Website Security
Website Security
Finding the Security Suite that meets your needs Before proceeding to read this article, it is important that we state something up front. It is essential for the reader to understand and appreciate that there is no such thing as a secure operating system or web browser. While the use of security suites and other complementing products can significantly reduce your risks, they are not magic wands that you can wave to eliminate 100% of your risk. Any product claiming they can do this should be viewed with great skepticism. There are numerous security suites available on the market. Take the time to choose the one that meets your specific needs. To find out more go to: http://websitesecurity.blogspot.com
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Nine Myths About PC Saftey
Nine Myths About PC Safety I have an anti-virus program so I don t have to worry about viruses getting into my PC Not true! Just because you have an anti-virus program does not mean you are fully protected. For full protection you need to: 1. Update the virus definitions regularly (at least once every 3 days). 2. When you first install the program, set the program to check: * the boot sector of your hard drive, * your emails ” if you re using an email program such as Outlook or Outlook Express, * all executable files when those files start; * downloadable files from the Internet. 3. Perform a thorough scan for viruses ” at least once a week ” using your anti-virus program. 4. In addition to your anti-virus program, you need: a firewall, anti-Spyware, and update Windows regularly. I don t have to worry about hackers or others who spy on my computer because I don t have anything they re interested in Another mistake! Hackers steal identity! Today, stealing your identity is more valuable than stealing your jewels; identity theft is rampant. And what a hacker is looking for is on your computer ” your personal information. For instance, if you ever signed up for a newsletter or purchased anything online or sent emails, you re vulnerable because your personal information is accessible. Hackers have automated programs that scan tens of thousands of computers an hour. Those programs invade the deepest recesses of personal computers looking for potential victims. I back up my computer regularly so I am protected. Not entirely true! When you make a back up, not only are you saving your valuable files and programs, you re saving the harmful ones as well. If you re not protecting your computer against viruses (with a good anti-virus program), against Spyware (with a good anti-Spyware program), and don t have a firewall, you re copying everything ” the good and the bad. As a result, when you open one of your back up files, or have to restore a back up program, you ll actually load all the harmful things onto your computer. I ve got insurance if something happens to my computer That s great! But if something happens to your computer, the insurance company cannot restore your valuable files and information. It s far better to make regular back up copies (CD or DVD) and keep those copies safe — in a separate part of your home or even at a friend s or family member s home. Viruses only come in emails That is certainly not true! Viruses can be linked to files downloaded from the Internet, CDs, DVDs, and diskettes, and any time you connect to a network system such as in college, at work, or a library. I don t have to worry about my money; my bank or credit card company will take care of the problem Maybe If you re lucky! Even if they do, you ll have to prove to them that you are not responsible for the debt ” that it was fraudulent use of your bank account or credit card. This may take weeks or months, and you certainly will not be compensated for the aggravation and stress while you go through that ordeal. The Internet Police are on the ball protecting me while I cruise the Net Wow! Where d you get that idea? There is no such thing as the Internet Police . Although there are Internet laws that govern different countries, each country enforces different laws, and there are no international laws. So if you ripped of by someone overseas, the US government can t do anything about it. Making sure I am protected is too time consuming True! It takes a few hours of your time each month. But compare those few hours with the weeks and months of proving your innocence ” or recovering your personal information ” in the case of Identity Theft. Those few minutes may be well worth it. My Internet Service Provider gives me all the protection I need Possible Nowadays, Internet Service Providers do offer some protection, but most do not provide a complete protection program. Why leave it to someone else? It s your computer, your files and identity at stake. Take aggressive action; make computer protection your priority. Do it yourself. Be safe, not sorry Patty - The Computer Lady
Patty, the Computer Lady, teaches her clients the do-it-yourself way to fix, protect and make thier computers last. Her site is filled with useful info. Visit her at: www.fix-and-protect-your-pc.com
The Malware Menace and How to Deal With It.
Malware as many PC owners know to their cost is all too commonplace on the web lately even more so than the standard virus. In this article you will find explanations of the different types of malware, how to remove an infection and how to prevent an infection in the first. What is Malware anyway? Malware is software which is created to infiltrate your PC and cause damage or record your online and offline activities against your will. What follows is a list of common types of malware and their descriptions. Adware. Adware will hide on your computer and show popup windows containing adverts for various dubious products. This type of malware is more annoying than harmful. Virus. A virus is designed to hide within other executable software and to become active when the host software is activated. It will self replicate and place copies of itself into other software or documents. When this happens it can cause a rapid infestation of your computer system with catastrophic results. The worm. A worm is a self replicating and self executing virus specifically designed to send replicas of itself to other computers over the internet. Ransom Ware. Ransom ware is designed to force the computer owner to pay the creator a sum of money by locking important files on the computer system. It will then display a message demanding a sum of money to get your files unlocked. Trojan Horses. Trojan horses conceal their true identity by masquerading as or hiding inside legitimate software. They usually get on to your computer in some form of free software downloaded from the internet. Spyware. Spyware is designed to monitor and record all of your keyboard actions, computer usage and internet activity including passwords and credit card details, it then sends them to the maker of the spyware usually via email. Symptoms of an infected computer. One of the first signs of infection is a marked reduction in speed and performance of your PC. Sometimes even appearing to pause or hang. Another is that windows will be erratic and unstable. Malware will sometimes display popup windows at random. If you have a good antivirus program it should let you know of the presence of Malware and offer to remove it for you. How Does my Computer Get Infected. Emails. Malware can often be sent to you concealed in or attached to an email, so make sure you scan emails with antivirus software and if you have any doubts don t open it. Websites. Browsing some websites that are suspect can lead to infection because the malware can be hidden as code in the web page itself. Peer to Peer File Sharing Software. Peer to peer software used to download illegal music, video and software is a malware creators dream. Malware will often be distributed on peer to peer networks disguised as or hidden in legitimate files. Popups. It is possible to use what is known as IP popups to infect your computer. IP popups can be sent strait to your computers IP address bypassing popup blockers. These popups are usually disguised as windows error messages asking you to click here to remedy the error. Clicking the button will execute the malware. Instant Messaging Software. Increasingly popular these days instant messaging software can put you at risk if you don’t excercise caution. Infection usually happens when sharing files with people so be careful who you share files with. Networks. All computers on a network are at risk of infection if one of those computers has malware on it. For that reason all network computers must be protected by antivirus software and a firewall. Making your computer immune to malware. Use Internet Securities Software I advise all computer users to invest in good quality internet securities software from companies such as Semantec and McAfee. I do not recommend that you use free antivirus software, these tend not be very effective and can be Malware in disguise. Which ever one you use just make sure that you keep it regularly updated and remember to renew your yearly subscription. Remember, out of date antivirus software is completely useless. Use a firewall Windows XP and Vista both have a firewall built in and you should have them switched on. Most internet securities applications will have an excellent firewall feature so use this in favour of windows firewall. Update Windows regularly. Update regularly to ensure you have all the latest critical security updates. Security holes in windows are often found and Microsoft will have patches for these available.. Curing your infected computer. With any good internet securities application removing malware is a simple task. If you set them up to do so they will remove malware automatically and then inform you once the offender has been dealt with. A fianl word of advice. Visiting illegal or immoral websites will increase your likely hood of becoming infected considerably, these sites tend to be set up and frequented by people who have no scruples and will think nothing of infecting your computer along with many others.
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Protect Yourself From Online Identity Theft
Do you know how to protect yourself from online identity theft? Identity theft is America’s fastest growing white collar crime of the 21st Century and affects millions of people each year.
There’s no surefire way to protect yourself from online identity theft, but there are steps you can take to minimize the risk of becoming a victim.
Identity theft is not a problem until it happens to you and any victim can tell you it is no laughing matter. Some people believe that identity theft will never happen to them. But if you don’t take steps to protect your personal information when you go online, you could be telling your own story of identity theft.
So what are the best ways to prevent identity theft? While you probably can’t prevent identity theft entirely, you can minimize your risk.
The more you understand how a criminal steals an identity, the better chance you have to protect yourself from online identity theft. While nothing is ever foolproof, here are a few things that you can do to protect yourself from online identity theft.
Don’t use the same password on all of your online accounts. A thief can financially wipe you out very quickly with a single password that works on every account you have.
Keep all of your passwords as confidential as possible. Banks or financial institutions never email you and ask you to log into your account and verify your password. This common online scam costs victims millions of dollars each year and you should be aware it so it doesn’t happen to you.
Another way to protect yourself from online identity theft is never store your passwords, Social Security number or account PIN numbers in your computer. If your computer picks up a spyware virus, a hacker has everything he needs to steal your identity as well as all of your money.
Ninety percent of all computers are infected with spyware. Most computer users have no idea why or how they got it but it makes your online security extremely vulnerable. Spyware protection software is very reasonably priced and is just as important as anti virus software.
Other ways to protect yourself from online identity theft include all transactions you make on the Internet. Before you make an online purchase with your credit card, make sure that the site has a secure and encrypted page. Secure pages begin with https instead of http, and a picture of a small gold lock is displayed in the lower right part of your screen.
To verify the name of the server that appears on the digital certificate, double click the gold lock icon, and check the name that appears next to “Issued to”. If the name appearing next to “Issued to” is different from the name of the site that you are giving your credit card number to, leave the site because it is not secure.
Currently more than 1000 law enforcement agencies have direct online access to almost 700 000 identity theft complaints. Identity theft is quickly becoming the Internets worst security nightmare.
Hopefully these few tips will stop you from becoming another victim of this horrible crime. If you want to protect yourself from online identity theft, your best defense is prevention.
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Computer Security Ethics and Privacy
Computer Security Ethics and Privacy
By:Vincent Deguzman
Http://www.allsecurityinfo.net
Today, many people rely on computers to do homework, work, and create or store useful information. Therefore, it is important for the information on the computer to be stored and kept properly. It is also extremely important for people on computers to protect their computer from data loss, misuse, and abuse. For example, it is crucial for businesses to keep information they have secure so that hackers can t access the information. Home users also need to take means to make sure that their credit card numbers are secure when they are participating in online transactions. A computer security risk is any action that could cause lost of information, software, data, processing incompatibilities, or cause damage to computer hardware, a lot of these are planned to do damage. An intentional breach in computer security is known as a computer crime which is slightly different from a cypercrime. A cybercrime is known as illegal acts based on the internet and is one of the FBI s top priorities. There are several distinct categories for people that cause cybercrimes, and they are refereed as hacker, cracker, cyberterrorist, cyberextortionist, unethical employee, script kiddie and corporate spy. The term hacker was actually known as a good word but now it has a very negative view. A hacker is defined as someone who accesses a computer or computer network unlawfully. They often claim that they do this to find leaks in the security of a network. The term cracker has never been associated with something positive this refers to someone how intentionally access a computer or computer network for evil reasons. It s basically an evil hacker. They access it with the intent of destroying, or stealing information. Both crackers and hackers are very advanced with network skills. A cyberterrorist is someone who uses a computer network or the internet to destroy computers for political reasons. It s just like a regular terrorist attack because it requires highly skilled individuals, millions of dollars to implement, and years of planning. The term cyperextortionist is someone who uses emails as an offensive force. They would usually send a company a very threatening email stating that they will release some confidential information, exploit a security leak, or launch an attack that will harm a company s network. They will request a paid amount to not proceed sort of like black mailing in a since. An unethical employee is an employee that illegally accesses their company s network for numerous reasons. One could be the money they can get from selling top secret information, or some may be bitter and want revenge. A script kiddie is someone who is like a cracker because they may have the intentions of doing harm, but they usually lack the technical skills. They are usually silly teenagers that use prewritten hacking and cracking programs. A corporate spy has extremely high computer and network skills and is hired to break into a specific computer or computer network to steal or delete data and information. Shady companies hire these type people in a practice known as corporate espionage. They do this to gain an advantage over their competition an illegal practice. Business and home users must do their best to protect or safeguard their computers from security risks. The next part of this article will give some pointers to help protect your computer. However, one must remember that there is no one hundred percent guarantee way to protect your computer so becoming more knowledgeable about them is a must during these days. When you transfer information over a network it has a high security risk compared to information transmitted in a business network because the administrators usually take some extreme measures to help protect against security risks. Over the internet there is no powerful administrator which makes the risk a lot higher. If your not sure if your computer is vulnerable to a computer risk than you can always use some-type of online security service which is a website that checks your computer for email and Internet vulnerabilities. The company will then give some pointers on how to correct these vulnerabilities. The Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center is a place that can do this. The typical network attacks that puts computers at risk includes viruses, worms, spoofing, Trojan horses, and denial of service attacks. Every unprotected computer is vulnerable to a computer virus which is a potentially harming computer program that infects a computer negatively and altering the way the computer operates without the user s consent. Once the virus is in the computer it can spread throughout infecting other files and potentially damaging the operating system itself. It s similar to a bacteria virus that infects humans because it gets into the body through small openings and can spread to other parts of the body and can cause some damage. The similarity is, the best way to avoid is preparation. A computer worm is a program that repeatedly copies itself and is very similar to a computer virus. However the difference is that a virus needs o attach itself to an executable file and become a part of it. A computer worm doesn t need to do that I seems copies to itself and to other networks and eats up a lot of bandwidth. A Trojan Horse named after the famous Greek myth and is used to describe a program that secretly hides and actually looks like a legitimate program but is a fake. A certain action usually triggers the Trojan horse, and unlike viruses and worms they don t replicate itself. Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses are all classifies as malicious-logic programs which are just programs that deliberately harms a computer. Although these are the common three there are many more variations and it would be almost impossible to list them. You know when a computer is infected by a virus, worm, or Trojan horse if one or more of these acts happen:
Screen shots of weird messages or pictures appear.
You have less available memory then you expected
Music or sounds plays randomly.
Files get corrupted
Programs are files don t work properly
Unknown files or programs randomly appear
System properties fluctuate
Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses deliver their payload or instructions through four common ways. One, when an individual runs an infected program so if you download a lot of things you should always scan the files before executing, especially executable files. Second, is when an individual runs an infected program. Third, is when an individual bots a computer with an infected drive, so that s why it s important to not leave media files in your computer when you shut it down. Fourth is when it connects an unprotected computer to a network. Today, a very common way that people get a computer virus, worm, or Trojan horse is when they open up an infected file through an email attachment. There are literally thousands of computer malicious logic programs and new one comes out by the numbers so that s why it s important to keep up to date with new ones that come out each day. Many websites keep track of this. There is no known method for completely protecting a computer or computer network from computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses, but people can take several precautions to significantly reduce their chances of being infected by one of those malicious programs. Whenever you start a computer you should have no removable media in he drives. This goes for CD, DVD, and floppy disks. When the computer starts up it tries to execute a bot sector on the drives and even if it s unsuccessful any given various on the bot sector can infect the computer s hard disk. If you must start the computer for a particular reason, such as the hard disk fails and you are trying to reformat the drive make sure that the disk is not infected.
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How to thwart the Barbarian Spyware!
Today,on most internet user’s computers, we have the ability to employ software, along with our intelligence, to prevent viruses and spyware. To put this article into proper perspective, we’ll use Medieval defense tactics. This is accomplished by 3 methods. First, a firewall…’The Castle Moat’ so to speak. A firewall can’t see inside your computer beforehand though, so if any viruses or spyware were present before the firewall was installed then its of no use. Of course, its extremely good at preventing new attacks. Second, a anti-virus program…. ‘The Castle Drawbridge! They will not provide much help with spyware, but good virus protection is as desirable as one of Avaris’s dreams! One drawback can be the updates, of course.If you’ve just updated Wednesday night and a virus hits the next day, then you may not be protected till next Wednesday night, and by then it may be too late. If you’re smart, you will have signed up for email alerts with the provider, or even better, you’ll have a anti-virus program that has a real time update feature. I get the tingles when I see that little pop-up saying a update is available and click here. Its downloaded ,installed, and updated in about 20 seconds! A new virus or Trojan or God forbid, a new keylogger can hit the internet and spread in a matter of days, and I’m sure this must make the definition writers lives a living hell. I have great admiration for them as they could have been wealthy doctors, but they have chosen to help us… the end users. (moment of silence here) Last, we have anti-spyware programs,’The Flaming oil’! (my favorite). Their update features are like the anti-virus programs, so you have to be as vigilant with this method of defense too as you would be with the others. I’ve heard there are people out there that don’t even know when their updates run, or even if its configured to do so! I refuse to believe this sordid rumor! So you’ve got your defenses set up, you’re looking good. But the best defense is a good offense, attack! That’s what some organizations do. They prowl the net looking for websites that harbor drive-by downloads, URL Re-Directing and such. When they find them, they shut them down, or report them so effective protection can be manufactured. These people have my sincere thanks for what they do. With identity theft on the rise and Websense reporting that the average computer has 28 items of Spyware on it, we need all the help we can get. Oh sure, you’re saying not my computer ! Well, lets discuss those little boxes that you click “I Agree” to when you download something. Do you read the entire statement? This is one way spyware has become so rampant, because so many downloads have extra software included in them. These can be harmful to your computers well being. KeyLoggers, popups, adware, malware… Need I go on? So my idea is that we need these shining knights from the castle to journey forth on a quest. They will be little robots or spiders like the search engines use. They will be given absolute power over harmful programs they find. They will be like Gort in the movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. Dell recently reported that 12% of their calls were for spyware damage, Microsoft says half of their reports of system crashes are caused by spyware. These calls cost these companies millions of dollars in revenue, which they then pass the costs of onto us, the consumers. Who knows, if viruses and spyware ever get controlled, the average computer may only cost a dollar!
About the Author: Doug Woodall has a website at http://www.spywarebiz.com There he provides free information and recommended products to combat Spyware, Viruses and other Online Nasties.
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