress in 1999 with the idea of providing some level of protection for the content minors are allowed to view on certain computer systems. All schools with minors in attendance must follow the rules established by this law. Also, any public place providing Internet access to the public which includes minors must also follow this law.

This article is submitted by Kashif Raza http://www.networkingtutorials.net

[tags]securities,internet protection,spam filters,securiy software,intrusion detection system,virus protec[/tags]

Combating Viruses With Security Software

2008-10-02T07:01:00.000-07:00

Help, I was sitting in front my computer and it started acting strange! Pop-ups were on my screen and I was not even surfing the web. My home page was changed somehow and so did other web settings. My programs are at a crawl and overall my computer is just not working the way it should be.

If this sounds like your computer, chances are you have been infected with some type of malicious software. Several types of software can infect your computer; some of these are spyware, a virus, a Trojan, and a worm. That is why you need security software.

Below is a brief and simple description of the software that can infect your computer and cause poor performance.

· Spyware is a program that gathers information about the user through the internet without their knowledge. It monitors your web activity and passes this information to another party without your knowledge. Spyware is designed for commercial gain, thus when it is installed in your computer you will probably receive unsolicited pop-up advertisements. It can also gather your email addresses, passwords, and credit card numbers stored on your computer.

· A virus is programming code or a piece of code that loads onto your computer without your consent. A virus is also self-replicating by inserting copies into an executable code or documents. Any virus is dangerous as it uses up memory and brings your system to a halt.

· A worm is much like a virus in the fact that it is self-replicating but differs in the fact that it does not need another program to do so. A worm can spread itself without any action from the user. A worm can attach itself to you address book and send a copy to everyone in it, then attaches itself to the receivers address book in addition, send it out to everyone in that address book. Worms are dangerous and in the end can cause networks to crash.

· Trojans are designed as legitimate software that you can download onto your computer. Once installed though, they can be annoying and/or malicious. Annoying activities of a Trojan would be changing your desktop around or silly icons appearing. Malicious damage from a Trojan is capable of deleting files on your computer and allowing personal and confidential information to be collected without you being aware.

Preventing spyware and other malicious software from infecting your computer through security software is lots easier going online and finding a reputable online scanning site after the fact. Sometimes if your computer is infected, you may not even be able to get online. Therefore, prevention is better than fixing.

You can protect your computer from malicious programs in many ways. Here are a few tips to consider.

Always have the latest version of anti virus and anti spyware technology on your computer. You will also need to keep the program files up to date in order to protect against newest threats.

Only download files from a trusted source. If you are not sure, run a virus scan on the file before downloading it or saving to your computer.

There are limitless resources on the internet offering anti spyware and antivirus programs. Many sites offer free online scans, and provide instructions for removal of any malicious programs on your computer. Once you have selected a well known, (well-known being the optimal word) follow the instructions for installation carefully to ensure that the scan will work properly. Below are the most common and well-known virus and spyware removal programs.

McAfee (mcafee.com) virus remover features up-to-date protection from the latest viruses and web activity threats for the user. They have three main anti-virus and anti-spyware programs that you can choose perfect for home and business uses.

Microsoft has an anti spyware (microsoft.com) removal tool that you can use to scan your computer. This functions mainly by reviewing and checking your files for unwanted software contents, and once found can be selected and removed depending on the procedures indicated on the program. Just follow the tools and guides on how you can remove the infected files.

Ad Ware Personal provided by Lavasoft.com features scanning and fixing infected files and drives, detection of known and unknown but potentially damaging software with its Code Sequence Identification (CSI) technology. This program also has a spyware removal and capabilities of removing other damaging programs in your system.

The above sites are just a few of anti spyware and anti virus removal programs that are available on the web. Take the time and do the research and you will find the right security software for your needs. Once again, it is imperative that the site you select for your computer security is credible.

For more information about security software, visit Security Software

[tags]security software,Trojans,virus,worms[/tags]

The Perfect Anti-Virus

2008-10-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

Everyone is always talking about which antivirus is best and how one antivirus is better than another and so on. Well, here's an antivirus that takes up no system resources, is free, and best of all, everyone already has a copy of it!

The anti-virus I'm talking about is better than anything else out there. It can detect any virus or malware threat as soon as it appears, uses no part of your Computer, is completely free, and doesn't require you do download Internet updates! You've had it your whole life and use it everyday. What is it?
Common sense!

I often hear people talk about how many viruses and malware they get. I, on the hand, keep my AVG anti-virus off a good portion of the time and get very few viruses or malware. Instead, I use common sense. Below is a general overview of how to use common sense as an anti virus.

1. I never download email attachments from anyone unless I'm expecting one. I usually don't miss out on much, either. Aunt Marge's family pictures were never interesting anyway.

2. I am always careful before clicking on links in emails from places such as Amazon, PayPal, and Ebay that I'm not expecting. If I am very curious about an email, I just search the subject on Google and am able to find out whether it's a security threat or not.

3. I use Firefox as my primary web browser. Internet Explorer has too many security holes. Though Firefox has security holes, they're not exploited like IE's security holes are and are generally patched much faster.

4. I notice when my computer acts unusual. If you use your computer frequently, you should know when it accesses the hard drive and what applications give you a high CPU usage. If I notice anything out of the ordinary, I always check my Task Manager for any unusual processes.

5. Know what processes usually run on your PC (press CTRL+ALT+DELETE and then click processes to see). You don't need to memorize them, but be familiar with them. If you suspect your computer is infected with a virus or adware, you'll usually see a process or two in the task manager that are unfamiliar. If ever unsure about what a process is, search it on Google to find out more about it.

6. If you are into downloading things that cause the RIAA to get upset, don't use P2P clients such as Limewire, WinMX, Grokster, or Kazaa. When using bittorrent, make sure you read a torrent's comments before downloading to make sure there are no viruses in it. If you absolutely must stay with P2P clients such as Limewire, keep a second computer (it can be anything, even something ten years old) for downloading your files. Scan the files for viruses before moving them to your main computer.

7. If you must download something that you think could contain a virus, always scan the file with an anti-virus before opening.

8. Don't become paranoid. The threat of viruses and malware is taken too seriously by many. While everyone should take precautions against viruses, there's no need to be a "virusphobe"

This guide is by no means meant to be a substitution for an anti-virus. In fact, I strongly recommend you use one. In addition, the best judge of what security measures you need to take is you. Everyone's computer is different so everyone has different security needs.

Daniel Foster is the owner of PC Fastlane, a great place to find computer help, interesting articles, tech news, a list of over 160 free PC games, and more. http://www.pcfastlane.com

[tags]anti-virus, antivirus, anti virus, av, choosing, security, virus, malware, spyware, help, computer[/tags]

3 Things You Must Know About Spyware

2008-09-30T07:01:00.001-07:00

1)Spyware is on your system. Like it or not, statistically speaking, you probably have spyware on your machine right now. There are so many malicious programs floating around out there that one or two have bound to have gotten past all of your security settings. McAfee and Norton Anti Virus are both excellent programs, but even they can be beaten by the determined spyware makers and distributors. One recent computer repair man said, close to 80% of the machines that he services have spyware on them. I believe it. Spyware can be sneaky and it can install quietly without your knowledge. Your system probably has spyware on it; make sure it doesn't corrupt your data files or worse.

2)Spyware attacks through certain programs. One program that seems to have been a magnet for spyware on my machine has been my browser (one that is distributed by a major computer comapany). Maybe I didn't update my security settings or maybe they were not strong enough but somehow, somewhere, my previous browser seems to have been vulnerable to spyware attacks. Switching to an open source browser (FireFox) was like night and day. Firefox hasn't seemed to let any spyware install itself so far. I switched about 6 months ago. If you haven't tried Firefox, you might consider downloading a trial copy.

3)You need to get some form of protection against spyware. There are all sorts of companies out there claiming to have the magic cure for spyware. Some work fantastically, some don't work as well. Finding the spyware removal "silver bullet" isn't as hard as it seems, but it does take some work and a little bit of research. I use several programs on my new machine that I am typing this on. The hardest part is getting spyware off of your machine once it is installed, so you don't want it to get on your machine to begin with. Using the right type of browser (as mentioned above) is one of the best ways to insure you don't have to spend a lot of time cleaning your machine.

This article may be freely reproduced and distributed as long it is not altered and the link below is kept live.

To watch a free video about spyware, visit http://www.spyware-tutorial.com and learn how to protect your computer today.

[tags]spyware, adware, computers, computer security, computer privacy, spykiller, spy, virus, trojan[/tags]

Protect Your Computer From The Melissa Virus

2008-09-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

The latest threat in the computer virus list is the "e-mail virus" which ingrains itself in a document that sends a dummy letter (attaching itself) to all the people in a person's address book. The most spectacular of the known e-mail viruses was the 1999 Melissa virus which used Microsoft Word documents to send itself all over the world, causing significant damage to businesses and email service providers.

The virus creator coded the Melissa virus in a Word document and then sent it to an Internet newsgroup where it could be downloaded by just about anyone. People who downloaded the document and read it would unknowingly release the virus to the first fifty people in that person's email address book. The email message that was sent looked friendly and familiar enough because it could even include the sender's name to give the impression that opening the email was harmless. Like a vicious parasite, the virus would then enter the recipient's email address book and send itself once more to the first fifty people on HIS address book. The cycle went on and on, forcing large companies to shut down their email systems for a while. To date, this method of replication made the Melissa virus the fastest spreading virus on the Net.

If you opened this infected document in either Word 97 or Word 2000 formats the "normal.dot" template would be infected by this macro virus. Melissa and other macro viruses prompt you to open an attachment and run its macros for your email service to be damaged. Receiving a file per se that looks "infected" does not damage your computer. Once permitted to run, the virus attached itself to the recipient's documents, not only causing denial of service on a number of mail servers, but also leaking out sensitive information to a number of email users. The US government has received reports of the virus affecting more than 300 large institutions and more than 100,000 individual hosts.

Melissa was a macro virus, which made it only one of a thousand macro virus variants created since 1995. Melissa differed from all these macro viruses because of the speed in which it propagated itself and the amount of damage it caused to internet users. In less than 2 days from its first download, it had infected more than a hundred thousand computers. One site received more than 30,000 emails, all containing the virus, in less than an hour. It did not only affect users of Microsoft Outlook, but infected users of all other email services as well. How you receive the email does not matter because Melissa will alter your "normal.dot" file in your system anyway.

A variant of the Melissa virus, called the "Papa" virus, is also reported to be contaminating email address books, but the impact is insignificant compared to Melissa's, partly due to media awareness and the rise of antivirus software. What makes the Papa virus a little different from Melissa is its new ability to spread not only via Word, but also via PowerPoint and Excel.

It is recommended that Net users set Word to prompt you if there are any attempts to change your "normal.dot" file. Try to disable macros and proceed carefully if you open any document with enabled macros. Invest in good antivirus software and update it every week. Install a spam-guard on your email service and immediately delete any received emails that look suspicious. Despite the damage and fear caused by Melissa, most computer specialists rank the virus as an easily detectable kind and was classified as "relatively non-destructive". There are other variants that are stealthier and more harmful, so a regular virus scan by trusted antivirus software is crucial.

Michael Russell

Your Independent Virus guide.

[tags]virus[/tags]

Internet Protection In 3 Easy Steps

2008-09-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you something. I don't know everything there is to know about the Internet. However, I do know how to protect my computer. It's really not that hard. If you follow some basic rules, you will know how to protect your computer also. Every day there are new viruses and new things to look for out for on the Internet so let's go over a few basic rules.

1. Your browser. Like it or not, some of the most popular browsers aren't the safest browsers to use when surfing the Internet. In fact, some of the most popular browsers can definitely lead to some big problems down the line. My personal choice is Firefox. Firefox is truly an advanced browser. The best part about Firefox is that it is free. That's right, ironically, a free browser is the safest browser to use at the current time. Firefox is constantly being upgraded and its security is top of the line

2. Your passwords. I know it is very easy to use the same password over and over. Heck I still do it often times, but it can turn into a very big security problem. If you aren't careful you could open yourself up to a large security issue. If someone were to guess your password, they would be able to access many different types of accounts of yours.

3. Filter. There are all sorts of new filters on the market today for web browsing and using the Internet in general. This article isn't long enough for me to get into all the specifics of the different types of filters that are available for your computer. Just take a look around the Internet, or do a web search on Google or Yahoo, and you will be able to find many different types of filter software for sale. Filter software can be especially handy if you have children around and want to keep them from seeing different types of web sites.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are literally hundreds of other things, you can do to protect your computer and its users. Stop by our site today and take a look at a different Internet protection resources that we have available for you.

Want to learn about internet protection and more? Visit http://www.internetprotectionzone.com /blog/index.php to learn about the latest internet protection and internet protection listings.

[tags]internet, online, protection, virus protection, internet filter, filter[/tags]

Computer Viruses, Worms, And Hoaxes

2008-09-27T07:00:00.001-07:00

In recent days, I was one of the unfortunate persons to receive the "Mydoom" worm emails. Not just one, but at least forty appeared in my popserver mailbox. As frustrating as it was deleting all of these nasty little boogers, I realized that some of these "worm" emails even came from persons I knew - or so I thought I knew.

The problem with the "Mydoom" email worm is that it specifically targets email addresses with the following extensions:

.htm
.sht
.php
.asp
.dbx
.tbb
.adb
.pl
.wab
.txt

Furthermore, it sends "get" requests to target domains and uses direct connections to port 80. It will also attempt to send email messages using its own SMTP engine. The worm is successful by using a mail server that a recipient uses or local server as well. Some strings to these target domain names are:

gate.
ns.
relay.
mail1.
mxs.
smtp.
mail.
mx.

The "Mydoom" worm will have subject headings such as:

"Returned Mail"
"Delivery Error"
"Status"
"Server Report"
"Mail Transaction Failed"
"Mail Delivery System"
"Hello/hello"
"Hi/hi"

What persons need to realize is that even if you "know" the sender, you must make absolutely sure that any attachments are specifically clarified from the sender before you attempt to open these suspect emails. Most worms and viruses are spread directly through attachments. Unless you are expecting an attachment from a person you know, be cautious. Do NOT open attachments unless you are absolutely positive that your known correspondent has actually sent it to you. Another thing to remember is that the "Mydoom" worm ranges from 6,144 bytes to 29,184 bytes in size and can affect Windows 2000, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP. Luckily, if you have DOS, Linux, Macintosh, OS/2 or UNIX, your systems will not be affected by the MyDoom worm.

For those of you who share files through Kazaa, there is a new worm with aliases such as Worm.P2P.Apsiv (Kaspersky) and W32/Apsiv.worm!p2p (McAfee) and seemingly affects Windows systems 2000, 95, 98, Me, NT, Server 2003 and Windows XP. The damage profile has not yet been assessed, but it would be a good idea to steer clear of this one as well.

"Keylogger.Stawin" is probably one of the nastiest viruses as it attempts to steal a user's online banking information. A Trojan is distributed through email messages with the subject line, "I still love you," and has a "message.zip" attachment. Affecting the same vunerable systems as mentioned above, Keylogger records keystrokes and has the ability to steal personal, financial information. A few systems that Keylogger monitors are window titles such as "PayPal," "Logon," and numerous other window titles associated with banking logins.

Common Hoaxes

A popular hoax circulating the Internet is an email titled, "FREE M &M's." Sorry guys - no M & M's here. More recently, you may have received the "Life is Beautiful" virus ... er, hoax. The "Life is Beautiful" virus is not real and should be ignored. This is only a scare tactic that causes unwarranted fears and concerns.

In closing, the Internet is a massive electronical world filled with infinite bits of information. When using your "key" to this magnificent but vast window of versatile knowledge, it pays to use logic when distinguishing hoaxes from real threats such as viruses and worms.

To learn more about current viruses and worms, visit: http://search.symantec.com/custom/us/query.html
For an updated listing of current email hoaxes, go to: http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html

About the Author: C. Bailey-Lloyd - Author of "Somewhere Along the Beaten Path"

Feel free to visit Media Positive Radio -- Providing a positive and uplifting listening experience - All the Time! Featuring the finest music from Independent and Mainstream musicians all focusing on the power and greatness of every individual as well as the collective power of unity and brotherhood.

NOTICE: Article may be republished free of charge as long as Author Resource Box (above) is included, and ALL Hyperlinks REMAIN in tact and active.

[tags]computer, viruses, worms, hoaxes, technology[/tags]

Worms, Horses, Bugs And Thugs

2008-09-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

"A determined hacker is hard to stop. But those malevolent crackers would rather walk through an open door than pick a lock" writes Michael Fitzgerald of Extreme Tech.

With all of the viruses, worms, trojan horses, and other new phenomenon called by old words running rampant, how do we provide a little peace of mind for ourselves and our workplaces? Like locking our house, stopping the mail, or adding a security system to our home or automobile, there are some simple things we can do to make it less attractive or at least less obvious to be the next target of these malicious acts. Most of the following preventative measures are free or of little monetary expense and simple to implement, but can prevent immense cost.

If you have the time or inclination to read only this far, take note of the one preventative measure that probably has better payoff than all the others combined, and that is to not open e-mail attachments (especially any ending in .exe) unless you are absolutely positive they are safe. Positive in this case means more than recognizing the first name of the sender, or a familiar subject line. A telephone call e-mail to the sender (if the message is not expected), or use of other simple measures to double-check not only the authenticity, but freedom of contamination is just prudent. If you established the initial communication (say to a reputed software vender for download) you are much safer than if something comes unsolicited from the other end. It is not worth taking chances just for curiosity's sake Next on the importance scale is to make sure you have some sort of virus protection software installed on each computer.

There are two major providers of such software, as well as several smaller. The majors (McAfee and Symantec's Norton) and both are comparable in price, features and usability. They can be purchased at your local retailer, or even downloaded from the internet and then updated via download forever after. I have copies of both, being used on separate computers and although there are minor differences in user interface, they both are highly rated and effective. It is important to update the software frequently and each provides a recommended frequency and procedures. Most versions provide a setting that will automatically download updates as they are available and that is quite frequently. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

The two steps above are the biggies for software related gremlins, but there are the human variety as well, who take pleasure in snooping around your hard-drive, or even commandeering your PC and invisibly using it to transmit, infect, or otherwise interfere with other computers and/or the network as a whole. Two important steps will go far in protecting you. First of all make sure you have a firewall installed. There are hardware versions (built in to modem, router, or separate box) and there are software versions available. If you connect via broadband (DSL, Cable, T1, etc.) you may be wide open to attack 24/7. Your ISP can most likely provide this as a service as well so check with them before buying anything else. Second, periodically check for updates available for both your operating system, and your browser.

Microsoft has a free service available to provide these update patches via automatic notification. One important point to note: Microsoft (maker of over 80% of all PC operating systems) will never provide software patches via e-mail, so if you see that as an offer (remember unsolicited above), it is a hoax.

John Geiger owns and operates the local affiliate of WSI Internet Consulting and Education, a Toronto based global network of consultants, developers and production centers providing turn-key internet business solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises to include web-site design, development and hosting; site maintenance and upgrades, full e-commerce solutions, on-line training and education, and other cutting-edge internet technology and solutions. For questions, comments, free consultation, or ideas for future articles contact John at (828) 328-5929 or http://www.webmasters-wsi.com

[tags]virus, worms, computers, websites, internet, business,hackers protection,security[/tags]

All About Computer Viruses

2008-09-24T07:00:00.001-07:00

Your computer is as slow as molasses. Your mouse freezes every 15 minutes, and that Microsoft Word program just won't seem to open.

You might have a virus.

Just what exactly is a virus? What kind is in your computer? How did it get there? How is it spreading and wreaking such havoc? And why is it bothering with your computer anyway?

Viruses are pieces of programming code that make copies of themselves, or replicate, inside your computer without asking your explicit written permission to do so. Forget getting your permission down on paper. Viruses don't bother to seek your permission at all! Very invasive.

In comparison, there are pieces of code that might replicate inside your computer, say something your IT guy thinks you need. But the code spreads, perhaps throughout your office network, with your consent (or at least your IT guy's consent). These types of replicating code are called agents, said Jimmy Kuo, a research fellow with McAfee AVERT, a research arm of anti-virus software-maker McAfee Inc.

In this article, though, we're not talking about the good guys, or the agents. We'll be talking about the bad guys, the viruses.

A long, long time ago in computer years, like five, most viruses were comprised of a similar breed. They entered your computer perhaps through an email attachment or a floppy disk (remember those?). Then they attached themselves to one of your files, say your Microsoft Word program.

When you opened your Microsoft Word program, the virus replicated and attached itself to other files. These could be other random files on your hard drive, the files furthest away from your Microsoft Word program, or other files, depending on how the virus writer wanted the virus to behave.

This virus code could contain hundreds or thousands of instructions. When it replicates it inserts those instructions, into the files it infects, said Carey Nachenberg, Chief Architect at Symantec Research Labs, an arm of anti-virus software-maker Symantec. Corp.

Because so many other types of viruses exist now, the kind just described is called a classic virus. Classic viruses still exist but they're not quite as prevalent as they used to be. (Perhaps we could put classic viruses on the shelf with Hemingway and Dickens.)

These days, in the modern era, viruses are known to spread through vulnerabilities in web browsers, files shared over the internet, emails themselves, and computer networks.

As far as web browsers are concerned, Microsoft's Internet Explorer takes most of the heat for spreading viruses because it's used by more people for web surfing than any other browser.

Nevertheless, "Any web browser potentially has vulnerabilities," Nachenberg said.

For instance, let's say you go to a website in IE you have every reason to think is safe, Nachenberg said.

But unfortunately it isn't. It has virus code hidden in its background that IE isn't protecting you from. While you're looking at the site, the virus is downloaded onto your computer, he said. That's one way of catching a nasty virus.

During the past two years, another prevalent way to catch a virus has been through downloads computer users share with one another, mostly on music sharing sites, Kuo said. On Limewire or Kazaa, for instance, teenagers or other music enthusiasts might think they're downloading that latest Justin Timberlake song, when in reality they're downloading a virus straight into their computer. It's easy for a virus writer to put a download with a virus on one of these sites because everyone's sharing with everyone else anyway.

Here's one you might not have thought of. If you use Outlook or Outlook Express to send and receive email, do you have a preview pane below your list of emails that shows the contents of the email you have highlighted? If so, you may be putting yourself at risk.

Some viruses, though a small percentage according to Nachenberg, are inserted straight into emails themselves.

Forget opening the attachment. All you have to do is view the email to potentially get a virus, Kuo added. For instance, have you ever opened or viewed an email that states it's "loading"? Well, once everything is "loaded," a virus in the email might just load onto your computer.

So if I were you, I'd click on View on the toolbar in your Outlook or Outlook Express and close the preview pane. (You have to click on View and then Layout in Outlook Express.)

On a network at work? You could get a virus that way. Worms are viruses that come into your computer via networks, Kuo said. They travel from machine to machine and, unlike, the classic viruses, they attack the machine itself rather than individual files.

Worms sit in your working memory, or RAM, Nachenberg said.

OK, so we've talked about how the viruses get into a computer. How do they cause so much damage once they're there?

Let's say you've caught a classic virus, one that replicates and attacks various files on your computer. Let's go back to the example of the virus that initially infects your Microsoft Word program.

Well, it might eventually cause that program to crash, Nachenberg said. It also might cause damage to your computer as it looks for new targets to infect.

This process of infecting targets and looking for new ones could eventually use up your computer's ability to function, he said.

Often the destruction a virus causes is pegged to a certain event or date and time, called a trigger. For instance, a virus could be programmed to lay dormant until January 28. When that date rolls around, though, it may be programmed to do something as innocuous but annoying as splash popups on your screen, or something as severe as reformat your computer's hard drive, Nachenberg said.

There are other potential reasons, though, for a virus to cause your computer to be acting slow or in weird ways. And that leads us to a new segment the reason virus writers would want to waste their time creating viruses in the first place.

The majority of viruses are still written by teenagers looking for some notoriety, Nachenberg said. But a growing segment of the virus-writing population has other intentions in mind.

For these other intentions, we first need to explain the "backdoor" concept.

The sole purpose of some viruses is to create a vulnerability in your computer. Once it creates this hole of sorts, or backdoor, it signals home to mama or dada virus writer (kind of like in E.T.). Once the virus writer receives the signal, they can use and abuse your computer to their own likings.

Trojans are sometimes used to open backdoors. In fact that is usually their sole purpose, Kuo said.

Trojans are pieces of code you might download onto your computer, say, from a newsgroup. As in the Trojan War they are named after, they are usually disguised as innocuous pieces of code. But Trojans aren't considered viruses because they don't replicate.

Now back to the real viruses. Let's say we have Joe Shmo virus writer. He sends out a virus that ends up infecting a thousand machines. But he doesn't want the feds on his case. So he instructs the viruses on the various machines to send their signals, not of course to his computer, but to a place that can't be traced. Hotmail email happens to be an example of one such place, Kuo said.

OK, so the virus writers now control these computers. What will they use them for?

One use is to send spam. Once that backdoor is open, they bounce spam off of those computers and send it to other machines, Nachenberg said.

That's right. Some spam you have in your email right now may have been originally sent to other innocent computers before it came to yours so that it could remain in disguise. If the authorities could track down the original senders of spam, they could crack down on spam itself. Spam senders don't want that.

Ever heard of phishing emails? Those are the ones that purport to be from your internet service provider or bank. They typically request some information from you, like your credit card number. The problem is, they're NOT from your internet service provider or your bank. They're from evil people after your credit card number! Well, these emails are often sent the same way spam is sent, by sending them via innocent computers.

Of course makers of anti-virus software use a variety of methods to combat the onslaught of viruses. Norton, for instance, uses signature scanning, Nachenberg said.

Signature scanning is similar to the process of looking for DNA fingerprints, he said. Norton examines programming code to find what viruses are made of. It adds those bad instructions it finds to its large database of other bad code. Then it uses this vast database to seek out and match the code in it with similar code in your computer. When it finds such virus code, it lets you know!

Feel Free to reprint this article in newsletters and on websites, with resource box included. If you use this article, please send a brief message to let me know where it appeared: kara333@earthlink.net

About The Author

Kara Glover is a Computer Tutor and Troubleshooter. You can find her articles and tutorials on topics such as Microsoft Word®, Excel®, and PowerPoint® on her website: http://www.karathecomputertutor.com

kara333@earthlink.net

[tags]computer virus,virus,computers,security,worm,trojan,internet security,phishing,online,software,ident[/tags]

The Spy Who Robbed Me What You Need To Know About Spyware

2008-09-23T07:01:00.001-07:00

With the exception of those who are competing in reality TV shows, who wants to be watched? Who wants to be seen in their most vulnerable and private moments? Who wants to be deprived of his privacy and his freedom to keep things for himself? Most importantly, who wants to jeopardize his security by unwittingly exposing the things he should be keeping a secret to someone who's watching from afar?

Before you start thinking that we're referring to a psychopathic voyeur who is observing you from the building adjacent to your house, let us clarify that we're going to discuss about spyware. Yes. Spyware: a program which has been the bane to Internet users for the past three years.

Spyware is one of those things that were invented for a good purpose, but was eventually exploited in time. Spyware was originally meant as a tool that would allow you to monitor the usage of your PC terminal while you're away from the keyboard so that you can prevent illegal access to the same. Eventually, it found other borderline uses, like catching a cheating spouse or significant other, prying on your daughter's liaisons, and watching over your children's Internet activities from a remote computer.

From pure to gray to black, spyware has now become a backdoor to high technology security protocols. It does this without hacking any system, rather, by deluding a user into unwittingly installing the spyware program on his PC. From there, the program would work invisibly, sending key logs, or log files of the characters you have punched on your keyboard, to someone else on a remote terminal. This is why spyware is also called as a key logger program.

Eventually, spyware evolved into more damaging forms. Today, you would have invisible scripts redirecting you to certain websites which you have not chosen to view, or pop-ups that keep sprouting left and right even if you're viewing a pop-up free website. This has led the Anti-Spyware Coalition, a group of industry giants who are adversely affected by this digital malady as well, to define spyware as something that "impairs users control over material changes that affect their user experience, privacy or system security; use of their system resources, including what programs are installed on their computers; or collection, use and distribution of their personal or otherwise sensitive information."

The security risks posed by spyware programs cannot be ignored. Imagine engaging in an online transaction wherein you send your credit card details in a secured network, only to stand losing such details once you log off as your key logs would be sent to someone else. Also, personal details can also be stolen, resulting into a greater risk for your actual safety.

But it is the violation of your rights that is the biggest issue. With spyware, your freedom of choice and to feel secure about your personal effects is deprived of you. This has no room in a civilized society.

Indeed, spyware is a modern day disease that should be curbed. It now comes in a variety of forms aside from the aforementioned key loggers:

ADWARE is an invisible program that sends specific banners for you to see. It may sound innocent, but this program actually compels your PC to send personal details to the mother source so that the latter may know which ads to display. Get a free trial spyware remover here: http://eauthorresources.com/naw.htm

HIJACKERS these are programs that take control of your browsers, opening up pages which you do not choose to view.

MALWARE these are programs which are not spyware per se, but operate under the same principle. They are persistent scripts that don't seem to stop until your data are destroyed. Examples of these programs are Trojans and worm viruses.

There are a lot of free tools in the World Wide Web that would allow you to rid your computer of these malicious programs. Sometimes, however, the process of cleaning up results in the loss of valuable files. The maxim "an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure" seems to be the best policy against spyware. Always update your anti-virus system, so that spyware may not be allowed to incubate in your hard drive.

Mark Sandquist is the Editor of eAuthorResources NewsLetter. http://eAuthorResources.com provides FREE Help and FREE Marketing Software for eBook Authors, Software Developers and their Affiliates and Resellers.

[tags]spyware, adware, malware, trojans, worms, internet, online, security, privacy, antivirus, sofware, m[/tags]

Tips For Preventing Viruses, Trojans And Worms

2008-09-22T07:00:00.002-07:00

Methods that guarantee a computer or network is safe from computer viruses, worms and trojan horses simply do not exist. Users can take several precautions, however to protect their home and work computers from these malicious infections. The precautionary measures are:

1. Never start a computer with a floppy disk in drive A; unless it is an uninfected recovery disk.

2. Set the macro security in programs so you can enable and disable macros. Only enable macros if the document is from a trusted source and you are expecting it.

3. Install an antivirus program on all of your computers. Obtain updates to the antivirus signature files on a regular basis.

4. Check all downloaded programs for viruses, worms, or trojan horses. These malicious-logic programs often are placed in seemingly innocent programs, so they will affect a large number of users.

5. Never open an e-mail attachment unless you are expecting it and it is from a trusted source. Scan for viruses in all e-mail attachments you intend to open. Turn off message preview.

6.Write-protect your recovery disk by sliding the write-protect tab into the write-protect position.

7.If the antivirus program flags an e-mail attachment is infected, delete the attachment immediately.

8. Before using any floppy disk or zip disk, use the antivirus scan program to check the disk for infection. Incorporate this procedure even for shrink-wrapped software from major developers. Some commercial software has been infected and distributed to unsuspecting users this way.

9. Back up your files regularly. Scan the backup program befor ebacking up disks and files to ensure the backup program is virus free.

[tags]prevent trojans,prevent worms,prevent viruses, worms, virus, trojans[/tags]

Why Do People Hack

2008-09-22T07:00:00.001-07:00

As a computer technician and tutor, I get asked a lot of questions about technology and computers in general. The one question that out-ranks all the others in the number of times I've been asked is this: "Why do people hack?"

Myth: Hackers are bad. Actually, hackers are merely computer programmers who go in to someone else's code and reorganize it somehow. The term is well charted and defined by Wikipedia and doesn't directly refer to anything malicious. Quite the opposite; hackers are programmers to whom we owe a lot of thanks for working out troubles in software and the Internet.

Truth: Hackers actually lay claim to a Manifesto from 1986 that inspires curiosity and fairness and being accountable for one's actions. The manifesto was written just after the author's arrest for "Bank Tampering." His best lament is, "my crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for." Indeed, the pressure of being constantly watched forced "The Mentor"'s resignation in 1990. To all hackers, he is considered a living legend.

The Answer: The damage that's done on the Internet and perhaps to your computer or your neighbor's computer isn't done by true 'hackers.' Would you call a graffiti vandal an artist or a 'painter' in the classical sense? Little folks spray paint buildings because they can. Sometimes it may feel that it's the only way to leave any mark with a life that feels too small for anyone to notice.

Peers notice though. The greater the achievement, the greater the coverage. It's a dark fame from a malicious act with no definite target. YOU weren't meant to suffer from an attack; the attack was meant to be seen, however. The first Internet Worm in history was actually a good experiment that grew systemically accidentally crashing every computer it came in touch with. Many malicious code writers and 'crackers' begin honestly enough just learning how to write code.

With any knowledge comes a tipping point where a decision has to be made. You eventually get better than the average person and able to do things that bend outside what was meant to happen. Most skills don't leave one wondering if they can damage other people's property (the cook doesn't graduate culinary school wondering if they should poison people for example), but computer programing reveals that there's an awful lot of stuff out there that's ready to break or corrupt with a little push in the wrong direction.

When you learned to walk, did you step on ants? Why? "Because I could; because they were there; because I wanted to; because it looked like fun." I'll bet your answer isn't because you like hurting or killing things. As you matured, you used those same feet to take you somewhere. In time, all the modern crackers will mature and most likely become brilliant members of programming society.

There is no one magic answer. It's something that happens and you aren't the target. You don't understand it because you don't do it. It is a crime, but it's often just a juvenile act of poor choice and misdirected skills. Defend yourself with anti virus softwares, don't fall for e-mail scams and know that someday those mischievous feet will be somewhere good.

Bryan Applegate has learned a lot about computers in the last two decades. In teaming up with Dinarius, Inc he uses his powers to do good by being a tutor. More free lessons and advice can be found at Dinarius.com

[tags]hackers,hacking,crackers,cracker,manifesto,internet,programmers,programming,virus[/tags]

Computer Security Attacks - How To Defend Yourself Against Computer Security Attacks

2008-09-21T07:00:00.002-07:00

I recommend the following basic security 'best practices'...

If you spend any time online, you need a security toolkit consisting of:

. anti-virus software

. anti-spyware AND anti-key-logging software

. spam blocker

. anti-phishing tools

. firewall (preferably a combination of both software and hardware firewall if you're on a high-speed connection.) Note: some anti-virus software packages include a firewall

Whichever products you use, keep them up to date - not monthly, but at least weekly, and preferably daily.

Use Windows Update to keep your operating system and Internet Explorer patched. On average, six updates to patch security bugs are released for Windows every month.

Keep informed of Security issues - keeping informed dramatically reduces your exposure to risks.

If you receive an email asking you to verify account details, don't use the link in the email. Visit the site by typing its address in your browser, then check for a link to update your details. If in doubt, contact the site directly by phone.

Avoid dangerous spots: chat rooms, peer-to-peer networks, crackz and warez, porn sites, hacker sites, anything illegal.

Stay alert. Check your browser's status bar; don't click on a pop-up window or dialog box without first reading it; watch for unusual browser behaviour, such as a window that quickly opens and closes, or an atypical response when you type a search string in the address box.

Don't open email from unknown sources. Keep preview panes switched off in your email client. Never click a link in a spam email.

Configure your email server to block or remove email that contains file attachments that are commonly used to spread viruses, such as .vbs, .bat, .exe, .pif and .scr files.

Train employees not to open attachments unless they are expecting them.

Keep your browser's security settings set to high.

Enforce a password policy. Complex passwords make it difficult to crack password files on compromised computers. Choose an alphanumeric password that is at least seven characters long and uses a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and non-alphanumeric symbols such as (@#$%^&). This will help prevent unauthorized access to your computer.

Encryption should be used to protect sensitive information from "unauthorised eyes".

Only conduct Internet transactions that have secured processing.

Turn off and remove unneeded services. By default, many operating systems install auxiliary services that are not critical, such as an FTP server, telnet, and a Web server. These services can become avenues of attack. If they are removed, blended threats have less avenues of attack and you have fewer services to maintain through patch updates.

Do not execute software that is downloaded from the Internet unless it has been scanned for viruses. Simply visiting a compromised Website can cause infection if certain browser vulnerabilities are not patched.

If a blended threat exploits one or more network services, disable, or block access to, those services until a patch is applied.

Have your computer system independently reviewed, addressing any security risks.

David Furlong is a qualified and experienced IT specialist and Technical Trainer. His list of credentials includes MCSE, MCSA, Dip IT, and he is one subject away from completing a Masters in Networking and Systems Administration. http://www.avg-antivirus.com.au

[tags]computer security attacks, anti-virus software, AVG anti-virus, internet privacy and security[/tags]

Internet Security The Secure Free Option

2008-09-21T07:00:00.001-07:00

With the ever growing popularity of internet browsing and the burst of high speed connections via Broadband or Cable, the security and protection of your personal data contained on your home computer has entered a new phase.

This high speed revolution has increased the swiftness of accessibility for unscrupulous hackers to upload private information quickly and easily, through your home internet connection.

With the threat of viruses, identity fraud, phishing, spyware and keyloggers, never has it been more important to protect the valuable contents of your home computer.

There are many types of internet security software out there, which offer varying ranges of performance when it comes to security. The most popular software requires the computer owner to purchase a license and download the software over the internet or buy the software from a reputable computer outlet for a set fee which includes 12 months of free updates, with a view to paying a further fee every 12 months to keep this update service going, this for some computer owners can be a slightly expensive encounter and can put owners off placing that all important security software on their home computer.

Is there a FREE and secure alternative? The answer I'm happy to say is yes.

Home internet security comes in four main categories of protection, Spyware Protection, Anti-Virus Protection, Firewall Protection and Windows Updates.

Spyware Protection

Spybot found at www.spybot.info is an excellent free spyware removal tool which helps clear your system of any threats from Adware, Keyloggers, Malware etc, the program is very easy to use and updates can be downloaded for free and are updated on a regular basis to help make sure you are protected.

Anti-virus Protection

Avast! Anti-virus found at www.avast.com is a more than adequate anti-virus protection, registration is absolutely free for home and small business users and just requires the user to register once every twelve months, which is a very small burden especially when you can download virus definitions and program updates totally free.

Firewall Protection

Sygate Personal Firewall found at www.sygate.com is again a totally free for home and small business users personal firewall, the setup of the program is very user friendly and can easily be setup by someone with little computer knowledge. The protection is highly suitable and very secure.

Windows Update

All computer users should make it their fortnightly chore to visit the Windows update service and download the latest security patches, these are most important to cover any floors which have been discovered in Microsoft applications. You can also switch the update to automatic, so when important downloads are available windows will download them using low bandwidth, so not to disturb your internet browsing.

CONCLUSION

Internet security is a high priority for all computer users, and whether this service is paid for or users wish to take advantage of the three excellent and secure software programs above for free, that is completely up to the individual. Some sort of internet security is better than none at all.

Simon Ecclestone

For further Website promotion tips and other internet facts http://website-promotion-tools.blogspot.com/

[tags]free internet security, free antivirus, free firewall, free spyware remover[/tags]

File Sharing & Virus Protection

2008-09-20T07:00:00.001-07:00

If you've established a home-based business of any kind, you're probably letting your computer do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. If you're really serious about your business and file sharing (you'll be doing a lot of it as a VA), you need a comprehensive computer security program, right now.

The name McAfee is synonymous with computer security. They've been around for as long as we've had the Internet, and probably longer. Their Managed VirusScan Plus AntiSpyware performs automatic, silent updates of all your precious computer files, and proactively blocks anything that might harm your computer. This is a first and crucial step to protect yourself.

If you want to go a step further, and bolster your computer's protection against the plethora of worms, viruses, and other malicious computer codes out there, get a Linksys EtherFast Cable/DSL Firewall Router. It's incredibly easy to configure, and blocks Java, ActiveX, cookies and anything else that's likely to attack or commandeer your computer and its files.

To be completely safe, it's always wise to back up all of your files (and those of your clients) after running your virus program. We do it at the end of each day. That way, if the files get re-infected, you don't run the risk of losing any crucial information. We love our SanDisk Cruzer Micro 2GB flash drives. They hold a ton of files, and have lightning-fast download speeds. Who knew big protection came in such a small package?

And to be completely, anally safe from computer viruses, you need a backup plan for your backup. After all, most clients don't just "understand" when you've inadvertently sent them a virus along with your invoice. Norton Ghost is the program to have. It makes backups and data recovery a breeze, by performing all scans automatically, when you're shutting down your computer for the night. Quickly and quietly, Norton Ghost protects you from system failure, too, which will go a long, long way towards building fruitful, long-term relationships with your clients. Plus, you'll sleep better at night, knowing you and your computer are both safe and sound.

For more stories like this, visit http://www.AssistantGirls.com

Patty McFeeney is part of the team at http://www.AssistantGirls.com She's spent the past twelve years honing her graphic design skills at magazines such as Discover, SPIN, Blender, and Virtually Alternative, among others.

[tags]computer virus, worms, hacker, protection, home computer, home business[/tags]

Tips On Understanding The Dangers Of Spyware And Adware

2008-09-19T07:01:00.001-07:00

Money is the very crux of adware and spyware. These pose several problems and are a security risk.

Adware is a program that displays advertisements on the computer whether you want them or not. They are not just connected to particular websites or free software but are programmed to start up whenever your computer is switched on.

Programs like Eudora mail client display advertisements in lieu of charging registration fees for use of software. It helps developers recover program development costs. Kazaa the file sharing application comes bundled with at least three ad-ware programs. Two of them serve ads to the desktop while another redirects the user's browser to a search engine with advertiser sponsored web results. Well known ones are: BroadcastPC; Comet Cursor; GeoWhere; Network Essentials, 123 Messenger, Direct Revenue, and so on.

Unfortunately, other guises of adware are spyware and malware.

Spyware is a program code that relays information about you and your work without your permission or knowledge. Some just "spy" on you conveying your Internet habits to marketing companies, while others are "thieves" they access credit card information as well as other sensitive files. In plain terms, it is malicious software that can intercept or take control of a computer's operation without user knowledge or consent. Termed as "malware" the redefinition of spyware, the programs can:

Steal personal information and the address book.
Flood the browser with pop-ups.
Spam the system.
Slow down programs and connection.
Hijack the browser and redirect the user to a "con" page.
Uses the computer as a server to broadcast porn.
Can cause a crash.

Spyware reaches a computer through innocent web pages, game demos, MP3 players, search tool bars, and other downloads like free software. It installs itself and leaves a mark on the windows registry. It can hog the computer resources such as memory and hard drive and cause a crash or lock up. Keystroke-logging spyware can steal passwords and credit card information for thieves.

To protect the files one has to:

Use anti adware and spyware programs. Examples: Spybot, Search & destroy, Pest Patrol, and Lavasoft's Adware.
Keep windows as well as Internet explorer up-to-date by applying the latest security patches.
Maintain the security level of the Internet Explorer at medium. Users must not lower the security level.
Use firewalls and web proxies to block access to web sites known to carry spyware.
Install layered protection.
Update the antivirus program. An up-to-date program will stop spyware as well as Trojans.
Install a startup monitor to protect your system.
Never accept "free" as being free---check out free software and downloads, there will be a hidden surprise or catch.
Never download software from warez sites. Pirated software is always distributed along with adware and spyware.
Use Spy checker to determine if the download has spyware. This can be accessed from the free computer securities pages.

An anti-spyware coalition has been instituted by Microsoft, Earthlink, McAfee, and Hewlett-Packard. They are working towards anti-spyware legislation and putting protection systems in place. A survey shows that 87 percent of users know what spyware is and of this 40 percent through firsthand experience. Protect yourself and your work; keep your system free of adware and spyware.

Paul Wilson is a freelance writer for http://www.1888FreeOnlineGames.com

http://www.1888FreeOnlineGames.com/, the premier website to play thousands of free online games including arcade games, action games, card games, flash games, strategy games, puzzle games and more. He also freelances for http://www.1888SoftwareDownloads.com.

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